2010 Attorney general election

2010 SD-24 election

2012 pinal county treasurer election

2020 AZ-01 Democratic primary

2020 AZ-01 election

2022 Attorney general election

Yet, while abortion was the defining issue of the election in Arizona, it was not the only issue overall. Increasing border security and questions about Arizona's voting systems were other key planks of Hamadeh's platform, while Mayes campaigned on consumer protection and protecting the state's water resources. Additionally, both campaigns got a bit personal and claimed the other was unqualified for the job. Hamadeh generally maintained a small lead in polls throughout the campaign, and thus was marginally favored, but the race remained very competitive as the polls opened on election day.

However, unlike most elections, the contest for Attorney General remained competitive even once polls were closed, as it became clear every ballot was going to matter. By the end of the initial count, Mayes led Hamadeh by a mere 510 votes, a margin of 0.02%, sending the election to an automatic recount. As the recount progressed, Hamadeh filed lawsuits contesting the results of the election, but those were dismissed. On December 29th, 2022, over a month after the initial election, the results of the recount were revealed: Kris Mayes narrowly defeated Abe Hamadeh by 280 votes out of over 2.5 million cast, a margin of 0.011%. Mayes did well in the state's major metros of Phoenix and Tucson, those cities' surrounding suburbs, and majority Native American areas in the northeastern corner of the state, while Hamadeh did best in the state's rural areas and exurbs. However, according to analysts at Split Ticket, the decisive factor in the race had nothing to do with the election itself. Instead, according to their analysis, the death of anti-vaccine advocates (who skew overwhelmingly Republican) from COVID was decisive in the final result, making this the only major election to be decided by deaths from COVID-19. 

Following Mayes' victory, Hamadeh refused to concede, filing numerous lawsuits over the results over the next year and a half, losing all of them. Mayes is currently running for a second term and will likely face another competitive general election, while Hamadeh was elected as representative for AZ-08 in 2024 after (ironically) narrowly winning the Republican primary. Yet, regardless of the outcome in November, it will likely be some time before Arizona has an election as close as this.