Katie Hobbs

Still at square one: Republican lawmakers are finally anteing up in the budget stalemate with Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. Republican Sen. John Kavanagh tells Capitol Media Services’ Bob Christie that they plan to send her a budget — backed by only Republicans — this week. It will almost certainly get vetoed. “We don’t negotiate with the Democrat legislators and make compromises and then go to the Democrat governor and make more compromises,” Kavanagh said. “Besides, this is not a compromise budget.” (April 27, 2026)

DINO-sore spot: The state Senate’s Director Nominations Committee was back in action this week, this time with Republican senators grilling Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ nominee to lead the Arizona National Guard for hours, KJZZ’s Camryn Sanchez reports. Republican Sens. Wendy Rogers and Jake Hoffman accused John Conley of being “quibblistic” and “lawyerly” as Conley fielded questions about the U.S. war on Iran, vaccine mandates in the military and whether the National Guard should support ICE. The committee ended up advancing Hobbs’ nomination, but only after Senate Democrats objected to the contentious lines of the questioning, per the Arizona Mirror’s Caitlin Sievers. “There’s a difference between vetting and being disrespectful jerks, and they were disrespectful jerks,” Sen. Analise Ortiz said. (May 13, 2026)

That post-fight glow: State budget negotiations appear to be wrapping up, and each side is taking a softer tone with the other, Craig Harris reports for 12News. The negotiations have been unfolding behind closed doors as Hobbs and GOP leadership in the state House and Senate hammer out the details. So far, neither side has said publicly what those details might be. GOP budget guru Sen. John Kavanagh says he expects to reach an agreement as early as next week, while Hobbs says it could take a bit longer. The deadline to approve the budget is June 30. “A lot of what we see in the public is political gamesmanship,” Hobbs said. “And we’ve had that before, and we’ve gotten past that and gotten to the table in negotiations, and I feel confident we will do that.” (May 28, 2026)

Historic housing shortage: State lawmakers nixed a bill that would have protected historic neighborhoods from being turned into multifamily housing, per Capitol Media Services’ Bob Christie. Residents of historic neighborhoods were worried their homes would be torn down as cities implement the “middle housing” law that took effect this year to help alleviate the housing shortage. But developers and housing advocates convinced lawmakers to kill the bill, even after the bill’s sponsor GOP Rep. Matt Gress watered it down. Elsewhere in housing legislation, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs signed into law a bill from GOP Sen. Wendy Rogers that would make it easier to remove “squatters” from residential property, per KTAR’s Balin Overstolz McNair. (June 3, 2026)

New election rules: Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a bill into law that was crafted in part to force Pima County to allow observers to watch ballot-counting at more locations. Republican Rep. Alexander Kolodin’s HB2022 also moved up the date of primary elections from the first Tuesday in August to the second-to-last Tuesday in July, making that the permanent primary date after lawmakers temporarily changed it for the 2024 election, per the Republic’s Ray Stern. (February 9, 2026)

No nuclear options: Pima County officials wouldn’t be able to stop nuclear reactors from being built if a bill from Republican Rep. Justin Wilmeth becomes law, the Arizona Mirror’s Jerod MacDonald-Evoy reports. The only step nuclear power companies would have to take at the local level would be a single meeting to get feedback from the public. HB2456 is similar to a bill Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed last year and promotes nuclear tech that experts say isn’t quite ready for prime time. (February 13, 2026)

Voting centers in the crosshairs: The state House approved a bill that would get rid of the voting centers that are widely used in Pima County, KJZZ’s Camryn Sanchez reports. But lawmakers won’t be the ones who decide whether you’re only allowed to vote at your precinct. HCR2016 from Tucson-area Republican Rep. Rachel Keshel is a ballot measure that would go before voters. The vast majority of county election directors in Arizona oppose the measure and Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a similar bill last year, which is likely why Keshel is trying to send it directly to voters. (February 25, 2026)

