Kris Mayes has been Arizona's attorney general since January 2023, after winning the 2022 election by 280 votes. She served on the Arizona Corporation Commission from 2003 to 2011 and worked as a journalist before going into law and politics. Her office indicted 18 people over the 2020 "fake electors" scheme; that case is now stalled in court.
Prominent Endorsements
Arizona ListSierra ClubUFCW 99
Candidate resources
Self-reported endorsements
- Law Enforcement Leaders and Prosecutors: Gary Restaino
- Former Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano
- Former Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard
- Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway
- Apache County Sheriff Joseph Dedman Jr
- retired South Tucson Police Chief Sixto Molina
- retired Tucson Police Department Narcotics Commander John Leavitt
- retired Tucson police officer Chris Kent Former United States Attorney for the District of Arizona
- Former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley
- Former Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall
- Former Chief Criminal Deputy Pima County Attorney & Conviction Integrity Unit Chief Rick Unklesbay
- Former Criminal Division Chief, Tucson United States Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona Rui Wang
- Former Appellate Division Chief, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona Caitlin Noel
- Former Arizona Attorney General Chief Deputy and Special Counsel Tim Nelson
- Former Arizona Attorney General Criminal Division Chief Counsel Donald Conrad
- Former Chief Criminal Deputy, Pima County Attorney’s Office David Berkman
- Former Assistant United States Attorney, District of Arizona Andy Stone
- Former Assistant United States Attorney, District of Arizona Jacqueline Schesnol
- Former Chief Deputy Pima County Attorney Amelia Cramer
- Former Prosecutor, Maricopa County Attorney’s Office Melissa Ho
- Labor Organizations: Teamsters
- American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
- United Food & Commercial Workers Local 99 (UFCW)
- Arizona Education Association (AEA)
- AFSCME
- Unite Here
- Worker Power
- Boilermakers
- Ironworkers Local 75
- Communication Workers of America (CWA)
- Retired Americans International
- Association of Fire Fighters
- Professional Fire Fighters of Arizona
- Arizona State Building & Construction Trades Council
- International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAM)
- Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 1184 (LIUNA)
- United Auto Workers (UAW)
- Arizona State Association of Letter Carriers (ASALC)
- Issue Organizations: Emily's List
- Reproductive Freedom for All
- Sierra Club
- LGBTQ+ Victory Fund
- LPAC
- Moms Fed Up
- End Citizens United
- Jewish Democratic Council of America
- Fight Corporate Monopolies
- Democrats of the Red Rock
- Equality Arizona
- Jane Fonda Climate PAC
- Giffords PAC
- National Women's Political Caucus
- Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona
- Human Rights Campaign PAC
- Committee to Protect Health Care
- NRDC Action Fund
- Keep Arizona Blue
- Arizona College Democrats
- UA College Democrats
- ASU College Democrats
Candidate Questionnaire
Top Issues
Keeping Arizonans safe, tackling corporate abuse and rising costs, and defending the rights and freedoms of every Arizona resident are my top three priorities. As Arizona’s top law enforcement officer, I will continue to prosecute drug smugglers, fraudsters, and scammers. I have worked with law enforcement across the state to seize 27 million fentanyl pills—the most seized by any Attorney General. I will keep fighting for Arizona consumers and working families. I sued nine major landlords for colluding to drive up rents, challenged health-care practices that increase costs, fought unfair utility rate hikes, and blocked the Kroger-Albertsons merger to prevent higher grocery prices and food deserts. I will continue holding corporations accountable when they break the law or take advantage of Arizona families. I will defend Arizonans’ fundamental rights and protect our elections, personal data, reproductive freedom.
