Arizona House Showdown: Nail-Biting Contest Heads for Recount

Yassamin Ansari’s lead was 67 votes on Monday, a margin of just 0.16 percentage points.

PHOENIX — The Democratic primary in Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District remains too close to call and might require a recount.

Former Phoenix City Council member Yassamin Ansari is ahead of former state lawmaker Raquel Terán by 67 votes with nearly 44,000 ballots counted as of Saturday evening.

On Friday, Ansari’s lead was 89 votes, a margin of 0.21 percentage points, which is within the threshold for an automatic recount. Arizona law mandates a recount if the margin is 0.5 percentage points or less.

Maricopa County election officials reported that about 99% of the approximately 740,000 ballots cast in Tuesday’s primary election had been tabulated and verified by Saturday night.

Additional votes are expected to be counted by Sunday night.

Both candidates released statements Saturday acknowledging the tight race.

“We are still hard at work ensuring that every vote is counted,” Ansari said. “Thank you to the thousands of voters who made their voices heard in this election.”

Terán stated, “We’re narrowing the gap. There are still more outstanding ballots to come. We believe every vote matters.”

The congressional seat is open due to Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego’s run for the U.S. Senate.

The winner of this Democratic primary will likely be favored in the November election against Republican Jeff Zink, as the district leans Democratic and covers central and southwest Phoenix.

Ansari, the daughter of Iranian immigrants, previously served as the vice mayor of Phoenix. She resigned from the council in March to focus on her congressional campaign.

Terán, who previously chaired the Arizona Democratic Party, was serving her first term in the Arizona Senate after being elected in November 2022. She resigned in April 2023 to concentrate on her congressional bid.