Arizona local official who defended elections against GOP attacks is ousted in primary

PHOENIX — Stephen Richer, who’s been a fierce defender of the integrity of Maricopa County elections since he was elected as county recorder in 2020, has lost a Republican primary to keep that role, according to a race call by The Associated Press.

Maricopa County includes Phoenix and is Arizona's population center. The recorder helps run county elections.

According to the AP, Richer was defeated by GOP challenger Justin Heap, a state representative backed by the far-right Freedom Caucus and other conservative groups. With 81% of estimated votes in, as of 5 a.m. ET, Heap had 42% of the vote, while Richer had 36%. Another challenger had 22%.

On social media, Richer congratulated Heap and added: "Elections have winners and, sadly, losers. And in this one, it looks like I'm going to end up on the losing side of the column. But that's the name of the game. Accept it. Move on."

Richer’s defeat is a loss for those who’ve spent the past four years defending Maricopa County election administrators against baseless claims.

Richer, as well as the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, has been on the frontlines of efforts to fight back with accurate information about the voting experience, how votes are counted and when results are released.

For his defense of elections, Richer has drawn the ire of fellow Republicans, including one state party official who recently called for his lynching in a newly discovered video. And in 2022, federal prosecutors charged a Missouri man for allegedly threatening to kill Richer after he criticized fellow Republicans who conducted a deeply flawed review of Maricopa County’s 2020 presidential election. There were “plenty more where that came from,” Richer said at the time.

“It takes a strong stomach to work in this field,” Richer recently told NPR.

Heap has been once source of that criticism, having attacked Maricopa County’s election administration in past years as an embarrassment. But on the campaign trail, he declined to say that widespread fraud played a role in Maricopa County’s election results in 2020 or 2022.

But that’s a position supported by many of the GOP lawmakers and activists supporting his candidacy. And Heap was recruited to run by state Sen. Jake Hoffman, a Republican who’s since been indicted for his role in an alleged "fake elector" scheme to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election. 

Heap also spent time criticizing Richer for issues outside the purview of the recorder’s office, like long lines at polling places on Election Day.

Richer’s office is in charge of early voting by mail, while supervisors are responsible for Election Day voting.

Military veteran Tim Stringham won an uncontested Democratic primary for the job.