Professional Experience
- Journalist
- Governor Napolitano’s Administration
- Corporation Commissioner and Board Chair
- ASU Law Professor - Energy Law
- Attorney General of Arizona
Education
- BA in Political Science from ASU
- Master of Public Administration Columbia University
- JD from ASU Law
Political Offices
- Arizona Corporation Commission and Arizona Attorney General
Political Organizations
- Arizona Democratic Party, Arizona Republican Party (Left in 2019)
Debate
In Other News
Local control, from the Capitol: Republican state Rep. Quang Nguyen wants Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes to investigate the City of Tucson’s ordinance that blocks ICE agents from operating on city property, along with a similar ordinance in Phoenix, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer reports. Nguyen says state law blocks cities from limiting the enforcement of federal immigration laws, which isn’t just a complaint that’ll go away on its own. State law also says legislators can force the AG to investigate local governments, and if Mayes finds Tucson broke the law, it could lose 10% of it’s state-shared revenue. (April 2, 2026)
2026-04-02
Doubling down: Republican state lawmakers say Pima County officials broke the law by approving a policy that prevents federal immigration agents from working on county property without a judicial warrant, Gloria Rebecca Gomez reports for the Arizona Mirror. Senate leaders filed their complaint with Attorney General Kris Mayes and asked for an investigation. Senate President Warren Petersen said he’s seeing “Democrat-run local governments put radical political agendas ahead of public safety.” Their complaint comes a week after Republican Rep. Quang Nguyen asked Mayes to investigate the City of Tucson for a similar policy. (April 8, 2026)
2026-04-08
A rogues gallery: All those lawsuits filed by Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes ginned up an array of political adversaries who are now bankrolling ads for Republican Senate President Warren Petersen as he tries to unseat Mayes in November, the Arizona Mirror’s Jerod MacDonald-Evoy reports. The lineup of donors to Restore Order Arizona — the PAC behind the ads — includes private prison operator GEO Group, mobile home operator BoaVida Group, vaping companies, and other businesses that feel they’d get a better deal if Mayes were out of office. (June 4, 2026)
2026-06-04
Calling all recorders: The election-denying crowd is gaining steam again and Democratic officials at the Capitol are warning county officials not to hand over unredacted voter files to the Trump administration, Sasha Hupka reports for Votebeat. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, both Democrats, sent a letter to county recorders saying they should decline “any such illegal demands.” Their letter came shortly after Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen said he’d given the FBI the data gathered by the Cyber Ninjas as they tried to debunk the 2020 election results in Maricopa County. (March 12, 2026)
2026-03-12
The Wright choice?: Fountain Hills picked controversial right-wing attorney Jennifer Wright as its new contract attorney — on an $18,000 per month contract, per the Republic’s Lauren De Young. Wright represented Rep. Abe Hamadeh in his 2023 election lawsuit challenging Kris Mayes for the Attorney General spot that he lost (both the election and the lawsuit), and she’s made an interesting digital footprint for herself. (June 23, 2025)
2025-06-23
At least the charges are real: Former Republican Rep. Austin Smith, an election denier, was charged with 14 felony and misdemeanor counts over allegations he forged nomination signatures in his reelection bid last year, Attorney General Kris Mayes announced yesterday. Smith served one term representing Surprise-area Legislative District 29 and dropped his reelection campaign after Democrats challenged his signatures. Smith reportedly left his job at Turning Point after the fake signature allegations, but KJZZ’s Wayne Schutsky found his LinkedIn page, which suggests he returned to the job this year. (June 11, 2025)
2025-06-11
Vowing to fight: As the DACA program hits its 14th anniversary amid a crackdown by the Trump administration, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes told Dreamers — immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children without the proper paperwork, including 18,000 in Arizona who got DACA protections and work permits — that she will “fight for your rights, fight for your families,” Gloria Rebecca Gomez reports for the Arizona Mirror. The Trump administration’s slow strangling of the DACA program, including several policies Mayes has sued to stop, is making life harder for hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients who are now having trouble renewing their status in the program and can no longer get health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, to name just a few of the hurdles raised by Trump officials over the past two years. (June 17, 2026)
2026-06-17
