Trump-backed election-denying candidate's effort to overturn loss ends in a whimper

On Friday, 12News reported that a state judge in Arizona dealt a blow to failed Arizona Republican attorney general candidate Abraham Hamadeh's legal bid to throw out the election.

Hamadeh had lost to his Democratic opponent Kris Mayes by a narrow 511-vote margin.

"The ruling came after a four-hour court hearing Friday morning where lawyers from Hamadeh's campaign argued against lawyers from Maricopa County, Pima County, and the Arizona Secretary of State's Office," said the report. "According to the judge, Hamadeh's lawyers did not produce the evidence needed to prove that mistakes were made in the 2022 election."

In his ruling on Friday, the judge said, "The bottom line is that you haven't proven your case ... It doesn't overcome the presumption that the election was done correctly. The examples I've seen have been voter error ... those are mostly people not following instructions."

"The hearing came after a Mohave County judge rejected a request to dismiss most of his allegations in Hamadeh's lawsuit," said the report. "Judge Lee Jantzen previously released a ruling that dismissed only one out of the five counts listed in the Republican candidate's lawsuit against Democrat Kris Mayes. The four remaining counts alleging election malfeasance will be further litigated during a hearing Friday morning, the ruling states."

This decision comes as gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who lost by a wider margin to Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, moves forward with a lawsuit of her own intending to expose defects in the election, but that has been widely panned by legal experts.

Arizona Republicans suffered a series of defeats in November, failing to unseat Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, and losing most of the major statewide races, winning only a handful like the treasurer and superintendent elections.