Adult content could rise in cost: Rep. Nick Kupper’s bill requiring age-verification on adult content websites is pulling a page from the Project 2025 playbook, according to Lookout reporter Tori Gantz. The bill, which Gov. Katie Hobbs signed into law, will require users to provide a form of digital identification or utilize a commercial age verification system that may use either government-issued identification or transactional data, according to the bill. After the Arizona legislative session ends, consumers will have a 90-day free-for-all before they have to prove their identity… or at least their age. (June 12, 2025)

Tighten those belts: State agencies sent their budget requests to Gov. Katie Hobbs, who says they should prepare for a tough financial year, Reagan Priest reports for the Arizona Capitol Times. The big clouds on the horizon are federal funding cuts and dwindling pandemic money. Republican Sen. John Kavanagh says the lack of extra money could simplify life at the Legislature. “It makes it easier,” Kavanagh said. “You can’t argue over nothing.” (September 8, 2025)

Last-ditch attempt: Two GOP lawmakers want to give some “teeth” to oversight of the prison system, but the House didn’t include their plan in last week’s budget bill and Gov. Katie Hobbs is staying mum on whether she supports the idea, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer reports. Now, Sen. Shawnna Bolick and Rep. Walt Blackman are trying to beef up prison oversight in the state budget so officials can deal with complaints raised by the 35,000 inmates in the state prison system, such as poor nutrition and the healthcare problems contended in a long-running federal lawsuit, as well as recent murders, escapes and assaults. (June 13, 2025)

Biggs changes on the horizon: Election-denying Congressman Andy Biggs says if he becomes governor, we’ll have faster election results, lower taxes, and a bunch of conservative laws that Gov. Katie Hobbs has vetoed. Biggs held his first campaign rally over the weekend, teaming up with the folks at Turning Point USA, KJZZ’s Camryn Sanchez reports. (June 3, 2025)

Millions not well spent: Karrin Taylor Robson outraised Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs as the two prepare to square off in the 2026 GOP gubernatorial primary, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer reports based on the latest round of campaign finance reports. But that’s only because Robson loaned herself $2.2 million. Gov. Katie Hobbs pulled in the most actual donations in the reporting period, at $1.3 million, and has $4.7 million cash on hand, compared to Robson’s $876,000 war chest and Biggs’ $437,000. (July 23, 2025)

Welfare millionaires?: Arizona’s Department of Economic Security is cutting about 500 jobs, or roughly 5% of its workforce, thanks to federal grant cuts, ABC15’s Elenee Dao reports. The agency provides services to low-income residents, including SNAP benefits, Medicaid and other programs. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee yesterday approved a bill to cut about $108 million from AHCCCS, the state’s Medicaid program, per KJZZ’s Ben Giles, saying Congress is gonna cut it anyway and lawmakers don’t want people to sign up for AHCCCS then get dropped. And in other Medicaid news, Republican Sen. Janae Shamp claims that as many as 5,000 millionaires are leeching off the state’s medicaid system, AHCCCS, per Capitol scribe Howie Fischer. But she didn’t provide any proof of her claims, citing a report that nobody has seen allegedly conducted by a MAGA organization. Shamp said she forwarded the report to Gov. Katie Hobbs, but Hobbs’ office said it didn’t receive a report. "These are lies and conspiracy theories to justify her party's desperate attempts to slash Medicaid for hard-working Arizonans, no matter the human cost,” gubernatorial spokesman Christian Slater told Fischer. (June 18, 2025)