Just to clarify: Arizona’s Attorney General Kris Mayes and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes are warning county elections officials not to turn over confidential voter information to the Trump administration, per Capitol scribe Howie Fischer. They wrote a letter to county recorders saying there is a lawsuit underway to determine whether the U.S. Department of Justice has a legal right to request unredacted voter information. At the same time, Mayes and Fontes say Trump officials may use subpoenas — like they did with Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen last week — to get information before a judge rules on the lawsuit. “We reiterate our offices' position here just in case you may be contemplating disclosure,” Mayes and Fontes wrote to county recorders. "We write to inform you that doing so would violate both federal and state law.'’ (March 12, 2026)
2026-03-12
Welcome back to election season: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed criminal charges against Kalshi for allowing Arizonans to bet on pretty much anything, including the 2026 and 2028 elections. More than a dozen other states are suing Kalshi, but Arizona is the first to actually file charges. Petersen, who’s running against Mayes for the AG’s Office this year, said he was “troubled” by her decision to go after Kalshi, which prompted a little election-season sniping from Mayes. (March 23, 2026)
2026-03-23
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)
2026-08-25
Fondomonte executives say new groundwater regulations make the “public nuisance” lawsuit from Attorney General Kris Mayes a moot point (Camryn Sanchez / KJZZ). (March 26, 2026)
2026-03-26
Council pay probe: Glendale city officials are resisting Mayes’ investigation into whether the city improperly increased city council members’ pay without voter approval, the Republic’s Elena Santa Cruz reports. The dispute centers on a city policy that lets council members collect a $900 monthly stipend plus a vehicle allowance, worth a combined $16,000 a year. Former (and now reinstated, pending appeal) Council member Lupe Conchas alleged his colleagues tried to expel him for criticizing the policy, and now, City Attorney Michael Bailey told the Attorney General’s Office it doesn’t have authority to investigate the city’s pay plan. (August 26, 2026)
2026-08-26
Scroll toll: Arizona has $223 million on the way after Attorney General Kris Mayes joined a multistate lawsuit to secure a $17.1 billion settlement from Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, for using addictive features that harmed kids’ mental health, Mayes’ office announced. Meta is also required to implement safety measures such as daily time limits for minors and age-appropriate content controls. (August 27, 2026)
2026-08-27
Back-to-school shopping: Attorney General Kris Mayes called it quits in her legal battle to require families using school vouchers to document how each of their purchases is educational, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer reports. Her settlement with the Goldwater Institute created a relatively less strict system that instructs parents to list the courses for which their students need the supplies. But broader ESA reforms could still land on the November ballot after education groups filed paperwork for a measure that would cap vouchers based on income and ban certain purchases. (July 9, 2026)
2026-07-09
Eggs-actly as they planned: Remember all the hullabaloo about the price of eggs during the 2024 presidential election? Well, three egg producers — including Hickman’s Egg Ranch in Arizona — agreed to pay $3.3 million and donate 53 million eggs to food banks to settle allegations that they “secretly communicated” with each other in an “illegal price-fixing” scheme, Attorney General Kris Mayes announced. (July 6, 2026)
2026-07-06
Need more power (and money)!: APS tucked a plan to raise electric bills every year deep inside a new 2,000-page proposal to state regulators, per ABC15’s Anne Ryman. Hearings begin this week on APS’ request, which is already facing stiff headwinds from Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, who called it “blatant corporate greed.” Mayes is one of at least six attorneys general who are pushing back on utility rate increases they believe are tied to the boom in the artificial intelligence industry, per the Associated Press. (May 19, 2026)
2026-05-19
Tariff tantrum: The U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s tariffs after a coalition of attorneys general, including AG Kris Mayes, sued. Mayes and other Democratic officials were quick to celebrate the 6-3 decision from the majority-Republican court, with Mayes calling the tariffs “an illegal tax on American families and businesses.” But Trump was just as quick to say he’d impose a new set of tariffs, while ranting about “unpatriotic” Supreme Court justices who had been “swayed by foreign interests.” (February 23, 2026)
2026-02-23
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)
2026-01-30
What, no jail time?: The Sackler family is now officially on the hook for $7.4 billion, including $108 million for Arizona, KGUN’s Don Davis reports. The owners of Purdue Pharma basically fast-tracked the country’s opioid crisis by pushing OxyContin and lying about how addictive it was. “These settlement dollars can never undo the damage done to countless Arizona families because of the Sacklers’ deception and reckless disregard for the health and safety of our communities,” Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said. “But they can help fund the treatment and recovery resources that so many Arizonans still desperately need.” (May 5, 2026)
