As the protests and litigation continue in Arizona, challenging the results of the 2022 midterm election where four Trump-endorsed candidates lost, some are looking at history to understand how the litigation may end. In 1916, a contentious gubernatorial race in Arizona, also fraught with accusations of voter fraud, resulted in a clear winner not being established until the next year, when the Arizona Supreme Court declared the Democrat the winner.
Arizona historian and writer Donna Reiner relayed the story of that election for Arizona Agenda this fall, revealing how due to the feuding over who won, there were two governors both claiming to hold office for several months. It was Arizona’s third statewide election after becoming a state in 1912, and incumbent Gov. George Wiley Paul Hunt, a Democrat and Arizona’s first governor faced Republican challenger Thomas E. Campbell of Yavapai County.
Hunt was criticized for overspending, deficits, opposing the death penalty, and other issues. Arizona Oddities described him as “a man with an ego so large that he believed that as long as he lived the governor’s chair was his private domain;” and, “People either liked Hunt or hated him.” Inside Tucson Business described him as “colorful and uncouth” and said, “he liked to wear white suits that were usually stained with tobacco juice.”
Hunt maintained an “anti-business” image, “but the controversial governor’s political enemies countered: his back door was always open to big monied interests.” Arizona historian Marshall Trimble said that Hunt kept his front door open to the workers, but his backdoor was open to the mining companies. Additionally, “Supported by organized labor, he rewarded his friends with jobs.”
Read the rest of the story at The Arizona Sun Times