Ballot Math / Governor / Katie Hobbs

Candidate record: Governor of Arizona

Katie Hobbs (Democrat, incumbent)

Born December 28, 1969, in Phoenix. Social worker before politics (BSW, Northern Arizona University; MSW, Arizona State University); worked at Sojourner Center, a domestic violence shelter. Married to Patrick Goodman, two children. Lives in Phoenix.

The race: Hobbs was unopposed in the July 21, 2026 Democratic primary and seeks a second term against Republican Andy Biggs on November 3, 2026. Her running mate for lieutenant governor, a new office on the Arizona ballot this cycle, is John Giles, Mesa's mayor from 2014 to 2025, who was a Republican until May 2026 and is now registered independent. Also on the general election ballot: Green and No Labels tickets. Former President Barack Obama endorsed Hobbs on October 13, 2026. Cook Political Report rates the race Lean Democrat. Hobbs declined to debate Biggs, as she declined to debate Kari Lake in 2022; Biggs debated the No Labels nominee at the Clean Elections debate Hobbs skipped.

Offices held

  • Arizona House of Representatives: 2011 to 2013
  • Arizona Senate: 2013 to 2019
  • Minority Leader of the Arizona Senate: 2015 to 2019
  • Arizona Secretary of State: January 2019 to January 2, 2023
  • Governor of Arizona: January 2, 2023 to present

She won the governorship in 2022 by 17,117 votes over Kari Lake, 50.32 percent to 49.65 percent, one of the closest governor's races in state history.

The governorship: the veto record

For a governor facing a legislature of the other party, the veto pen is the record. Hobbs holds the Arizona record for vetoes in a single session and in a single term, and no veto of hers has been overridden.

541 vetoes in her first term. 993 bills signed.

Vetoes by year: 143 in 2023, 73 in 2024, 174 in 2025, 151 in 2026. She signed roughly two bills for every one she vetoed, including 264 signed in 2026 alone. About 90 of the 541 vetoes were of bills she had already vetoed once and the Legislature sent back a second time. Every budget of her term was negotiated with a Republican Legislature.

Major vetoes

YearBillWhat it would have doneOutcome
2023SB 1063, grocery tax banBarred city taxes on food for home consumption starting July 2025. Her veto message cited city officials' warnings of service cuts and property tax increases, and the delayed start. Republicans are running ads on this veto in 2026VETOED
2023Election measures, including SB 1074 and HB 2415SB 1074 required ballot tabulation equipment made entirely of U.S. components (testimony indicated no such machine exists). HB 2415 removed voters from the early voting list after one missed cycle instead of two. Part of a pattern: election bills were vetoed in all four sessionsVETOED
2024HB 2570, Arizona Starter Homes ActBipartisan housing bill barring cities from requiring HOAs, large minimum lot sizes, and certain design mandates. Hobbs called it "a step too far" and an experiment with unclear outcomes. The bill's Democratic sponsor publicly criticized the vetoVETOED
2025HB 2017, HB 2121, HB 2122 and a dozen more in one actionHB 2017 banned voting centers and set precinct size rules. HB 2121 and HB 2122 added work requirements for SNAP food assistance. Veto letters for the full batch are published by the Governor's OfficeVETOED
2025, 2026SB 1186, contractor disclosureWould have required state contractors and grant seekers to disclose contributions to the governor or groups backing a gubernatorial campaign, a bill prompted by reporting on a group home contractor (see Public record, below). Hobbs vetoed it twice, calling it a political stunt that singled her out and saying she preferred a broader approachVETOED twice
2026Culture and election batchBills to rename part of a Phoenix freeway and create a Charlie Kirk license plate, bills targeting transgender Arizonans, election system rewrites, a ban on Sharia law, suits against doctors over gender transition care, and a ban on DEI initiatives in state governmentVETOED