2026-05-05
The fraudit never ended: Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Attorney General Kris Mayes — who also happens to be the person Petersen is trying to unseat in this year’s election. Petersen says Mayes and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes may have obstructed justice and tampered with witnesses when they told county recorders not to comply with grand jury subpoenas for private voter records. Mayes also asked Petersen whether he turned over private information when he released records from the Cyber Ninjas’ “fraudit” of the 2020 election to the U.S. Attorney’s Office last month. Yesterday, Fontes called Petersen’s referral to the U.S. Attorney’s Office “political theater” and Mayes said Petersen was “desperately seeking favor from a president who cannot accept that he lost his re-election in 2020 fair and square.” (April 8, 2026)
2026-04-08
What a nuisance: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes says the creation of an active management area in La Paz County is a “welcome step,” but it won’t be enough to stop a “specific, alleged wrongdoer” like Fondomonte. Mayes sued the megafarm last year, claiming Fondomonte’s pumping of groundwater for alfalfa was a public nuisance. (February 5, 2026)
2026-02-05
A different type of protest: Attorney General Kris Mayes is considering whether to use the state’s “public nuisance” laws to stop ICE from establishing a detention center in a warehouse in Surprise, KJZZ’s Wayne Schutsky reports. It’s a tactic she’s used against big groundwater users and now she’s asking federal officials how the detention center will affect the surrounding area, including water usage and light pollution. (February 11, 2026)
2026-02-11
Lots of legal stuff isn’t in the Constitution: Republican attorney general candidate Warren Petersen told DACA recipients to “be ready to be deported,” if he becomes AG, the Mirror’s Gloria Rebecca Gomez reports. While DACA recipients have temporary legal status under an Obama-era rule, Petersen noted that the program is “found nowhere in the Constitution.” AG Kris Mayes, who Petersen hopes to challenge if he can beat Rodney Glassman in the GOP primary election, called the comment “disqualifying.” (June 22, 2026)
2026-06-22
Not as privileged as you think: The Arizona Court of Appeals says Attorney General Kris Mayes acted illegally when she withheld information about communications with the group that helped her in the “fake electors” case, per Capitol scribe Howie Fischer. The upshot of the court’s ruling is that Mayes will have to provide a detailed description of the documents she withheld to Judicial Watch and the trial judge, who would then decide whether the documents were legitimately withheld. (May 1, 2026)
2026-05-01
The con that never ends: The election-denying supervisors in Cochise County appear to be playing the long game as they try to delay the prosecution of Supervisor Tom Crosby until after the November elections, when Attorney General Kris Mayes is up for re-election, Sasha Hupka reports for Votebeat. In the meantime, they were so inspired by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s presence at the raid of an elections office in Atlanta that they sent her a letter asking her to review the facilities where vote tabulators are tested. (March 5, 2026)
2026-03-05
Weighing in: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes sided with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in an elections dispute with Recorder Justin Heap, the Republic’s Ronald J. Hansen reports. The supervisors signed off on using ballot drop boxes, but Heap says his office selects early voting locations and anyone who collects ballots from the drop boxes would be guilty of ballot harvesting. Mayes says the supervisors are following the law and drop boxes are not legally considered early voting locations. “Indeed, if Recorder Heap’s counsel were correct, every mailbox in the state would be an early voting location, and every mail carrier could be accused of illegally harvesting ballots,” Mayes wrote. (May 26, 2026)
2026-05-26
Recipe for disaster: Arizona’s “Stand Your Ground” law could lead to deadly encounters if ICE and Border Patrol squads come here, Attorney General Kris Mayes told 12News’ Brahm Resnik. That law allows people to use guns if they believe their lives are in danger, which makes Arizona “very, very different from almost every other state where this (ICE) buildup is happening,” Mayes said. She didn’t condone using violence, but she was concerned about masked, armed agents without uniforms and driving unmarked vehicles, as ICE and Border Patrol have done elsewhere, trying to arrest an Arizonan who’s packing heat. She also said she’d prosecute ICE agents who break Arizona law. (January 22, 2026)
2026-01-22
