Republicans avoided a potential headache on Tuesday when former state Sen. Debbie Lesko won the GOP primary to fill former Rep. Trent Franks's vacant Arizona seat with 35 percent of the vote. Former state Sen. Steve Montenegro, a married minister who had been caught exchanging highly personal banter via text (including receiving a topless photo) with a junior legislative staffer, came in third with 24 percent.
Some Arizona Republicans feared that had Montenegro won the primary thanks to mail-in votes cast before the scandal came to light, he would have jeopardized a seat that voted for President Trump 57 percent to 36 percent. But Lesko, who had the support of the House Freedom Caucus, won huge margins in retiree-heavy Sun City (her old state senate district) and enters as the strong favorite in the April 24 special election.
Many Democrats insist Lesko isn't a scandal-free candidate either: the Campaign Legal Center just asked the FEC to sanction her campaign for improperly funneling $50,000 from her state campaign account to a federal PAC set up to support her congressional bid. The
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