Major bills signed

YearBillWhat it didOutcome
2024HB 2677, repeal of the 1864 abortion banRepealed the near-total territorial-era abortion ban the Arizona Supreme Court had reinstated weeks earlier. Signed May 2, 2024. Voters later put abortion rights to fetal viability in the state constitution (Prop 139, November 2024)SIGNED
2025SB 1611, "Ag-to-Urban" water lawLets developers in the Phoenix and Pinal water management areas build subdivisions using groundwater credits from voluntarily retired farmland, tied to a 100-year assured supply. Two years of bipartisan negotiation; one of the three 2025 laws Hobbs says she is proudest ofSIGNED
2025SB 1543, the "Axon bill"Allowed a large headquarters campus on light-industrial land in mid-size cities to include hotels and housing without a public hearing, clearing Axon Enterprise's $1.3 billion Scottsdale headquarters and overriding a local referendum effort. Scottsdale later challenged the law in courtSIGNED
2025HB 2704, Chase Field fundingRecaptures sales taxes generated at Chase Field and some player income taxes into a stadium renovation fund capped at $500 million before inflation adjustments, with the team committing at least $250 million and penalties if it leaves before 2050SIGNED
2026Budget and tax conformityAfter vetoing Republican tax plans three times, Hobbs signed a bipartisan budget conforming Arizona to the federal tax cuts. Her campaign describes it as $1.4 billion in tax relief, including a larger standard deduction and a new senior deduction; she also signed Republican-originated bills repealing taxes on rent, tips, and overtimeSIGNED
2026Public safety measuresSigned a bipartisan bill requiring jail time on prostitution convictions and funding sex-trafficking victim services, and a Republican bill making it a crime to block entry to a religious serviceSIGNED

Major executive actions

  • January 2023, nondiscrimination order: barred state agencies and new state contracts from discriminating based on sexual orientation, gender identity, hair texture, and protective hairstyles. Republican legislators announced a lawsuit calling it legislating by "executive fiat."
  • January 20, 2023, death penalty halt: paused executions and ordered an independent review of execution protocols after troubled 2022 executions. How that ended is in the Public record section below.
  • June 2023, abortion prosecutions order: moved authority over abortion-related prosecutions from county attorneys to Attorney General Kris Mayes, directed state agencies not to assist out-of-state abortion investigations for care legal in Arizona, and declined extradition for abortion prosecutions. Twelve of Arizona's 15 county attorneys called the order a "usurpation" of elected prosecutors' authority.
  • December 2023, border deployment: ordered the Arizona National Guard to the border to support federal officials during a migrant influx. Her administration also ran bus routes moving migrants from small border communities to Tucson.
  • December 19, 2024, Willcox groundwater: her water department designated the Willcox Basin in Cochise and Graham counties an Active Management Area, the state's strongest groundwater regulation tool, after hearings documented wells running dry from unchecked pumping.
  • March 2024, medical debt: her administration committed $30 million in federal funds to buy and forgive Arizonans' medical debt through a nonprofit partner. Her campaign says nearly $1 billion in debt has since been eliminated for about 700,000 Arizonans (campaign figure).

Earlier record: Secretary of State

  • 2020 election: as Arizona's chief elections officer she administered the presidential election Joe Biden carried by about 10,000 votes. She defended the results against fraud claims and received death threats and police protection during the post-election period.
  • The 2021 Senate audit: the Republican Senate seized Maricopa County's 2.1 million ballots and hired Cyber Ninjas, a firm with no election audit experience. Hobbs's office sent observers, documented procedural problems, and called the exercise "prime for cooking the books." The audit's final hand count slightly increased Biden's margin, and the county's review found the contractors' fraud claims rested on faulty analysis.
  • 2022 dual role: she ran for governor while serving as the state's chief elections officer. Her opponent's campaign demanded she recuse herself from election oversight; she said duties were delegated and declined to fully recuse. As Secretary of State she certified the statewide results, including her own victory, on December 5, 2022. Courts rejected Kari Lake's election contest.
  • As a legislator (2011 to 2019), her documented footprint is mostly leadership: four years as Senate Minority Leader negotiating against Republican majorities, plus a vote for an unsuccessful bill to repeal the death penalty. No signature sponsored bill of hers appears in major-outlet records, and this page does not invent one.

The money

About $10.1 million raised for reelection, through June 30, 2026.

In the second quarter of 2026 she raised about $2.6 million and spent about $7.4 million, mostly on advertising, ending June with about $2.4 million on hand per filings-based coverage. The Democratic Governors Association committed $10 million to support her reelection, and a supporting PAC, Copper State Values, held about $2.4 million at mid-year.