Rental market renegades: Mayes announced that she and four counterparts from other states reached a settlement with apartment-listing websites Zillow and Redfin for an alleged anticompetitive scheme, 12News’ Gabe Trujillo reports. According to prosecutors, Zillow paid Redfin $100 million in 2025 for the latter to stop advertising multifamily rental units and, instead, refer customers to Zillow. The two companies are blocked from making any such deals in the future and will pay $2 million to a coalition of five states and the Federal Trade Commission. (August 26, 2026)
2026-08-26
Bring back the movies: Attorney General Kris Mayes joined 11 states in suing to block Paramount from buying Warner Bros. Discovery, per States Newsroom. The states argue the $110 billion merger would violate the Clayton Act, a federal anti-monopoly law. While the lawsuit focuses on how the merger could reduce competition among movie studios, it would also put the billionaire Ellison family in charge of the parent company of CNN, months after the Ellisons bought the parent company of CBS News. (July 15, 2026)
2026-07-15
Keep calm and mail on: Secretary of State Adrian Fontes reassured voters they can continue to vote by mail after the U.S. Supreme Court removed a legal roadblock to President Donald Trump’s executive order to change mail-in ballot rules, per the Capitol Times’ Carsten Oyer. Trump directed the U.S. Postal Service in March to develop the new ballot rules, including requiring the Department of Homeland Security to compile lists of eligible U.S. citizen voters for state election officials. Attorney General Kris Mayes joined 22 other states in suing to stop the order, but the Supreme Court didn’t rule on whether it was legal — only that a lower court lacked jurisdiction to block it. There’s still a separate injunction on the executive order thanks to a lawsuit by the League of Women Voters. (August 26, 2026)
2026-08-26
Not real cops: Mayes said she was ready to tangle with the Trump administration, but on a different front, Amelia Moore reports for KJZZ. During a march on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Phoenix, Mayes said she “will protect all of our residents” if the Trump administration’s mass deportation program comes to Arizona. “I don’t believe ICE is a real law enforcement agency, it is not a professionalized law enforcement agency.” Mayes said. “I am very concerned about it, but we will remain vigilant.” (January 21, 2026)
2026-01-21
Pumping the brakes: Federal officials put a stop work order on the warehouse in Surprise that ICE wants to turn into an immigration detention center, per Project Salt Box, a nonprofit that tracks the $38 billion planned network of detention centers. The stop work order was posted on a government procurement website a few days before Mayes announced she was suing to stop the detention center from opening, on the grounds that federal officials didn’t follow required environmental reviews, the warehouse wouldn’t be appropriate to house immigrants and it could overwhelm the city’s wastewater system, as the New Times’ Morgan Fischer reported last week. (April 28, 2026)
2026-04-28
No more nuisances: The state’s “public nuisance” laws have become a go-to tool for Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. She’s used them to net a $11 million settlement from Riverview Dairy in Cochise County for pumping groundwater and she’s now considering using them to block an ICE detention center in Surprise and a recycling plant in Benson. But Republican Rep. Lupe Diaz, whose district includes Benson, is trying to rein in her authority to use public nuisance laws with a trio of bills, Stacey Barchenger reports for the Republic. "They're an obvious attempt to kneecap my office and our ability to protect Arizonans using nuisance law," Mayes said. "It's actually stunning and unbelievable that Lupe Diaz would be the one offering this legislation, given that its his community that we have tried to protect most with nuisance law.” (February 13, 2026)
2026-02-13
Taking it to court: Arizona’s political scene has turned into its own legal drama. Joseph Chaplik, a former Republican state lawmaker who’s running in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, filed a defamation lawsuit against the Conservatives for Effective Government super PAC for a political sign that used an AI-generated image of him and an advertisement he says misrepresented his role in a child pornography bill, Morgan Fischer reports for the New Times. Also, backers of the Protect Education Act are suing over the Republican-approved language that will appear on the ballot, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer reports. The description of the act “misrepresents the initiative’s provisions” and casts the measure “in the worst possible light,” a lawyer for the groups backing the measure said. And a judge said Republican lawmakers can defend a voter-approved border security law if Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes won’t. Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Steve Montenegro said they’ll defend Prop 314, which goes into effect this week, from an ACLU lawsuit claiming the law would lead to rampant racial profiling. (July 17, 2026)
2026-07-17
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)
2026-04-28
