The highest level of Arizona’s uncontested incumbents since 2018 dominated Tuesday’s primary election. According to a report by Ballotpedia, 317 of the 488 July elections were uncontested - 65%.
Of the nine congressional district seats, four incumbents went uncontested. These include 5th Congressional District Republican Incumbent Rep. Andy Biggs, who will face Democrat Katrina Schaffner in the general election, District 4 Democratic Incumbent Greg Stanton, who will face Republican Kelly Cooper in the general election, District 7 Democratic Incumbent Raul Grijalva who will go against Republican Daniel Francis Butierez and District 9 Republican incumbent Paul Gosar who will go against Democrat Quacy Smith.
By far, the legislative state senate positions had the highest number of uncontested incumbent candidates. These include Legislative District 3, LD 4, LD 5, LD 6, LD 9, LD 10, LD 11, LD 12, LD 13, LD 15, LD 16, LD 18, LD 19, LD 20, LD 21, LD 26, LD 28 and LD 29. Some of which will not even have any opponents from the opposing party in the general election.
These are LD 3 Republican Senator John Kavanagh, LD 6 Democrat Theresa Hatathlie, LD 18 Democrat Priya Sundareshan, LD 20 Republican Sally Ann Gonzales, LD 21 Democrat Rosanna Gabaldon and LD 28 Republican Frank Carroll - meaning that residents of those districts have no question of who will be their state senator.
According to Paul Bentz, senior vice president of research and strategy for Highground Public Affairs, this is because when there is only one seat available, it can be incredibly difficult to unseat an incumbent.
