Comment PHOENIX — Former President Barack Obama used a rally here Wednesday night to deliver perhaps his starkest warning about what next week’s midterm elections are at stake for America’s system of self-government. If Republican candidates here are successful, Obama argued, “democracy as we know it may not survive in Arizona.” “This is not an exaggeration,” he added. “This is a fact”. Because victory for the GOP ticket, which the former president proclaimed to a crowd of more than 1,000 at a high school in south Phoenix, would mean that “election deniers will serve as your governor, as your senator, as secretary of state, as your attorney general.” The Republican contenders for those seats have been more ardent than many GOP candidates elsewhere in embracing former President Donald Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. They have promised to transform the way elections are conducted in this crucial swing state — promises that they could implement if voters put them in charge of the state’s election system. A Washington Post analysis of candidates’ statements and actions shows that a majority of Republican candidates on the ballot this fall for federal or state office — 291 in all — have denied or disputed the results of the 2020 election. In Arizona, all but one of 13 GOP candidates have done so. Kerry Lake, in the governor’s race, called anyone who believes Joe Biden won by 81 million votes a “conspiracy theorist.” Blake Masters, who is running for the Senate, emphatically announced in an ad: “I think Trump won 2020.” Lake, when pressed in a recent ABC interview about her allegations of voter fraud, pointed to a number of baseless examples of ballot mishandling but allowed: “I will accept the results of this election if we have a fair, honest and transparent elections. Absolutely. 100 percent.” Mark Finchem, who has identified himself as a member of the Oath Keepers militia group and is the party’s pick for secretary of state, has sought to require all ballots to be counted and give the Republican-led legislature the power to reject ballots. Results. Abraham Hamadeh, the attorney general nominee, promised a “day of reckoning” for “those who worked to rob President Trump of the rigged 2020 election,” pairing his warning with an image of handcuffs. The poll shows everyone is competitive in Tuesday’s games. Obama appeared to take personally what he called the GOP’s unilateral rejection of the rules of the Democratic game. “When Donald Trump won, I stayed up until 3 in the morning so I could offer a congratulatory phone call to someone who opposed everything I stood for but believed in the peaceful transfer of power,” Obama said. “I sat in on his opening. We welcomed him to the White House. Because this is what America is supposed to be. Did we forget that? Was that just one side?’ The former president asked in disbelief, “What has happened?” His comments echoed those made earlier in the day by Biden, once his No. 2 in the White House. Speaking 2,000 miles away in Washington’s Union Station, the president said candidates who refuse to accept the outcome of Tuesday’s contests are putting the country on a “path to chaos.” Chaos was also the charge against the Republicans by the Democrats who showed up at Obama’s side in Phoenix. Katie Hobbs, the Democratic candidate for governor, said Arizona voters had a “choice between sanity and chaos.” Kris Mayes, who is running for attorney general, made it clear: “Our opponents don’t believe in democracy.”
