Ortiz’s only opponent in the LD24 senate race, Mario Garcia, who is running as a Democrat, had no money in his campaign fund as of June 30th, according to second quarter finance reports. Garcia loaned himself $5,022.37 in February and $20,220 in May. The company that Garcia was using for political consulting, Strategic Political Marketing, announced on April 19 that it was no longer representing him as a candidate because Mario had lied to them about attending a Kari Lake fundraiser. Despite this, Garcia spent $11,700 on print advertisements in May and an additional $1,549 on mailers. In June, Garcia paid $3,400 to Sergio Arellano for consulting services. The address listed on the finance report for Arellano is also the address for The King’s Barber Shop and Salon in Phoenix. Garcia spent his last money on more mailers in June. He did not respond to our reporter’s request for comment by our deadline. Ortiz raised $74,271 in the second quarter and finished with $64,146 on hand. Ortiz’s highest donation of more than $10,000 came from The PAC for America's Future, and her highest expense was $9,989 on mailers. Ortiz also has the endorsement of the current LD24 Senator, Anna Hernandez, who is leaving the Legislature to run for Phoenix City Council.  

Pima County’s distribution of 135,541 sample ballots with an incorrect Election Day date could undermine voter confidence in elections, election law lawyers said. Jen Wright, an attorney for Lake and an elections integrity advocate, said, “it certainly undermines confidence when something goes out by an election official that has such a huge error.” She added, “I don't assume any malicious intent by Pima, they made a huge mistake, and suggesting otherwise, I think, is not good for voter confidence,” Wright said. “There should be a balance between the public correcting errors and being allowed to say, hey, there was a mistake made here.” Such a mistake “reduces the ability for the public to trust elections,” Wright said. “People are human, mistakes happen,” Wright said. “I never want to assume the worst of anyone, but that's why we should have robust public dialog about elections.” Rick Hasen, an elections law professor at UCLA, said he has seen “a lot of criticism of election officials and harassment threats” since the 2020 election. Arizona is one of the states where election criticism is “surging,” Hasen said. “It is not uncommon for election officials to make minor mistakes,” Hasen said. “They are usually corrected quickly, they are almost always inadvertent, but in a time of suspicion, people who are suspicious latch on to errors and claim that they are deliberate attempts to manipulate things.” Sometimes errors are made by election officials because of inadequate resources, he said. In an April interview with our reporter, Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly said her office faced “increased scrutiny” in recent years, and that “people call it a stressful place to work.” She added, “I think it’s important to understand why errors are made and to explore if there could be something beyond an innocent explanation, but, almost always, there is an innocent explanation.” While the sample ballot title page sent to Pima County voters had the correct primary date of July 30, the page that listed the voting center addresses erroneously listed the primary as being on August 30. At a Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting on July 16, residents highlighted the mistake, among other concerns about election integrity. “Our trust has been violated, and you have violated your oath,” Tucson retiree Tim Laux said to the panel of county supervisors. Community members cited the recent mistake, and some raised concerns about the county’s current early voting procedures. “I submit that our recorder is knowingly conducting maladministration in connection with the manner in which early voting is being handled,” Laux said. Election workers already took multiple steps to amend the issue. The department sent out postcards to the households that received a sample ballot informing them of the error and provided the correct date in “prominent text,” according to a press release. They also issued a notice on their election department’s website. In a memorandum sent to the Pima County Board of Supervisors, Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher said the elections office is reaching out to the media and sending alerts to further communicate the error to voters in the district. “Elections is taking steps to ensure this unfortunate and regrettable error is corrected and that all future communications about the election are accurate,” Lesher said in the memo.

The campaign attacks involving Hendrix and Lalani Hunsaker dates back to early May. Hunsaker and Hendrix both confirmed with our reporter they met in Hunsaker’s home after some undisclosed campaign signs were distributed in Gilbert that attacked Hunsaker. Hendrix said he contacted Hunsaker and offered to meet with her to try to make peace between them and say he wasn’t involved with the signs. During their meeting, Hunsaker asked Hendrix about the origins of the rumors accusing her son of being involved with the Gilbert Goons, and Hendrix said he didn’t have the answers to her questions and felt like he was being accused of attacking her son. “I never attacked her son,” Hendrix said. “I tried to defend her son. In fact, if she spent as much time trying to defend her son as I have, this wouldn’t be in the press at all.” Hunsaker provided an audio recording of the precinct committee meeting on Monday. Hendrix addressed criticism he’s seen from Hunsaker’s campaign directed toward him for sponsoring a bill that would have dissolved the Arizona Commerce Authority. He said he felt like Hunsaker’s campaign had engaged in “attack pieces” against him, and he chose not to stoop to that level against Hunsaker. As an example, he referenced the Gilbert Goons rumor, which outraged Hunsaker’s family, sparking the confrontation with LD14 chairman Andrew Adams. Hunsaker said Hendrix never broke cadence with his speech when her group stood and disrupted the meeting before being escorted out by Adams. “Never once was Representative Hendrix in danger,” Hunsaker said. She said her husband’s actions and the headbutt to Adams was something any father would do to protect his family. “He acted in a way that any father who is protecting his family, both from the blatant lies that were being told about our son, as well as my young daughter was there, and he acted in a way that any father would act,” Hunsaker said. Hunsaker and Adams both told our reporter Thursday they haven’t spoken to each other since Monday. Adams also shared a text message he received from Hunsaker on June 28 where she told him she thinks he’s done a great job as chairman and that she thinks Hendrix has been using Adams’ name to try and keep her out of the race. Hunsaker called Adams a “political tyrant” and a “RINO” in a written statement on Tuesday. “I’ve heard some of the negative things she’s been saying about me and find them curious as that was her opinion of me merely a couple of weeks ago,” Adams wrote in a text to our reporter. Hunsaker said she thinks Adams escalated the situation on Monday and could have enacted Robert’s Rules of Order to move Hendrix off the discussion of her son. The audio recording she provided also included Grantham addressing the precinct committee, and he backed Hendrix, Petersen and their running mate Khyl Powell. He also called for Republicans to vote for whichever Republican candidates make it out of the primary election to ensure they don’t lose a seat to Democrats in the district. “I feel for everybody going through the negativity with this race,” Grantham said. “I’m watching it as an outsider this time. It’s gross and it does need to stop.”

The Washington D.C.-based political newspaper The Hill published a video on X showing Republican National Convention delegates wearing bandages on their right ear, similar to former President Donald Trump’s bandage on his ear after surviving an assassination attempt from a shooter who grazed where his ear. The person that appears first in the video is former Arizona state Rep. Liz Harris, who was expelled from the House in 2023 for inviting conspiracy testimony to a joint elections hearing that accused Toma, Hobbs and other elected officials of taking bribes from a Mexican cartel. Harris is now an Arizona RNC national committee woman and is attending the convention. She posted on X that Arizona delegate Joe Negila started the bandage trend, and many other Republicans at the convention joined him. “We stand in solidarity with President Trump,” Harris wrote in her post.