Republicans retain control of Legislative District 10

By Tom Blodgett
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Republicans retained all three legislative seats in Arizona's Legislative District 10 in the Nov. 3 election, turning back Democratic challenges in the East Valley district.

Incumbent Republican Sen. David Farnsworth won another term, while Republicans Justin Olson and James Rogers captured the district's two seats in the Arizona House of Representatives.

Although Democrats failed to flip any seats, Senate challenger Blair Moses pointed to her relatively narrow defeat as evidence of progress for her party in the traditionally Republican district.

Farnsworth received 46,735 votes, or 52.95%, compared with 38,134 votes, or 43.20%, for Moses. Independent Nick Fierro finished third with 3,354 votes, or 3.80%.

The margin between Farnsworth and Moses was 8,601 votes, or 9.75 percentage points.

In the House race, incumbent Olson led the five-candidate field with 45,009 votes, or 27.31%, followed by newcomer Rogers with 43,988 votes, or 26.69%.

Democrat Helen Hunter finished third with 37,390 votes, or 22.68%, while fellow Democrat Brian Calaway received 35,402 votes, or 21.48%. No Labels candidate David Scott finished fifth with 2,976 votes, or 1.81%.

Because voters could select two candidates in the House race, the percentages reflect the total votes cast for candidates rather than the percentage of voters supporting each candidate.

Olson finished 7,619 votes ahead of Hunter, the leading Democrat, while Rogers held a 6,598-vote advantage over her.

The results preserve Republican control of the district's legislative delegation.

Democrats point to closer margins

Moses, who campaigned for a year to unseat Farnsworth, expressed disappointment with the outcome in a postelection social media statement but said her campaign demonstrated that Democrats could compete more effectively in the district.

She criticized Farnsworth's record, saying he had done little to help constituents, while emphasizing that her performance compared favorably with previous challengers.

"The closest any prior Democrat (2024) or Independent (2022) candidate has gotten to the Republican candidate is 22 points (a 22% differential between the percent of votes each received.) My differential was 9% — he only received 9% more of the votes than I did," Moses wrote, basing her comparison on rounded percentages.

Moses also suggested her campaign may have helped other Democrats running in the district.

"I believe this helped Dems up and down the ballot," she wrote.

Despite the loss, Moses said one of the most rewarding parts of the campaign was connecting with residents and volunteers.

"The most significant positive, though, was meeting so many wonderful people throughout my campaign — people I would never have met if not for the campaign — and working with dear friends I have known for years," she wrote. "I hope you know who you are and how special you are to me. I look forward to staying in touch!"

Calaway, who finished fourth in the House race, also thanked his supporters in a brief social media statement.

"Thank you to the volunteers who gave this campaign their time and to everyone in the East Valley who cast a ballot," Calaway wrote.

None of the three Republican winners had posted a postelection reaction in the social media material reviewed for this story.

Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to azopinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines. Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him on X at @sp_blodgett.

Tom Blodgett
Senior News Editor | Gilbert

tblodgett@iniusa.org

Meet Tom
Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.

Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.

Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism. 

Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.  

Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).