Hail Mary season: Amid the budget mayhem, state lawmakers sent legislation to Gov. Katie Hobbs’ desk to punish school board members whose districts are placed into receivership after financial trouble, the Capitol Times’ Jakob Thorington reports. HB2610 is a response to the Isaac Elementary School District’s financial mishandling, and it’s retroactive to make sure Isaac’s district leadership gets the boot. Here’s some other last-minute bills lawmakers advanced last week: — The Senate passed the Diamondbacks bill to funnel state and municipal sales taxes into Chase Field with some last-minute changes, per Fourth Estate 48. The bill now caps taxpayer funding at $500 million, but increases that limit 3% annually and takes additional dollars from Chase Field employees’ income taxes. The bill awaits a final House vote. — Republican lawmakers and Hobbs made a deal on an ag-to-urban bill that lets home builders buy water from farmers in Pinal and Maricopa counties as long as the new developments agree to limit how much groundwater they use, Capitol Media Services’ Bob Christie reports. It’s a win for metro Phoenix developers who can’t build because of assured water supplies, but rural Arizona officials feel left in the waterless dust. It also awaits a House vote. — House lawmakers passed a bill to toughen animal cruelty laws, but it’s a watered-down version of the regulations Republican Sen. Shawnna Bolick originally proposed, KJZZ’s Camryn Sanchez writes. The latest version doesn’t require pet owners to provide species-appropriate, edible food and potable water because Republicans said it would hurt farmers with livestock. It now heads to Hobbs’ desk. (June 23, 2025)

Puppies in politics: Gov. Katie Hobbs held puppies at an Arizona Humane Society campus to celebrate a new anti-animal cruelty law that takes effect in September, the Republic’s Stacey Barchenger writes. SB1658 adds failure to provide medical attention to the list of chargeable offenses for animal cruelty, and animal welfare advocates and Republican Sen. Shawnna Bolick fought hard to pass a neutered version of the bill after other Republicans said it could penalize farmers with livestock. (July 9, 2025)

Racism, on the record: Republican Rep. John Gillette went on a racist social media tirade, and when the Arizona Mirror’s Jerod MacDonald-Evoy called him to ask about it, Gillette called Muslims “fucking savages.” On Monday, the state lawmaker criticized Gov. Katie Hobbs for meeting with Islamic leaders two years ago and wrote: “We absolutely do not need a Muslim advisory anything in government.” And before he hung up on MacDonald-Evoy, Gillette said Muslims don’t properly “assimilate” into American culture. (September 10, 2025)

Cutting deals: State lawmakers and Gov. Katie Hobbs are negotiating over the state budget, with a deadline looming at the end of the month, Axios’ Jeremy Duda reports. Also looming over the negotiations are the threat of federal spending cuts and a possible economic downturn, but state officials won’t know how bad it will get until later in the year. In the meantime, Senate Republicans are floating the idea of setting aside $90 million they can use to fund pet projects, with the same amount for House Republicans and Hobbs. Also in the mix is Republican Sen. J.D. Mesnard’s plan to get lawmakers to vote this year on the Prop 123 / school voucher plan that he and other Republicans have been pushing. (June 5, 2025)

Looking for a deal: Gov. Katie Hobbs came up with a compromise proposal for the Arizona Starter Homes Act, one of the biggest pieces of housing legislation in the works right now. She wants to include a provision saying some of the new homes would have to be owned by people who actually live in the house, instead of investors, Capitol Media Services’ Howard Fischer and Bob Christie report. A competing bill from Tucson-area Republican Sen. Vince Leach would have been less restrictive for cities, but it never got a hearing. (March 12, 2025)

Tariff whiplash: Produce distributors in Southern Arizona and the growers they work with in Mexico are trying to make sense of the on-again, off-again tariffs from the Trump administration, the Arizona Daily Star’s Emily Bregel reports. Cross-border commerce is a bipartisan issue in Southern Arizona and both Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and Republican U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani said they would bring the produce industry’s concerns to federal officials. “It’s absolutely awful, anxiety-ridden. You can’t future plan. You can’t even next-week plan,” Nogales seed distributor Sabrina Hallman said. (March 11, 2025)

That’s a wrap: And just like that, Gov. Katie Hobbs has finished signing (and vetoing) her way through the final stack of bills from the 2026 session. Hobbs signed 123 of the more than 200 bills lawmakers sent her in the final week, the Arizona Mirror’s Caitlin Sievers reports. She vetoed another 88 in the year-end legislative flurry, including a bill that would have forced companies to warn customers when the digital movies, shows or games they “buy” aren’t permanent copies, per the Mirror’s Jerod MacDonald-Evoy. The Phoenix New Times has a running list of all Hobbs’ vetoes here. (June 24, 2026)

