The Arizona election results are in: according to the Associated Press, Arizona state Senator Russell Pearce has been ousted by voters and Republican Jerry Lewis has been elected to the state Senate. With 100 percent of voting precincts reporting, Lewis garnered 53.26 percent of the votes and Pearce finished with 45.25 percent of the votes. These unofficial election results are provided by Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett.
The Arizona election results reveal the disappointment that many Arizona voters feel when it comes to Arizona’s immigration laws. If Pearce had remained in the state Senate, Arizonans would have been making a stand for strict immigration laws. However, Arizonans made a stand against strict immigration laws by voting for Lewis in the Arizona election.
Senator Pearce was the chief proponent and architect of SB1070, Arizona’s controversial immigration law. According to the text of SB1070, the immigration law was designed “to discourage and deter the unlawful entry and presence of aliens and economic activity by persons unlawfully present in the United States.” However, SB1070 generated an intense public outcry from immigration rights activists.
Lewis is the Superintendent of Sequoia charter schools and doesn’t like to frame himself as a career politician. Lewis was a few percentage points ahead of Pearce in the latest Arizona Capital Times/ABC15 News poll. Pearce had 43 percent of the votes and Lewis had 46 percent of the votes. The Arizona Capital Times/ABC15 News poll was conducted on November 1 with 598 likely voters in District 18.
Republican state Senator Russell Pearce asked his supporters and Lewis’ supporters to stop “personal attacks.” “I call upon my supporters and those supporting my opponent to bring the rhetoric and personal attacks to an end,” Pearce said in a press statement. “Personal attacks against me and my opponent have reached a fevered pitch,” Pearce added. The Arizona Republican state Senator asked “that both sides focus on the issues.”
FOX News Latino reports that Pearce’s supporters threw a third candidate into the Arizona recall election in order to strip votes from Lewis. Despite dropping out of the race, Olivia Cortes remained on the ballot. FOX News noted that Cortes was likely to water down support for Lewis, but the impact appears to have been marginal.
