Only 280 votes separated Democrat Kris Mayes from Republican Abraham Hamadeh in the 2022 Arizona Attorney General race; in fact, Hamadeh is still appealing to the courts to overturn the result, just like the failure Kari Lake. If Lake had won the governor’s race, the majority of Gov. Katie Hobbs’ vetoes (she set a record) would’ve been signed into law, and Arizona would resemble the homophobic, transphobic, racist, anti-voter, anti-education, anti-choice hell holes emerging in Florida, Texas, and other Republican-controlled states that are codifying white religious extremism.
If Abraham Hamadeh had won the AG’s contest, we never would’ve seen this—a statement from Kris Mayes after the Supreme Court ruled last week, in a totally hypothetical Colorado case, that businesses can discriminate:
“By issuing this new license to discriminate … the immediate, symbolic effect of the decision is to mark gays and lesbians for second-class status.”
Not in Arizona, according to Mayes.
Attorney General Mayes, a lesbian and former Republican, blasted the “woefully misguided majority” on the Court, and said her office will continue to enforce the anti-discrimination laws that are on the books in Arizona, regardless of the Supremes’ “profoundly wrong” decision.
“If any Arizonan believes that they have been the victim of discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, or ancestry in a place of public accommodation, they should file a complaint with my office. I will continue to enforce Arizona’s public accommodation law to its fullest extent.”
my emphasis
Who knows what’ll happen? I sure don’t, but I’m glad mine was one of the 280 votes that put Kris Mayes in office.