Politicians helping politicians: Attorney General Kris Mayes won’t prosecute Gov. Katie Hobbs over the scandal involving Sunshine Residential Homes, a contractor that made big donations to Hobbs and then swayed state officials to pay more for group home contracts, Mayes announced Friday. The summary of the AG’s Office findings noted that an actual quid pro quo is incredibly difficult to prove, but the investigation unearthed a few new details, per the Republic’s Stacey Barchenger, who first reported on the shadiness last year, forcing the AG’s investigation. Those new details include that Sunshine Residential gave an additional $150,000 to the governor’s legal defense fund, that Hobbs’ campaign manager Nicole DeMont solicited $50,000 from the company every three months and that Hobbs, her husband and DeMont went to dinner at Sunshine CEO Simon Kottoor’s Scottsdale mansion before Sunshine Residential got its big contract bump. (August 25, 2026)

Bills on the move: Arizona’s legislative pipeline is pumping out bills again, including one to stop HOAs from banning large dogs, per Capitol scribe Howie Fischer. GOP Sen. Jake Hoffman chairs the Senate Government Committee and refused to hear the bill, but Republican Sen. Kevin Payne tacked it onto another bill to get around Hoffman. Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Matt Gress is trying to find a workaround for his plan to protect historic homes, after his bill died in the Senate, Jakob Thorington reports for the Capitol Times. And Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a bill from Senate President Warren Petersen that requires cities and towns to set time frames to speed up issuing licenses or building permits. (June 8, 2026)

That post-fight glow: State budget negotiations appear to be wrapping up, and each side is taking a softer tone with the other, Craig Harris reports for 12News. The negotiations have been unfolding behind closed doors as Hobbs and GOP leadership in the state House and Senate hammer out the details. So far, neither side has said publicly what those details might be. GOP budget guru Sen. John Kavanagh says he expects to reach an agreement as early as next week, while Hobbs says it could take a bit longer. The deadline to approve the budget is June 30. “A lot of what we see in the public is political gamesmanship,” Hobbs said. “And we’ve had that before, and we’ve gotten past that and gotten to the table in negotiations, and I feel confident we will do that.” (May 28, 2026)

Way to stand your ground: Gov. Katie Hobbs threw Attorney General Kris Mayes under the bus for her comments last week that Arizonans have a right to protect themselves under Arizona’s Republican-backed Stand Your Ground laws, if armed gunmen who don’t identify themselves as federal agents break into their homes. Hobbs called the comments “inappropriate” and urged Mayes to retract them, per the Republic’s Stacey Barchenger. The governor’s rebuke came on the same day that legislative Democrats launched a campaign to defend Mayes and Republicans in the state Senate passed a resolution to condemn Mayes and urge her to resign. (January 30, 2026)

Somebody call Dateline: For the moment, Arizona’s gubernatorial race is all about sexual predators. Allies of Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs say her Republican rival, U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, voted to protect child predators, per Dennis Welch at AZFamily. The Democratic Governors Association pointed to Biggs’ votes as a state lawmaker in 2007 against a bill to increase criminal penalties for child sex predators. And also in 2025 when the congressman voted against releasing the Epstein files. Biggs, in turn, said Hobbs vetoed bills that would have blocked anyone convicted of a sexual offense with a minor from playing high school sports. Meanwhile, a new poll (for whatever polls are worth this far out, or ever) showed Hobbs up by 13 points in the race, including a huge lead among independents. Finally, Politico reports Freedom Caucus members like Biggs are having a rough time in races across the country. (August 21, 2026)