Also part of the public record

Reported facts, attributed to their sources, kept separate from the record above:

  • Sunshine Residential Homes investigation. Arizona Republic reporting found that a foster group-home contractor, denied rate increases for years, received them in 2023 to 2024, worth roughly $4 million a year and making it the state's highest-paid provider per child, after its leaders and affiliates contributed over $550,000 benefiting Hobbs's campaign, inaugural, and allied groups. Attorney General Kris Mayes investigated and announced in August 2026 that she found no evidence of the quid pro quo needed for bribery and was filing no charges. Republican legislators opened their own inquiries and a criminal referral to the U.S. Justice Department; those proceedings were postponed until after the November election. Hobbs calls the legislative probes a political stunt.
  • Early staff turnover. Her first chief of staff, Allie Bones, resigned in May 2023, five months into the term. The Governor's Office said she was leaving to pursue new opportunities after completing the transition and a bipartisan budget; reporting suggested Democratic discontent with the budget process played a role. The Arizona Republic counted four top aides lost in the administration's first five months.
  • Death penalty reversal. Hobbs fired her own execution-review commissioner, retired Judge David Duncan, in November 2024 after he concluded lethal injection was not viable in practice and suggested firing squads might be more humane. Hobbs said he went beyond his mandate. Executions resumed under her governorship: Aaron Gunches (March 2025), Richard Djerf (October 2025), and Leroy McGill (May 2026). Hobbs, a death penalty opponent as a legislator, now says her personal view is "irrelevant" and she will follow the law.
  • School vouchers and the budget. Republican leaders argue Hobbs mismanaged state finances and point to cost growth in programs on her watch. Hobbs and legislative Democrats counter that the shortfalls stem from the flat tax and the universal Empowerment Scholarship Account expansion enacted in 2022, before she took office. She has proposed income caps and tighter ESA oversight; the Legislature has rejected them. Both attributions are stated here because the underlying dispute is over causes, not over the cost growth itself.

What her campaign says it will do

Attributed to the Hobbs campaign. Her stated top priority is affordability, under an agenda billed as an "Arizona We Can Afford":

  • Affordability: $200 million in middle-class tax cuts and an Arizona Affordability Fund; requiring data centers to contribute more toward their infrastructure costs; the campaign also claims first-term credit for tax cuts, lower child care costs, a balanced budget, and nearly $1 billion in medical debt eliminated.
  • Border and safety: continue the National Guard deployment, Task Force SAFE, and Operation Desert Guardian; the campaign cites more than 18 million fentanyl pills stopped and over $215 million delivered to local sheriffs and police.
  • Water: protect Arizona's water supply, including rural groundwater enforcement of the kind used in the Willcox basin, and more negotiated ag-to-urban style deals.
  • Education: strengthen public education, revive Proposition 123 land-trust funding for schools, and reform the ESA voucher program with accountability and income caps rather than abolishing the original targeted program.
  • Abortion rights: protecting reproductive freedom remains a stated pillar, built on her signing the 1864 ban repeal and the voter-approved constitutional protection.

In her own summary, October 26, 2026: "In my second term, I'll remain focused on tackling the challenges facing our state, including lowering costs, protecting our water, keeping our communities safe, and strengthening public education."

Verification notes

  • Two public tallies of her cash on hand at June 30, 2026 differ (filings-based coverage says about $2.38 million; the cumulative See the Money table says $1,993,886). We show the quarterly figures as reported and will reconcile them against the Secretary of State filings before this page is final, the same treatment given her opponent's numbers.
  • Four veto items are being checked against the official veto letters at azleg.gov before they are added: the 2023 born-alive bill (SB 1600), the 2023 rental tax bill (SB 1184), SB 1021 on the Attorney General's duties, and the 2025 election deadlines bill (HB 2703). Current sourcing for these rests on partisan or secondary republication.
  • The widely repeated Empowerment Scholarship Account cost trajectory (about $65 million projected, about $708 million actual) reaches public reporting through secondary aggregation of state data. It is described in general terms on this page and will be printed with exact figures only after checking JLBC fiscal data.

How to vote without getting your ballot rejected

  • Mail it by Tuesday, October 27, 2026. After that day, do not mail it: use a drop box or a vote center.
  • It must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Postmarks do not count.
  • Sign and date the affidavit envelope, and write a current phone number on it. If your signature is questioned, the county needs to reach you.
  • Leaving any item blank is allowed, including this race, and does not affect the rest of your ballot.

Sources

Ballot Math: analysis only, no endorsements. The same template is applied to every candidate in this race. Check the sources; that is what they are there for. Andy Biggs is the other candidate in this race. Back to Ballot Math home.