Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen won the GOP nomination to face Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes in the general election.
Petersen defeated Rodney Glassman, according to a race call by the Associated Press. Petersen led Glassman 56% to 44% in the early hours on Wednesday morning.
Petersen and Glassman have engaged in a bruising primary fight that largely focused on which candidate is best qualified to defeat Mayes and lead the Attorney General’s Office, which is essentially the largest law firm in the state.
Glassman, a longtime military attorney in the Air Force JAG Corps, has run a litany of commercials pointing to Petersen’s lack of experience. The senate president, who has worked in real estate, only earned his law license a few years ago and has no courtroom experience outside of a college internship with Scottsdale City Court.
But Petersen said history shows Glassman wouldn’t be able to defeat Mayes.
Glassman won a seat on the Tucson City Council nearly two decades ago and has lost four races since then as a member of both parties, including a failed Democratic bid for U.S. Senate and a loss in the Republican Attorney General primary four years ago.
The one-on-one Republican primary this year is very different from the six-way race won by Abe Hamadeh, now a Congressman, in 2022. Hamadeh went on to lose the general election to Mayes by just 280 votes.
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Find everything you need to know about elections in Arizona and Maricopa County from KJZZ's politics team. -
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