Torched and standing alone: Heading into her final year as governor, Gov. Katie Hobbs still has eight unconfirmed agency directors, thanks in large part to Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman, who chairs the committee in charge of vetting her cabinet picks, Reagan Priest reports for the Capitol Times. Of the eight unconfirmed directors that will likely face confirmation hearings this year, seven are the governor’s second choice for their respective positions. But one consultant noted that Hobbs hasn’t exactly stood up for her nominees as they stared down Hoffman’s committee. “When (Dr. Theresa Cullen) got eviscerated at (the committee hearing), she walked to her car alone,” the consultant told the Capitol Times. “… This woman just got f***ing torched, wrongly or rightly, she got torched and there was no one there to go, ‘Hey, you did fine, these people are just a**holes,’ whatever you say to someone who just got torched.” (January 8, 2026)

Money can’t buy everything: After pumping $2 million of her own money into her bid to be Arizona’s next governor, Karrin Taylor Robson suspended her campaign on Thursday, saying “we cannot afford a divisive Republican primary.” Robson launched her campaign a year ago to unseat Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. But President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Robson didn’t deter other Republican candidates, like U.S. Reps. Andy Biggs and David Schweikert, from joining the race. (Plus, after Biggs jumped in, Trump endorsed him, too.) Now, the race for the GOP nomination boils down to the more traditional GOP candidate, Schweikert, versus the Turning Point USA-backed Biggs. (February 13, 2026)

Announcing the announcement: Arizona House Speaker Steve Montenegro and Senate President Warren Petersen announced they’re planning to release their budget proposal on Tuesday morning. They sent out a press release and filmed a video of themselves talking for nearly two minutes without giving any concrete details about their proposal. But they do say it “does not rely on gimmicks,” delivers “one of the largest tax cuts in state history,” and has enough votes to pass both the House and Senate (which isn’t exactly hard because the GOP controls both chambers). It’s a lot of puffery for a starting point in negotiations that Hobbs is sure to veto. But with that opening salvo, Hobbs says she’s ready to lift the moratorium she put on signing bills into law, per Capitol scribe Howie Fischer. Still, Hobbs says just because she is no longer going to veto every bill that comes across her desk, that doesn’t mean she’s going to stop vetoing bills altogether. “They're making it real easy to do that,” Hobbs said, by sending her bills they know she won't sign. (April 28, 2026)

Unborn babies on the brain: Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee passed a trio of bills that would treat unborn fetuses more like post-birth people, Capitol Media Services’ Howie Fischer reports. One would include the unborn as murder victims who died during separate crimes, like robberies, another would require fathers to pay child support before birth, and the last would require anyone who witnesses an already illegal “partial-birth” abortion to report it. Democrats opposed the measures on the grounds that giving person-like status to embryos and fetuses could be a sneaky way to establishing fetal personhood. And, of course, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs is likely to veto them all if they make it to her desk.“I’m pro life, and so is God,” Republican Rep. Lupe Diaz said during the hearing. (January 28, 2026)

Sharpening their knives: Now that it’s looking like U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs is going to win the GOP nomination for governor, Hobbs and Biggs are testing out their arguments for the general election, per KTAR’s David Iversen. Hobbs says Biggs hasn’t accomplished much in his political career and he’s often a fringe “no” vote on bipartisan bills in Congress. Biggs says his record in the Arizona Senate and Congress shows he isn’t too partisan to win a statewide race in Arizona. He gave the examples of working with former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (a Democrat who went independent) and former U.S. Sen. John McCain (a Republican), as well as collaborating with Democratic U.S. Reps. Jerry Nadler and Pramila Jayapal. (July 13, 2026)

Welcome back to budget season: Arizona’s Democratic governor and GOP legislative leaders struck an amicable tone as they started negotiating the state budget. Just kidding. It’s the same slugfest as last year. Gov. Katie Hobbs is fed up and said she won’t negotiate on the budget until GOP leaders like Senate President Warren Petersen publicly release their own budget plan, Caitlin Sievers reports for the Arizona Mirror. Petersen and House Speaker Steve Montenegro accused Hobbs of throwing a “temper tantrum,” while Hobbs said Republicans were “unserious.” A big sticking point is Prop 123, a decade-old, voter-approved measure that helps fund public schools. Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman said if Republicans support Hobbs’ plan for Prop 123, they’d essentially be “underwriting the Hobbs’ re-election campaign.” (March 23, 2026)

