By Daniel Stefanski |
With votes continuing to be tabulated in Arizona, Republicans appear to be tracking toward a return to power in one or both of the chambers in the state legislature.
Over the past two years, Arizona Republicans have narrowly controlled the state House and Senate, giving them the ability to hold Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs in check. Both major political parties poured significant resources into competitive seats over the past year to wrestle a majority for the next legislative session.
As of Wednesday night, Republicans are leading in 16 of the 30 contests for State Senate. Two of those races – District 2 (Shawnna Bolick) and District 4 (Carine Werner) are currently within 2,000 votes. Of the 14 seats that Democrats are leading, three – District 9 (Eva Burch), District 17 (John McLean), and District 23 (Brian Fernandez) – are also within 2,000 votes at this time.
On the House of Representatives side, as of Wednesday night, Republicans are leading in 32 of the 60 contests. Democrats have an advantage in the other 28 races. Results in District 2, 4, 9, 13, 16, 17, and 23 may be fluid in the coming days with additional votes being factored in the candidate’s respective favor.
Control of the legislature is vital to the agenda of the next two years, when Governor Hobbs will be facing re-election and working to enact more of her policy directives to demonstrate her value to the state. Should Democrats manage to win a majority of both the state House and Senate, Hobbs and her legislative allies would be able to pass left-leaning priorities and sign those into law. One of these targets would be the historic Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program, which has been under tremendous scrutiny and criticism by Hobbs and other Democrats since it was expanded during Republican Governor Doug Ducey’s administration a few years ago.
The winners of the campaigns for state House and Senate will be sworn in for the new legislative session in early January.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
