Andy Biggs

U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs trailed Gov. Katie Hobbs trailed throughout the night in the race for Arizona governor. The Associated Press reported that the state is likely to stay blue.

As of late Tuesday night, Hobbs led the race with 58% of votes, against Biggs’ 41%.

At a Democratic watch party in Phoenix, Hobbs thanked voters for showing up at the polls, and said she was “excited” to see the blue wave come across the nation.

Arizona was a historically Republican-leaning state, but Democrats have won almost all the seats at the statewide level in recent years, particularly since the early 2000s. The Democratic party has only held the gubernatorial office for 10 of the last 35 years.

Biggs said the red momentum is dwindling.

“The reality is, we got a tough hill to climb,” Biggs said at a Republican watch party. “We didn’t get the turnout of voters that we wanted to ... but we could not have been prouder to serve with people like you — we couldn’t have done anything like this without you.”

Both candidates tried to appeal to the crucial Latter-day Saint voter bloc spread throughout the East Valley. Both Biggs and John Giles, Hobbs’ running mate, are Brigham Young University grads — and both tried to appeal to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout their campaigns in the Copper State.

However, the two candidates did so in distinct ways.

Biggs — who has represented Arizona’s 5th Congressional District since 2017 — was the GOP primary voters’ overwhelming pick for governor.

In his campaign, he emphasized religious freedom, as well as conservative positions on abortion and transgender issues, and parental-rights. He selected Sine Kerr, a former Republican and state senator as his running mate.

Hobbs, on the other hand, and her running mate Giles, appealed to the idea that Latter-day Saints have the obligation to serve others and be compassionate and inclusive.

“My experience in growing up in the LDS faith was always that I was taught by my parents and by church leaders to vote for the best candidate, and to not identify just kind of in a knee-jerk fashion with a political party,” Giles told the Deseret News in a previous interview.

Approximately 442,000 Latter-day Saints live in Arizona, representing about 6% of the state’s population, ABC News said — an important demographic in a state where Hobbs won the 2022 election by only 17,000 votes.

Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, Mesa and Gilbert, is particularly significant.

It has the largest concentration of Latter-day Saints outside Utah, and is home to three temples: Mesa, Phoenix and Gilbert, with more on the way.

Of Arizona’s nine Congressional Districts, early returns showed only one staying red, while all others looked likely to flip or remain blue. In Biggs’ 5th District, Democratic candidate Elizabeth Lee led against Republican candidate Mark Lamb late Tuesday.