Nonpartisan naming: Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a bill on Friday that would have renamed a section of Loop 202 after slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the Arizona Mirror’s Caitlin Sievers. Hobbs called Kirk’s assassination a “tragic and horrifying act of violence,” but said naming government roadways should “remain nonpartisan.” Senate President Warren Petersen, the bill’s sponsor, said Hobbs “broke with a long-standing Arizona tradition of recognizing impact over politics,” and he pointed out one section of Loop 202 is already named after former Democratic Congressman Ed Pastor. Now we’re watching if she’ll also veto the bill creating monuments to Kirk and assassinated investigative journalist Don Bolles, which we expect to get a vote in the House this week. (March 30, 2026)

Taxing the bad guys: Hobbs is pitching taxes on two of Arizona’s biggest villains — short-term rentals and data centers — to pay for new programs in a tight budget year. During her Capitol press rounds last week, Hobbs proposed getting rid of current data center tax exemptions while creating a data center water-use fee to fund a new Colorado River Protection Fund. But she wants $30 million in the next state budget to jumpstart the fund, the Republic’s Stacey Barchenger reports. The governor also previewed her plans for a $3.50 nightly fee for short-term rental stays to fund the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, plus a pooled bond fund for housing development. (January 12, 2026)

The heat is on: In the race to be Republicans’ nominee for governor, U.S. Rep. David Schweikert is going heavy on the attack against fellow congressman Andy Biggs — and the Maricopa County GOP isn’t happy about it, Stacey Barchenger reports for the Republic. In a split 17-12 vote, the county’s Republican committee formally condemned Schweikert over mailers that document Biggs’ history of mingling with white supremacists. While the committee called for a focus on defeating Gov. Katie Hobbs in November, Schweikert’s campaign adviser Chris Baker said his boss wouldn’t back down from calling out Biggs. (April 9, 2026)

Final stages: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is gearing up to interview Gov. Katie Hobbs as part of a two-year-long investigation of a state contractor with ties to Hobbs that got a pay raise from state agencies, the Republic’s Stacey Barchenger reports. Hobbs’ office says there is no evidence linking her to the terms of the contract with Sunshine Residential Homes, a company that made big contributions to the Arizona Democratic Party and Hobbs’ inaugural fund. (April 28, 2026)

A new party line: Newly minted lieutenant governor candidate John Giles is introducing himself to the statewide electorate, including explaining how he’s balancing his pro-life views as a former Republican with his support of a constitutional amendment that permits abortion, per Capitol scribe Howie Fischer. The former mayor of Mesa called the GOP a “lost cause” and is now running alongside Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs as she seeks reelection. Among the other touchy political issues he discussed with reporters was his support for school choice (but he wants guardrails on the voucher program) and which bathrooms transgender people should use (he says privacy concerns are reasonable, but might be overblown). (August 19, 2026)

Gloating won’t help: When lawmakers and Gov. Katie Hobbs swept opioid settlement funds from Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office to fill a void they’d created in the state budget two years ago, Mayes called it illegal and sued. A judge said not so fast, since it wasn’t exactly clear how the state planned to use those swept funds. Now, a new report from the Auditor General’s Office shows the state isn’t keeping proper records to show the swept funds were being used for proper purposes, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer reports. If Arizona improperly uses the funds — which lawmakers are attempting to sweep again this year — it could put more than $1 billion that the state received in the settlement in jeopardy. “Told you so,” Mayes said of the report. (May 22, 2026)

