Democrat Kris Mayes is holding on to the narrowest of leads late Thursday over Republican Abe Hamadeh in the race for attorney general.
Mayes, a former member of the Arizona Corporation Commission, has 50.4% of the votes tallied so far compared with Hamadeh's 49.6%.
A final margin of 0.5% or less would trigger an automatic recount.
Mayes has about a 16,500-vote lead, with more than 560,000 votes still to be counted.
Much of the race centered around the question of whether trial experience matters when it comes to running the equivalent of the state’s largest law firm.
Strictly speaking, the post does not require courtroom experience. It does, however, require the attorney general be someone licensed to practice law given the decisions made by the agency as well as its ability to issue legal opinions.
And Republican incumbent Mark Brnovich, who could not seek another four-year term, prosecuted gang cases while at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and went after gambling crimes while a federal prosecutor. Brnovich, who has not endorsed either candidate, said such experience can be helpful when deciding which cases to pursue and which to turn down.
Mayes, a one-time newspaper reporter, does not dispute she has never tried a case. But she contends her experience as a member of the Arizona Corporation Commission is similar, saying she worked directly with the attorney general to prosecute those engaged in security scams and get money returned to investors.
Hamadeh, a Trump-endorsed political newcomer, said he has tried both misdemeanor and felony cases in his time at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. But he only became a lawyer in 2017; Mayes has been an attorney since 2005.
Then there’s the management side of being attorney general.
Hamadeh has cited his time as an intelligence officer for the Army Reserves, serving in the Middle East where he assisted in overseeing a $120 million program’s budget as well as managing civilian contractors and U.S. soldiers.
Mayes said her more than seven years on the commission meant managing a staff of 400, including attorneys, engineers, support staff and law enforcement. She also chaired the panel for two years after being chosen by both Republicans and Democrats.
And Mayes herself has a bipartisan past.
She was a Republican, serving as press aide to Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano. That affiliation paved the way for the governor, required to name someone from the GOP to replace Republican Jim Irvin who had resigned, tapped Mayes.
She parted ways with the party in 2019.
Both Mayes and Hamadeh have promised to run the office and make decisions regardless of political implications. And both have said they will uphold the death penalty as long as it is the law of the land.
Mayes, however, publicly announced she would never prosecute doctors or any medical professionals for violating a territorial-era law which makes all forms of abortion a crime unless to save the life of the mother.
That law never was repealed after the Supreme Court earlier this year overturned Roe v. Wade and its conclusion that women have a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability. That returned the decision on abortions to each state.
Brnovich got a trial judge to conclude that automatically reactivated the old law. But that ruling has been held in abeyance while the state Court of Appeals decides whether it was replaced by legislation earlier this year imposing a ban after 15 weeks.
Mayes contends that both the territorial-era law and the 15-week ban run afoul of a provision in the Arizona Constitution that guarantees a right to privacy, saying she would not defend either law and would actively challenge them.
Neither the 1864 version of the law nor the one approved in 2022 subjects women who have had an abortion to any criminal liability.
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