The move by Pence to endorse Robson is rightly understood then not as simply a rejection of a Trump-backed pick, but an attempt to affirm that the 2020 election was, in fact, free and fair. Pence and Trump are scheduled to hold dueling rallies on behalf of their preferred candidates in the state on Friday. 

That's an interesting take, and reasonably could be a correct one. This is the AZ governor's race. Trump endorsed another person. And as Noodles says Pence did the same thing in Georgia, endorsing and campaigning with Brian Kemp against Trump-backed former senator David Perdue. Kemp won by 52 points. Now, that's not going to happen in Hairy Boner. The evidence that outsiders endorsements in local races matter is exceedingly thin historically. Local voters decide on local issues and local candidates, not on those favored by national leaders, and Kari Lake, Trump's gal in AZ, is still the favorite. But maybe history is bunk these days. It was Trump who injected himself first in the Georgia races and in Arizona, the states that most infuriated him in 2020. Trump's attacks on Georgia's Republicans did contribute to Kemp's astounding margin, to Brad Raffensperger's eighteen-point demolition of Trump's candidate, sitting congressman Jody Hice, and to the elections of Democrats Ralph Warnock and Jon Ossof as United States senators. Clearly (to me) Trump's meddling had a boomerang effect (and his endorsement of former employee Herschel Walker against Warnock this year will boomerang) in Georgia. 

It reasonably may be so that the Arizona governor's race is "rightly understood" as local voters taking umbrage at Trump's proven lies that they let their votes for president be "stolen."