Ballot Math / Statewide offices
Statewide races: the rest of the ballot

Superintendent, Treasurer, Mine Inspector

November 3, 2026 general election. Three offices most voters cannot describe, each holding real power: over the school voucher program's rulebook, over $32 billion of the state's money, and over the safety of every mine in Arizona.

Superintendent of Public Instruction

What this office does: the superintendent runs the Arizona Department of Education, distributes state and federal education money, and works with the State Board of Education on standards and accountability. The department also administers the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) voucher program, including deciding which purchases are allowable and auditing them. What the office does not do: set your local curriculum, hire district teachers, or run classrooms. The loudest fight in Arizona education, how tightly the $1 billion voucher program is policed, runs straight through this desk.

The headline: the incumbent is not on your ballot. Tom Horne lost the Republican primary to Kimberly Yee, 53.3 percent to 46.7 percent. Yee, the sitting State Treasurer, was recruited by Freedom Caucus leader Sen. Jake Hoffman after ESA supporters argued Horne was restricting the voucher program too aggressively. She faces Democrat Teresa Leyba Ruiz, a longtime educator running her first campaign. Two official write-in candidates are also registered in this race (Gerard Davis, Green, and Stephen Neal Jr., No Labels).

The record both candidates are running on: under Horne, ESA enrollment grew from about 11,000 students in January 2023 to almost 100,000, on essentially flat department staffing. In 2024 his department adopted risk-based auditing: purchases under $2,000 were paid automatically and audited later. Data released through the Attorney General's Office in March 2026 flagged nearly 84,000 of about 384,000 transactions in one period as unallowable. A May 2026 Auditor General report said the department could not prove it reviewed or acted on more than 500,000 high-risk transactions totaling nearly $100 million. Horne cited severe understaffing; his own sample showed about 2 percent of purchases unallowable and 0.3 percent fraudulent, many of them bookkeeping errors. Both of his would-be successors, from opposite parties, promise to end the automatic approvals.

Kimberly Yee (Republican)

Age 52. Pepperdine and ASU. Education policy adviser to California Governors Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger before Arizona office. Appointed to the Arizona House in 2010, state Senate 2013 to 2019 (Senate Majority Leader), State Treasurer since January 2019; reelected 2022 and term-limited there in 2026. Endorsed by Turning Point Action.

  • Priorities: universal ESAs and parental choice across district, charter, private, home, micro, and tribal schools, with tighter policing: end automatic approval of purchases under $2,000, screen purchases at the point of sale, and replace or upgrade the ClassWallet purchasing platform, including with AI tools. (As treasurer, her office oversees the state contract with ClassWallet, and she has called for point-of-sale screening there too.) Also: phonics-based reading, traditional math, more money to classrooms and teachers, review of district administrative spending, and parental consent for classroom AI. She opposes an ESA income cap and state-mandated testing for private schools.
  • Money: both campaigns reported more than $550,000 in income this cycle per an October 23 review of filings. Yee started with over $144,000 rolled over from her treasurer committee and took $5,500 each from Earl "Ken" Kendrick and Randy Kendrick.
  • Also on the record: taxpayer-funded AZ529 college-savings television ads featuring Yee have run frequently and spiked around National 529 Day; her office says the ads are informational, planned the same way every year, funded by the program and its financial partners, and unrelated to the political calendar. Her office also declined to release ESA spending data to 12News; a judge ruled the Treasurer's Office was not the agency responsible for ESA records (the Education Department was ordered to pay over $100,000 in attorneys' fees in that fight). Asked if she would release ESA data as superintendent, Yee said protecting student data would be her first priority, alongside transparency for taxpayer dollars.

Teresa "Terry" Leyba Ruiz (Democrat)

Age 59. First political campaign. Degrees from ASU and Northern Arizona, including a doctorate from ASU. Raised in south Phoenix; first-generation college student. Began teaching seventh-grade math in 1990, then high school and more than a decade at South Mountain Community College. President of Glendale Community College (interim 2016, permanent 2018), retired 2023, then an education officer at Education Forward Arizona. Won her primary four to one.

