Judy: Arizona voters head to the
polls Tuesday to cast ballots in
the state's primaries.
And in some of the key contests,
leading Republican candidates
have doubled down on far-right
conspiracies denying the results
of the 2020 election.
Stephanie sy has more on how
these candidates are shaping the
race.
Stephanie: Republicans in
Arizona agree on a lot.
Dawn: I want to conserve
traditional values, family
values, first right amendment,
second right amendment.
10th amendment, we the people.
Kathy: We need to move on to the
issues that are also critical,
like water and the border and
the economy and maintaining the
economy that Arizona has been
very lucky to have.
Stephanie: Dawn and Kathy are
voters in maricopa county, one
of the largest Republican
counties in America.
Both voted twice for Donald
Trump.
But a big issue divides them and
many primary voters here,
whether the 2020 election was
rigged for Joe Biden.
You believe it was stolen?
Dawn: I do.
Kathy: That isn't true.
It's not substantiated and
there's no evidence for it.
>> The Fox News decision desk is
calling Arizona for Joe Biden.
That is a big get.
Stephanie: On election night,
Fox News was the first news
organization to project that
Biden had won Arizona, shocking
trump supporters, including
dawn.
As a poll volunteer in Chandler,
Arizona, she says only an hour
earlier, she'd seen a truck
carrying paper ballots away.
Dawn: Fox News is on and they
announce trump lost Arizona.
Arizona's been called.
How could they call Arizona?
They hadn't even gotten the
votes from our location.
Stephanie: News organizations
don't tally paper ballots to
project election winners, but to
dawn, the early call was enough
to sow doubt.
Doubt that the former president,
and those who still support him
have exploited ever since.
How successful that
misinformation campaign is will
be put to the test in Arizona on
Tuesday.
Republican candidates for some
of the highest offices in the
state -- governor, U.S. Senator,
and secretary of state -- have
not only repeatedly talked about
election fraud, they've made it
a keystone of their campaigns.
Moderator: You've called Joe
Biden an illegitimate president,
what does that mean?
Kari: He lost the election and
he shouldn't be in the white
house, we had a corrupt
election.
I'd like to ask everyone on the
stage if they would agree we had
a corrupt stolen election.
Raise your hand.
Stephanie: Kari lake is running
for governor.
Her campaign posters show her
side by side with the former
president.
>> We've got to make sure we
don't end up with a rio.
Stephanie: At a recent rally in
Tucson, lake repeated the trump
playbook, accusing her opponent
Karen Taylor Robson of getting
ready to cheat in the primary.
Kari: I guess if you're counting
people who are, you know, dead
people who might be.
But but she's not up at the
polls.
And it makes me think there
might be trying to set the stage
for another steal.
Stephanie: Kari lake's campaign
is nothing if not
trump-inspired.
A media personality with no
political experience and a no
holds barred style that speaks
to the Republican base.
But the Maga crowd alone can't
give her victory in the general
election if she gets past the
primary.
Biden won Arizona by appealing
to the state's largest group of
voters, independents, and many
Republicans crossed over.
Are you concerned that you have
alienated those independents and
some of those Republicans who
voted for Biden in this state?
With all the talk about
decertifying the election.
Kari: I'm not going to change
who I am.
My whole campaign has been based
on my understanding of Arizona
and the people of Arizona.
And we want honest elections.
We want honest elections for our
Democrat friends, our
independent friends, and our
Republican friends.
Stephanie: While lake has
trump's endorsement, Robson has
the support of the Republican
establishment -- current Arizona
governor Doug Ducey, and trump's
vice president, Mike pence --
making the race a head to head
fight between the two factions
of the GOP.
Stephen: I would say I'm sort of
a libertarian minded
conservative.
Stephanie: Stephen richer is the
maricopa county recorder, a
Republican.
He beat the democratic incumbent
to become the county's highest
election official in 2020.
He says not only was the
election honest, but that his
Republican colleagues who claim
otherwise are challenging the
underlying foundation of the
United States.
You're saying those voting
machines were absolutely secure?
Stephen: That's a fact.
Every single test has worked.
They were used in multiple
elections that nobody ever
challenged prior to the November
2020 election.
They went through federal
certification.
They went through state
certification.
They went through tests before
the election.
They went through a hand count
audit by the political parties
themselves, and they always
match 100%.
Stephanie: But that, spoken by a
conservative who voted for
trump, is still not enough for
some voters, nor were the
January 6th hearings that
featured some of trump's closest
allies, like former attorney
general bill Barr.
Mr. Barr: The election was not
stolen by fraud and I haven't
seen anything since the election
that changes my mind on that.
Stephanie: You now have multiple
people that were close to
president trump saying there
just wasn't evidence to show
widespread fraud that would have
changed the outcome.
And multiple people have come
out and said that they were
trying to convince the president
of this.
Dawn: I personally believe that
there are people that were close
to trump that were not close to
trump in philosophies.
Stephanie: Multiple
investigations, court cases, and
audits showed the election was
clean, and that was before
millions of dollars were spent
on a
republican-commissioned hand
count in Arizona that also found
Biden was the winner.
But all of the stop the steal
talk continues and has fallen on
real people.
Former yavapai county recorder,
Leslie Hoffman, is a Republican
who has worked in an
overwhelmingly Republican county
as an elections officer for over
a decade.
Leslie: We see who you are.
We see you.
You better be nervous.
You should lawyer up.
You're as corrupt as the
government you worked for.
Stephanie: That's what she finds
almost every day when she checks
her email.
Leslie: I do have concerns about
certain people getting into
office that will not believe in
the work that we do and
therefore certifying the canvass
might become a challenge.
Stephanie: That's scary.
Leslie: It's very scary.
What we're doing is so
important.
Stephanie: Hoffman resigned a
week ago, ahead of Tuesday's
primary election.
>> President trump-endorsed me
because he likes to win.
Stephanie: In the senate
primary, candidate Blake masters
is running for the GOP
nomination to challenge
democratic senator mark
Kelly.
He also got the blessing of
former president trump, after he
questioned the results of the
2020 election.
Why are you hitching your wagon
to a one term president who lost
this state two years ago?
Blake: I'm not hitching my
wagon.
I would say I'm proud of
president trump for what he
accomplished.
I not going to run from
am president trump's successful
term in the general election.
Absolutely not.
Do you know how many
independents I meet who say
we're sorry we voted for Biden?
Please bring back the mean
tweets because we want $2 gas.
We want a border.
We want to country that works.
Stephanie: Kathy, a Republican
party organizer, wants many of
those same things.
But says she won't vote for any
candidate who promotes election
fraud claims.
Kathy: We can't have that kind
of dangerous rhetoric and it
cannot come from the top of the
Arizona executives.
This is why I'm going door to
door.
I know the people on the ballot.
I know the people who really
have the heart and soul of
Arizona in their best interest
here for our state.
And that is why I will go every
single day and knock doors
until, you know, we can't.
>> How are you?
I'm going door to door.
Stephanie: Knocking on those
doors, she's as undeterred by
the extreme heat of the Arizona
summer as she is by the extreme
views dividing her political
party.
For the pbs newshour, I'm
Stephanie sy in Phoenix.