Arizona Democrats worried Trump would weaponize a primary decided by 39 votes

Typically, such a narrow outcome would result in a legal battle to ensure all votes were properly cast and counted — but this is Arizona, where former president Donald Trump and Republicans have criticized the voting systems for years, especially in the Phoenix area. Kari Lake, the Republican running against Gallego for Senate, is still legally challenging her defeat in the 2022 governor’s race, which she lost by about 17,000 votes.

The congressional candidates and key Arizona Democratic Party figures were fearful that casting doubt on the result would draw claims from Trump and his allies that Democrats were “election deniers,” according to five Democrats and a Republican closely familiar with the race who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss private conversations. Questioning the outcome, they said, carried the risk that the former president would cite complaints made by Democrats about the legitimacy of the state’s voting system should he lose the November presidential election and try to undermine the results again.