  • Priorities: restore trust in educators; rebuild the teacher pipeline; raise teacher pay and classroom resources. On ESAs: end automatic approvals under $2,000, automated purchase verification, stricter audits, and recovering money spent on noneducational items. She argues public dollars require public accountability, including comparable testing and accountability for private schools receiving ESA money. Also: more state funding for public schools, universal pre-kindergarten, a public dashboard for education spending, closing Horne's DEI and transgender complaint hotline, and an Office of Rural and Small Schools.
  • Money: Ruiz passed Yee in fundraising in the most recent reporting period per the same October 23 filing review, raising nearly $250,000 from donors giving $500 or less, loaning her campaign $10,000, and receiving $5,000 from the Arizona Education Association's fund.
  • Disputes, with responses: in the general election debate, Yee said Ruiz earned $315,000 a year as Glendale's president; Yee later said the figure came from Glassdoor, while a 2021 Arizona Republic salary database showed $208,000. Separately, attorneys for Yee complained to the Attorney General in September that photos Ruiz posted from school tours violated the law against using school resources to influence elections. The AG referred it to the Maricopa County Attorney, which confirmed an open investigation. Ruiz calls the complaint baseless and a political distraction, and says school visits should be a prerequisite for the job.

State Treasurer

What this office does: the Treasurer is Arizona's chief banking and investment officer. The office safeguards about $32 billion in assets, handles cash connected to a $64.7 billion state budget, runs investment services for local governments, and exclusively manages the Permanent Land Endowment Trust Fund, about $11.4 billion, whose largest beneficiary is K-12 education. This is an open seat: Kimberly Yee is term-limited and is running for Superintendent instead.

The one policy fight that matters: how aggressively to invest the land endowment. Mansour wants to move gradually from 60 percent stocks toward 80 percent, arguing Arizona leaves returns on the table that could fund classrooms without new taxes. Norton wants to hold the 60/40 line under the order safety, liquidity, yield. Norton calls 80/20 gambling; Mansour calls the warnings scare tactics. That single dial moves more public money than most ballot measures on this page.

Elijah Norton (Republican)

Businessman; founder and owner of Veritas Global Protection, which sells vehicle service contracts and extended warranties. Former Arizona Republican Party treasurer and a major Republican donor. No prior elected office; he notes that himself. Ran for Congress in 2022 and lost the primary to David Schweikert. Beat Katherine Haley, president of the State Board of Education (who was endorsed by Treasurer Yee), 56.3 percent to 43.7 percent.

  • Priorities: keep the endowment at 60/40; create an Arizona Department of Government Efficiency; comprehensive audits for fraud, waste, and abuse; serve as a check on Gov. Hobbs; divest from companies that maintain diversity hiring quotas or what he calls woke ideology; oppose boycott campaigns against Israel.
  • Money: the story of his campaign. Through July 21, 2026, his campaign reported $3,178,196 raised and $3,098,945 spent; Norton personally loaned 91 percent of what was raised, and about $1.98 million, 64 percent of spending, went to one consulting firm. Mansour calls the spending remarkable and reckless. Norton responds that it was his own money, the primary was competitive, and a first-time candidate without elected office has to spend more to be heard.
  • Also on the record: as state party treasurer he proceeded with a $1.9 million party headquarters purchase and then spent almost $1 million of his own money covering the building's rent. In July 2026, current and former Republican officials and some county treasurers signed an open letter questioning whether he could safeguard taxpayer funds. The Mansour campaign runs a "Never Norton" site cataloguing over 100 lawsuits involving his warranty businesses and alleging customers were deceived; Norton's campaign disputes the implications, and his lawyers have refused demands for retractions while threatening legal remedies of their own. Lawsuit counts compiled by an opponent are not findings; we report the dispute, and both sides' positions, not a verdict.

Nick Mansour (Democrat)

Age 57. Third-generation Arizonan, raised in Tucson. Industrial engineering degree and a Stanford MBA. Entrepreneur with a real estate investment background; no prior elected office. Most recently chairman and CEO of Arizona College of Nursing, which his campaign credits him with growing from one campus to 24 in 14 states. Unopposed in the Democratic primary.

  • Priorities: keep partisan politics out of investment decisions; gradually raise the endowment's stock allocation to as much as 80 percent; withdraw more money from the trust fund for beneficiaries; no cryptocurrency investment (too risky); eliminate waste and root out fraud, following safety, liquidity, and yield in that order.
  • Money: donated over $300,000 of his own money and raised over $1 million total, and spent $398,735 through July 21, under 13 percent of Norton's spending in the same period, while holding a cash advantage through the Republicans' contested primary.
  • Attacks and his response: Norton's campaign and the state GOP attack three items: the Arizona College of Nursing Tempe program's probation (the nursing board ended that probation in February 2025), student lawsuits including a federal class action, and an $11.4 million federal settlement involving Pacific Pulmonary Services, where Mansour once worked. The Justice Department described that settlement as resolving allegations without a determination of liability. Mansour's lawyers, in an October 2 cease-and-desist, say he was never personally sued or fined, was not a party to the Pacific Pulmonary case, worked there as a vice president for under a year and left months before the underlying events, and that the payment was a voluntary settlement, not a fine. Norton's lawyers refused to retract on October 7. Neither campaign's characterization is an adjudicated finding, and this page does not treat it as one. Mansour also touts endorsements from over 100 business leaders and a bipartisan coalition, including No Labels chairman Paul Johnson.