Damage control: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes’ comments about the likelihood of masked federal agents having violent encounters with Arizona gun owners continue to stir the political pot. After her office’s law enforcement liaison resigned and police groups criticized her comments as reckless, Mayes put out a three-minute video directly addressing law enforcement officers, saying “you will always have my full support,” and calling out “right-wing media” for mischaracterizing what she said. (January 27, 2026)
2026-01-27
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)
2026-05-22
Horne hedges his bets: Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne is sending suspected cases of fraud in the school voucher system to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, not just the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, Shira Tanzer reports for KTAR. Horne says AG Kris Mayes wasn’t prosecuting cases he thought were “outrageously criminal.” Horne doesn’t have the best track record on tracking voucher fraud himself. He put in place a policy to auto-approve millions of dollars worth of purchases, which led to families spending $7 million on Lego sets, as 12News’ Craig Harris and Joe Dana report. (March 9, 2026)
2026-03-09
Sick people can’t work: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes joined yet another lawsuit against the Trump administration. This time, she’s teaming up with nearly two dozen states to push back on new work requirements for Medicaid benefits that were included in last year’s Big Beautiful Bill, the Republic’s Stephanie Innes reports. The work requirements could affect as many as 500,000 Arizonans and come as the Common Sense Institute pegs Arizona’s unemployment rate as the highest it’s been since the pandemic, per the Herald/Review. (July 1, 2026)
2026-07-01
Round and round we go: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is taking the lead on a lawsuit filed by more than two dozen attorneys general to stop President Donald Trump’s most recent round of tariffs. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Trump’s previous tariffs and now Mayes and the other AGs are saying Trump is “breaking the law again.” (March 6, 2026)
2026-03-06
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)
2026-01-20
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)
2026-01-21
Claude, what’s the easiest way to screw over sick people?: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes sued nine health insurance providers for using AI to pay as little as possible to healthcare providers, which drove up costs for patients, KJZZ’s Wayne Schutsky reports. The third-party billing company MultiPlan used information from insurance companies to figure out the lowest payments and then shared that data with insurance companies, which Mayes says violates anti-trust laws. (June 3, 2026)
2026-06-03
Feds join the fray: Get ready to hear this name a lot over the next few months: U.S. Attorney Timothy Courchaine. He’s the top Department of Justice official in Arizona who was first appointed by former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi last year. He signed off on the recent grand jury subpoena seeking voter records from the Cyber Ninjas shenanigans, and he’s taking seriously the allegations of witness tampering Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen leveled against his would-be political opponent, Attorney General Kris Mayes, and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, KJZZ’s Wayne Schutsky reports. The letter he sent to Petersen reads like it was written by a person who’s on board with the nonsense election conspiracists. And he’s using the language of a person who has never heard of Donald Trump. “(I)t is astonishing that public servants who are charged with upholding the law would try to dissuade or threaten others to ignore proper legal processes,” Courchaine wrote. (April 16, 2026)
2026-04-16
Nobody reads the Constitution, continued: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is gearing up to file a lawsuit to remove Navajo County Recorder David Marshall, per KJZZ’s Wayne Schutsky. The state Constitution doesn’t allow elected officials to hold another office during the term they were elected to serve in the first office, Mayes argued in an April 24 letter KJZZ obtained through a records request. As a former lawmaker whose term doesn’t end until January, Marshall doesn’t qualify to serve as county recorder, Mayes says. (May 13, 2026)
2026-05-13
They’ll be 2028 fake electors soon: Attorney General Kris Mayes is once again asking a grand jury to indict Arizona’s 2020 fake electors, 12News’ Brahm Resnik reports. The AG is back to square one after the Arizona Supreme Court rebuffed Mayes’ request to overturn trial and appeals court decisions that said she screwed up by not giving the original grand jury a copy of the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which outlines how Congress should deal with a state that sends in competing slates of electors. (June 5, 2026)
2026-06-05
