In September 2018, as credible allegations of sexual assault against Brett Kavanaugh threatened to sink his Supreme Court nomination, Senate Republicans hired career prosecutor Rachel Mitchell to turn things around. Mitchell eagerly obliged.

After publicly interrogating Kavanaughs accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, Mitchell wrote in a report that no reasonable prosecutor would bring this case based on the evidence. This wasnt a criminal case, but having a special victims division prosecutor treat it as a potential one only to discount it as lacking evidence was apparently enough for several fence-sitting senators. Kavanaugh was confirmed 50-48.

Kavanaughs ascension to the Supreme Court, followed by that of anti-abortion judge Amy Coney Barrett, allowed the conservative justices to overturn Roe v. Wade last month , ending the constitutional right to abortion. As a result, abortion is now illegal or will soon be illegal in about half of all states including in Arizona, where Mitchell is now the interim top prosecutor in the states most populous county.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors appointed Mitchell as interim county attorney in April after her predecessor resigned, which triggered a special election to fill the role for the remainder of her term. The outcome of the race will determine whether abortion will be prosecuted as a crime in Maricopa County, home to the third-largest public prosecutorial agency in the country and half of Arizona residents. Mitchell is up against one other candidate for the Republican nomination in August, the winner of which will face Democrat Julie Gunnigle in November. Gunnigle is the only candidate in the race who has pledged not to enforce abortion bans.