Top Maricopa election official, who fought against Trump’s attacks in 2020, loses primary

Maricopa County, Arizona, Recorder Stephen Richer, who faced backlash from former President Donald Trump’s allies for defending the 2020 election results, lost his primary race to Republican challenger state Rep. Justin Heap.

Richer was not involved with the county’s election operations in 2020, having just taken office in 2021. 

Maricopa, home to over half of Arizona’s voters, became a battleground as Trump and Republican allies made efforts to overturn the former president’s defeat. Richer called out the false claims of election fraud and as a result faced death threats alongside other county supervisors. 

Richer’s challenger, Heap, is a member of the state legislature’s conservative Freedom Caucus. He received the endorsement of U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake as well as the backing from Trump-affiliated Turning Point U.S.A.

“Elections have winners and, sadly, losers,” Richer wrote on X. “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.”

Even before the election results came out, Richer knew he faced steep competition in Heap. 

“For being the ‘establishment candidate,’ having the county party, the state party, Turning Point USA, Lakeworld, Trumpworld all against me — that’s hard to run against,” Richer said in an interview.

Now the Democratic nominee for county recorder, Tim Stringham, is hoping to capture the support of Richer’s voters.

“If you voted for Stephen Richer, I imagine you did so because of his honesty in the face of lies over the last four years,” Stringham wrote on X. “I’m asking you to continue to vote for the honest candidate.”

Richer worked to increase transparency and built trust within the county’s election operations, having offered tours and detailed explanations of how he kept up with voting rolls. 

He once again found himself at the center of controversy during the 2022 midterm elections, when printers at a dozen voting centers malfunctioned, causing voters inconvenience. At the time, Lake was running for governor and lost her bid by 17,000 votes. She blamed Richer and accused him of rigging the election. Richer sued her in 2023, and Lake declined to defend herself. 

Prior to President Joe Biden’s debate performance, Richer said he would not be voting for Trump but instead Biden, with political analysts seeing this likely causing him to lose voters.