Another battle begins: While Mayes is fighting the feds, Republican state lawmakers are planning to pull money her office uses to protect consumers against fraud and use it to pay state troopers, KJZZ’s Wayne Schutsky reports. The Arizona State Troopers Association says troopers need $6.4 million to replace old vehicles and pay for overtime, and the consumer protection fund at the AG’s Office is expected to end the fiscal year with $26 million. (March 12, 2026)
2026-03-12
Cost of doing (shady) business: One of the rental companies Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes sued over an alleged “price-fixing” scheme agreed to pay $1 million to settle those accusations, her office announced in a news release. Weidner Property Management will donate the money to Wildfire, a nonprofit that helps people pay their rent. The company also ended its contracts with RealPage, a data analytics company that Mayes said was at the center of the scheme. (February 27, 2026)
2026-02-27
Mayes called it: The new Arizona Auditor General report also found the state Corrections Department couldn’t fully account for how it spent $50 million in opioid settlement money, which comes with strict reporting requirements meant to ensure the funds address the effects of the opioid crisis, KJZZ’s Camryn Sanchez reports. The department said it spent the money on hepatitis C treatment, but didn’t provide proof that the inmates treated contracted hepatitis C from intravenous opioid use. In 2024, Attorney General Kris Mayes sued to block the transfer of $115 million in opioid settlement money to help backfill the corrections budget, but later dropped the case. (May 14, 2026)
2026-05-14
Mayes has troubles of her own: An AG’s Office agent was involved in the fatal shooting of a Mesa woman, 12News’ Haley Williams reports. Police said Dulance Morin was involved, but not exactly how he was involved, in a shooting near his front door that left Maria Lewis dead. The AG’s Office said Morin was placed on administrative leave. On top of that, Vanessa Hickman, a former division chief at the AG’s Office, just pleaded guilty to selling a diamond bracelet that was shipped to her house by mistake last May, KOLD’s Lauren Kobley reports. And William Knuth, an investigator in Mayes’ office who worked on the Crosby case down in Cochise County, resigned after being placed under internal investigation for falsifying timecards and an official police report, Terri Jo Neff reports for the Herald-Review. (March 5, 2026)
2026-03-05
Arizona’s deadly export: Arizona is now the leading source of guns traced from U.S. sales to Mexico. More than 60% of firearms seized there in 2024 that were linked the U.S. came from Arizona, the Guardian reports. Those weapons are helping fuel the Sinaloa cartel war, in which about 5,000 people are dead or missing. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes recently announced an indictment against a 20-person gun-trafficking ring her office says routed 334 firearms to Mexico. (March 25, 2026)
2026-03-25
Angling for a seat at the table: A pair of Republican lawmakers who are running for the Corporation Commission say Arizonans have overpaid $2.3 billion on their electric bills, partly because utilities said they needed the money to meet renewable energy goals, per Capitol scribe Howie Fischer. Reps. David Marshall and Ralph Heap blame former Arizona Corporation Commission member and current Attorney General Kris Mayes for adopting “expensive renewable energy surcharges.” HB2269 would repay customers by pulling the money from sales tax revenue on utility bills, which would cut state revenues by $687 million. (January 15, 2026)
2026-01-15
Paying the price: The owners of Palo Verde Mobile Home Park have agreed to pay $795,000 in restitution, penalties and repair costs after years of electrical problems leaving residents without reliable air conditioning during Tucson’s triple-digit degree summer heat, the Tucson Sentinel’s Paul Ingram reports. Attorney General Kris Mayes announced the settlement Monday, saying the park’s owners cooperated with the state after her office accused them of failing to provide “reliable and consistent electricity” to tenants. Under the agreement, tenants of the 18 buildings will receive a combined $130,000 in restitution, the park must continue upgrading its electrical system, and landlords are banned from raising rents or fees for two years to ensure there is no retaliation against tenants. (June 17, 2026)
2026-06-17
Popping corks in Benson: Opponents of a controversial aluminum recycling plant planned for Benson celebrated after the company said it wasn’t going to build the plant, Terri Jo Neff reports for the Herald/Review. Aluminum Dynamics had come under pressure from environmental groups, local residents and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. Plus, three new members of the Benson City Council took their seats after their predecessors were recalled last month for supporting the plant. (June 22, 2026)
2026-06-22
For example?: In response to a lawsuit from the Pima County Republican Party that claims provisions in the state’s Elections Procedures Manual — such as a ban on wearing clothing meant to intimidate voters — violate the First Amendment, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes says the Pima GOP couldn’t cite a single instance of a citizen’s rights being violated, Caitlin Sievers reports for the Arizona Mirror. (June 10, 2026)
2026-06-10