After sprinting to large lead, Kris Mayes declared winner over Warren Petersen in AG race

Kris Mayes will be Arizona’s attorney general for the next four years after easily outpacing her Republican opponent, Warren Petersen, in Tuesday’s election.

Early Wednesday, with Mayes leading by more than 10 percentage points, The Associated Press called the race in Mayes’ favor. 

Mayes narrowly won her first term in 2022 with a margin of difference of just 280 votes. Republicans hoped to close that gap, but Petersen, a longtime state lawmaker who has spent the past two years as president of the Arizona Senate, appeared to fall far short. 

The race to be elected the state’s top prosecutor was colored by debate around how involved Arizona should be in federal immigration enforcement efforts. Mayes, a Democrat who has vocally opposed family detention centers, filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s plan to build a detention center in Surprise and made public statements vowing to fight for the rights of immigrants brought to the country as children. 

Petersen, meanwhile, has built his political career as an immigration hawk, helping to craft a law that made it a state crime for migrants to cross Arizona’s southern border. And in response to Mayes’ comments made on social media defending the rights of recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Petersen vowed to help the Trump administration deport all immigrants, including, ostensibly, DACA recipients — despite the fact that they have a legal shield against deportation. Petersen later vehemently denied implying that he would help deport DACA recipients.

Mayes frequently criticized Petersen for receiving support from organizations that she took to court for breaking the law, and only recently passing the bar exam in 2020. The Democrat also pulled in nearly five times the amount of donations that Petersen did. According to the latest campaign finance reports, Mayes raised more than $6 million, while Petersen raised about $2.1 million.

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• November 4, 20266:19 amThis story and headline have been updated to reflect The Associated Press calling the race for Mayes