The Strait of Your Moves: The spike in gas prices that followed the Trump administration’s attack on Iran is hitting the Arizona governor’s race, as well as state budget talks, Stacey Barchenger reports for the Republic. To deal with the higher prices, Gov. Katie Hobbs asked for a waiver of strict requirements for fuel blends and she said she’s willing to waive the gas tax (which funds basically all the road maintenance in Arizona). But a tax holiday needs approval from state lawmakers, and that could be tricky since GOP leadership and Hobbs already locked horns over the state budget. In the race for the governor’s office, Hobbs’ GOP rival, U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, said her efforts were too little too late, and he brought up a bill Hobbs supported as a legislator in 2018 that would have raised the state gas tax. The fact that Hobbs is taking heat for Trump bombing Iran didn’t sit well with her spokesman Christian Slater. (March 31, 2026)

Some records should stay secret: Secretary of State Adrian Fontes’ office accidentally released names, phone numbers and addresses of hundreds of voters on a protected voter list to political and consumer data firms, Sasha Hupka reports for Votebeat. The protected voter list includes survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and more. The screwup started in February 2024, and the data was included in responses to public records requests for about nine months until the error was flagged and fixed. The office blamed an employee who was fired afterwards. This isn’t the first time names in the protected database have been made public — back in 2020, during then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ tenure, a few dozen names were released to political parties. (June 2, 2026)

Inch by inch: In yet another sign that GOP leadership in the state Legislature are getting closer to a budget deal with Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, Senate President Warren Petersen said “we’re probably 97% of the way there,” per KJZZ’s Wayne Schutsky. Last week, Republican Sen. TJ Shope said he expects a deal to be reached after Memorial Day weekend, while Petersen predicted “early June.” (May 21, 2026)

Mayes v. Grok: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is going after Twitter and it’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, for creating and distributing nonconsensual, sexual images, some of which may depict children, the Republic’s Rey Covarrubias, Jr. reports. Twitter executives restricted Grok from generating deepfake porn last week, but only after thousands of heinous images spread across the platform. (January 20, 2026)

Worst-case scenarios: Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is drawing up plans for responding if President Donald Trump tries to cancel the November elections, 12News’ Joe Dana reports. At a forum in Phoenix last week, Fontes said “the bad guys are in the castle” and he’s been working with Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes on a “whole bunch of scenarios” to “preserve our democracy.” (January 21, 2026)

Pushing him toward the door: After a poll showed Republican U.S. Rep. David Schweikert was way behind Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs in the GOP primary for governor, and campaign finance reports showed Schweikert was nearly out of money, Petersen called for Schweikert to drop out of the race. Both GOP candidates trail Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs by a wide margin. She’s sitting on $7.2 million, while Biggs has about $1.1 million and Schweikert has $86,000, the Arizona Mirror’s Jim Small reports. (April 20, 2026)

Time to turn off your TVs: The actual candidates for public office are busy putting out the first round of campaign ads. Gov. Katie Hobbs is highlighting her tough childhood when her “parents didn’t make a lot of money” and her days as an Uber driver, while Republican gubernatorial hopeful Andy Biggs is blaming Hobbs for rising gas prices and Republican Warren Petersen is hyping up his endorsement by President Donald Trump in the race to get the GOP nomination for attorney general. (May 28, 2026)

Bigg ambitions: Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs could hang onto his congressional seat for the rest of his life, he told the Republic’s “the Gaggle” podcast, but Arizona is at a political “tipping point” that inspired him to try to unseat Gov. Katie Hobbs this year. To make the state more affordable, Biggs called for further lowering state income taxes, rolling back water-related building moratoriums and selling more state trust land. And while more than 65 people have reached out to be his lieutenant governor, Biggs said he’s still weighing his options. (May 7, 2026)

Beale bill blocked: Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed HB2873, legislation that was designed to benefit Beale Infrastructure by letting referendum organizers withdraw petitions seeking to put Marana’s data center fight before voters. Hobbs said she vetoed the bill “because it would introduce uncertainty and confusion into ongoing litigation on the subject matter,” but a Pima County Superior Court judge killed the entire referendum in a separate court case. (June 23, 2026)