Rachel Mitchell Used Fear to Win. What that Means for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office

It wasn't even close.

As the highest-profile statewide races in Arizona — including the contests for governor, attorney general, and superintendent of public instruction — became nail-biters after Election Day, the numbers in the race for Maricopa County Attorney stayed consistent: Republican Rachel Mitchell secured a six-point victory.

Though often overshadowed by the more fiery statewide campaigns, the county attorney's race was significant. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office is the third-largest prosecutorial agency in the country — and one that is sometimes tainted by misconduct. The county's top prosecutor will play a major role in the future of abortion rights and criminal justice reforms in the state.

Voters had a stark choice on the ballot: Rachel Mitchell, who had risen to the office's top ranks through decades as a sex crimes prosecutor, or Julie Gunnigle, a Democrat and outspoken critic of the office. Gunnigle said she wanted to overhaul the county attorney's office, which she said was steeped in corruption. Mitchell promised to clean up the office after the scandal-ridden tenure of her predecessor but rejected many of Gunnigle's promised reforms.

"This is a prosecutor versus, frankly, a social activist," Mitchell told Arizona's Family after her win.

Gunnigle lost 51 percent to 49 percent in 2020 to former County Attorney Allister Adel in her first bid for the office in 2020. In November, Gunnigle lost to Mitchel by an even wider margin: 53-47. Mitchell was appointed county attorney in April after Adel resigned.

Gunnigle declined an interview to discuss the election. Spokespeople for Mitchell did not respond to a request for an interview.

In 2020, both Adel and Gunnigle — despite differing visions — played lip service to reform. And despite the numerous scandals under Adel's tenure, including the political prosecution of Black Lives Matter protesters, Adel did follow through on some of her promises, such as mild reforms to plea deals. The race was a departure from the historically tough-on-crime bent of Maricopa County's prosecutors — think Bill Montgomery's crusade on minor pot offenses or Andrew Thomas's collusion with former Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Mitchell's win returns a law-and-order Montgomery-era prosecutor back to power for a full four-year term.

‘Fear as a Tactic’

"I think she used fear as a tactic," said Lola N'sangou, the executive director of Mass Liberation, an advocacy group that opposed Mitchell's candidacy. It was how she won, N'sangou said.

Throughout the campaign, Mitchell frequently invoked images of crime in "cities like Chicago or Philadelphia or New York," implying that softer approaches to crime were driving the trend — even though murders have increased nationwide, including in Phoenix during Mitchell's tenure. "[Voters] don't want that here," she told Arizona's Family after her win. She compared Gunnigle to progressive prosecutors such as former District Attorney Chesa Boudin in San Francisco, whose reforms drew well-funded backlash and culminated in a successful recall in June.

Mitchell had the support of several police unions and some of Maricopa County's business elites, including the owners of the Diamondbacks and the Arizona Cardinals. They bankrolled racist attack ads against a campaign manager for Gunnigle.

Mitchell's win was frustrating to N'sangou and other activists who hoped that Gunnigle, as an outsider, might bring the office into a new era.

But voters firmly rejected Gunnigle during an election in which other Democrats were successful in Maricopa County. Governor-elect Katie Hobbs won her race in part by fending off far-right opponent Kari Lake, capturing 790,400 votes and winning 51-49 in the county. In contrast, Gunnigle received just 692,200 votes.

Barrett Marson, a GOP campaign consultant, said Mitchell's calm refusal to align herself with former President Donald Trump or unfounded election conspiracies helped her win where other Republicans had failed. Attorney General Candidate Abe Hamadeh, for instance, lost by a hairbreadth to Democratic opponent Kris Mayes despite running on a similar tough-on-crime prosecutor platform. But Hamadeh, unlike Mitchell, had allied himself closely with Trump.

"It's night and day to look at Mitchell versus Hamadeh and Lake," Marson said. "A non-election-denying conservative does well in Maricopa County."

‘Don’t Get Comfortable’

Mitchell's win now raises questions about how the office will prosecute abortion cases, which had become a key issue in the race. After months of waffling on the issue, Mitchell announced a few weeks before the election that she would not prosecute women for getting an abortion.

Currently, Arizona has a 15-week ban on abortion in place. A sweeping century-old ban on abortion is on the books but was temporarily blocked by the courts from taking effect. Mitchell has said she believes that both statutes would apply to providers, not people seeking abortions, although that position is disputed among legal analysts.

Should another law pass that does explicitly criminalize people who get abortions, it's not clear how Mitchell would handle such cases.

"Not now, not ever, nobody should be criminalized for reproductive health care choices, including abortion," Gunnigle said in March as the law creating the 15-week ban awaited the signature of Governor Doug Ducey. She repeated that promise, unwavering, throughout her campaign.

It wasn't enough, though, to unseat Mitchell.

N'sangou said she and her organization are not deterred and plan to continue calling attention to the county attorney's office. Despite Gunnigle's lesser performance compared with 2020, N'sangou said she thinks more people are becoming aware of the importance of the Maricopa County Attorney's Office — and more skeptical of it, particularly after high-profile scandals, such as the ACAB gang prosecutions.

"That growing distrust is going to amount to a culture change within that office whether they like it or not," N'sangou said. "Our message to Rachel is: 'Don't get comfortable.'"