State Mine Inspector

What this office does: Arizona is the only state that elects its mine inspector. The office inspects mines (state law requires every active underground mine with at least 50 employees to be inspected at least once every three months, and every other mine at least once a year), provides safety training, oversees reclamation, and secures abandoned mines; about 11,000 abandoned mines have been identified and secured. It is the smallest office on this page and the one with the least press coverage, which is itself worth knowing.

The unusual fact: the Republican incumbent was appointed to the job in September 2025 by Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs, after the previous inspector resigned to take a job in Texas. Both nominees were unopposed in their primaries.

Walter "Les" Presmyk (Republican, incumbent)

Mining engineering degree, University of Arizona, 1975; over four decades in mining. Salt River Project 1987 to 2017, retiring as principal mining engineer; before that, 15-plus years with Magma Copper at Superior, San Manuel, and Miami. Gilbert Town Council 1999 to 2011, including three terms as vice mayor. Appointed Mine Inspector by Gov. Hobbs in September 2025.

  • Record (13 months): coverage describes his main work so far as staffing up the office and updating its administrative codes. On safety outcomes: the office's 2024 report (before his tenure) put Arizona at about 1.9 lost-time injury hours per 200,000 hours worked, against a national rate of 1.3; Presmyk says performance improved and Arizona ran below the national average in early 2026, while adding that any accident is one too many.
  • His central campaign claim: he is the only candidate who meets the statute's qualification of at least eight years of operational or management experience in mines, including at least four in Arizona. Matlock disputes that (below).
  • Priorities: miner safety as a nonpolitical mission; adequate staffing, updated codes, continued inspections, and securing abandoned mines so employees come home after every shift.
  • Money: a Clean Elections candidate; about $74,000 in public financing for the primary and eligible for over $100,000 for the general.

Brian Matlock (Democrat)

Mechanical engineer and Marine veteran. Holds six U.S. patents, some related to mining safety, and says he invented two technologies to improve coal mine safety. Decades in heavy industry (forestry, pulp and paper, foundries, mining). Moved to Arizona in 2014 to do technical marketing and demonstrations for hard-rock mining wear parts, working with Arizona mines including Morenci. First-time candidate; no Democrat has been elected to this office in half a century.

  • Priorities: worker safety and accident prevention, including better near-miss reporting; reducing abandoned mine hazards, including abandoned uranium mines; stronger relationships with rural and tribal communities; modernizing the office, including converting decades-old safety codes into modular standards; and filling the inspection gap as federal oversight declines.
  • The qualification dispute: Matlock says he worked at mines in various engineering capacities, believes his experience satisfies the statute, and calls Presmyk's argument an act of desperation. Who is right turns on how the statute's "operational or management experience" is read, and it has not been adjudicated in anything we found.
  • Money: privately financed; about $25,600 raised per the most recent reliable reporting we found (August 31, 2026).

Verification notes

  • Primary percentages are from unofficial results at 100 percent reporting; the certified canvass from the Secretary of State is the final word.
  • Superintendent and Treasurer fundraising totals conflict between aggregator sites and filing-based reporting. This page uses the filing-based figures where they exist (The Beam's October 23 review for Superintendent; State Affairs' report figures through July 21 for Treasurer) and does not print the aggregator totals, which appear to lag or cover different scopes.
  • We found no independent audit of whether the Mine Inspector's Office completed all statutorily required inspections in Presmyk's first year. The record section above therefore sticks to what is documented, staffing and code updates plus the debated injury rates, instead of filling the gap with campaign claims. The same honesty applies to abandoned mine counts: about 11,000 identified and secured is the reported figure; claims of 90,000 to 120,000 remaining circulate in campaign material and are not treated here as settled.
  • Presmyk's appointment date is given as September 2025: the Governor's Office release is dated September 15, 2025, while Ballotpedia lists September 12 as his assumption of office.

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 a way to reach you.
  • Leaving any item blank is allowed and does not affect the rest of your ballot, including these races.

Sources

Ballot Math: analysis only, no endorsements. Every candidate in these races got the same template: record, money, stated priorities, sources. Back to Ballot Math home.