Democratic primary in Arizona’s 3rd District still close, could be headed for recount

PHOENIX — The Democratic primary in Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District remains uncertain and a recount may follow.

Former Phoenix City Councilwoman Yassamin Ansari had a 67-vote lead over former state legislator Raquel Terán, with nearly 44,000 votes counted as of Saturday night.

Ansari’s lead on Friday was 89 votes, a margin of just 0.21 percentage points and within reach of an automatic recount. Arizona law requires a recount if the margin is 0.5 percentage points or less.

Maricopa County election officials said about 99% of the approximately 740,000 ballots cast in Tuesday’s primaries had already been counted and verified on Saturday evening.

More votes were expected to be counted on Sunday evening.

Both candidates sent out a statement on Saturday announcing the neck-and-neck race.

“We are still working hard to make sure every vote is counted,” Ansari said. “Thank you to the thousands of voters who made their voices heard in this election.”

Terán said, “We are closing the gap” and “there are still more outstanding ballots coming in. We believe that every vote counts.”

The seat is open due to the candidacy of Democratic Representative Ruben Gallego for US Senate.

The winner of the Democratic primary is favored to face Republican Jeff Zink in the November election to represent the district, which is overwhelmingly Democratic and covers central and southwestern Phoenix.

Ansari, the daughter of Iranian immigrants, previously served as Phoenix’s vice mayor. She resigned from the council in March to focus on the congressional district race.

Terán, who previously served as chair of the Arizona Democratic Party, was serving her first term in the Arizona Senate after being elected in November 2022. She stepped down in April 2023 to focus on her campaign for Congress.