Journalists’ Roundtable: Election results, Democrats take AZ legislature and more

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for the Journalists’ Roundtable where we discuss Arizona politics. This week, “Arizona Horizon” host Ted Simons was joined by Camryn Sanchez of KJZZ, Jeremy Duda from Axios Phoenix and Stephanie Murray of Arizona Republic.

The topics discussed this week included:

• Recap of Arizona election results
• Arizona will see post-election changes, including a Democratic-led legislature for the first time in 60 years
• What’s first on the legislative agenda, including school voucher reforms and affordability

Election results and the impact on Arizona

Camryn Sanchez: “I always hate to admit on PBS when I’m surprised by something because it makes me feel like a bad journalist, but yes. I thought there would be a blue wave, and I thought some state-wide Democrats would hold on to their offices, but I was shocked by the scale, not just Arizona-wide, but nationwide. I was definitely surprised by the legislature flipping so hard to the Democrats.

Jeremy Duda: “This was so much better for Democrats and worse for Republicans than we expected. As Camryn said, we all saw the blue wave coming: Katie Hobbs, everyone had already written that race off. We all knew she was going to get re-elected. The chances looked really good for Adrian Fontes and Kris Mayes, but state Treasurer and mine inspector? A supermajority in the state Senate? We didn’t even know these were possible in Arizona, the same as no one thinking it was possible for Democrats to win Senate seats in South Carolina, Mississippi and Texas. By the conventional wisdom we’ve all lived by for years, these things never should have been in play. It was a complete bloodbath for Republicans and such a wipeout for Democrats.”

Stephanie Murray: “I just couldn’t believe it. The fact that this blue wave went so far down the ballot in Arizona that the Clerk of the Maricopa County Superior Court, a huge operation, is going to be run by a 19-year-old college student who looked at that race because Democrats didn’t have anyone else running in it, defeating a state Senator who is at least twice his age, that really surprised me. The other thing that I’ve had my eye on is that in some of these safe, red congressional districts, we know that those lawmakers will win but those races still haven’t been called. These are places where President Trump won by double digits only two years ago in 2024.”