Katie Hobbs Is Campaigning to Remain Governor by Pretending to Be a Republican

Something very Orwellian is happening in Arizona. Far-left Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs is campaigning like she is a Republican. Her messaging emphasizes Republican principles of tax cuts, border security, public safety and economic development rather than typical Democrat talking points.

She started it off by ripping off a GOP slogan on her campaign tour, “Arizona First.” In fact, when Kari Lake ran against her for governor in 2022, that was Lake’s slogan.

Hobbs is taking credit for the Republican-dominated legislature’s state version of President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill with tax cuts. She’d vetoed three similar previous bills. She’s also bragging about No Tax on Tips legislation after vetoing it three times. 

She labeled her opponent in the race, Republican Rep. Andy Biggs (AZ-05), as “Big Tax Biggs,” when nothing could be further from the truth. Biggs has an impressive 97 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union. He’s received “A” awards for years from the National Taxpayers’ Union (94 percent in 2025) and high scores from the National Tax-Limitation Committee and Americans for Prosperity. The Club for Growth repeatedly gave him their “Defender of Economic Freedom” award, and in 2018 he was the only House member to receive a 100 percent score.

Hobbs distorted the truth to accuse Biggs of supporting a 23 percent tax increase. The reality is Biggs wants to replace the income tax with a sales tax instead, also known as the FairTax, which would result in lowering taxes overall.

Her campaign also claimed that Biggs’ support for tariffs is support for a tax increase. But Trump’s tariffs have proven to be non-inflationary and were offset by tax cuts.  

The truth is Hobbs’ record on taxes is horrible. The Cato Institute’s Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors gave her a 44 in 2024, which is a D. EZAZ’s AZ Wallet Watch labeled her “Enables High Costs” with a 48.3 percent score.

Hobbs chose a former Republican as her lieutenant governor running mate to pretend to look bipartisan. In reality, John Giles is now a full-blown leftist; there is nothing bipartisan about him. He despises Trump and has been endorsing Democrats for years.

He spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2024, telling the audience he felt “more at home here than in today’s Republican Party.” As the mayor of Mesa, he championed the first non-discrimination ordinance in the state that included protections for gender identity. Giles ordered a mask mandate during COVID-19 and pushed the Mesa Climate Action Plan, which includes a goal to become carbon neutral by 2050.  

Even the fake news has called out Hobbs for copying the Republican platform. An Arizona Republic opinion column said she campaigns as “a pre-MAGA Republican.” NBC News reported that she is “lean[ing] into a GOP-friendly message.” 

Hobbs is the worst leftist governor in Arizona’s history. She has already vetoed more Republican bills than any Democratic governor in the state. In 2025, Prediction News ranked her as one of the 10 most liberal governors in the country. The site noted her excessive vetoes and push for clean energy tax credits and child-care subsidies. Prediction News said, “her consistent resistance to right-wing culture wars earns her a spot on this list.” 

Her husband Patrick Goodman works as a child therapist and psychiatrist at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, where he is a provider in the hospital’s Gender Support Program for “gender diverse” and transgender youth. He was named in a 2020 lawsuit, Roe et al. v. Herrington, as the mental-health provider for a then-10-year-old plaintiff seeking a court order to change their gender on a birth certificate.

Hobbs has massive out-of-state funding, so she can run video ads constantly with this false platform. She raised $10-$16 million this campaign cycle, compared to Biggs’ $3-$3.7 million. Copper State Values, a PAC tied to her campaign team, raised $3.8 million. The Democratic Governors Association pledged $10 million in July for her campaign.

In contrast, the Republican Governors Association hasn’t promised any money to help Biggs. Turning Point Action and Club for Growth are spending $5 million and $1 million respectively, and the Arizona Republican Party is coordinating with the Biggs campaign to spend $1.75 million on ads. Unlike Hobbs, Biggs had primary opponents, which took significant cash to defeat.

This is the exact same playbook John McCain used to defeat J.D. Hayworth in 2010 for the U.S. Senate Republican primary in Arizona. McCain had $33 million left over from his presidential run, which he was allowed to use for the Senate run. He ran TV ads nonstop that blared, “Build the dang fence!” He sounded like he was a conservative on border security, when he’d been soft on illegal immigration for years. Hayworth raised $3 million, which was a respectable amount for a Senate race in 2010, but there was no way to compete being outspent 10 to 1. 

McCain stayed in office and continued his efforts promoting amnesty. In 2013, he co-sponsored S.744, which created a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, plus guestworker and visa expansions. He opposed amendments that would have required a double-layer fence to be finished. He said in 2013, “I’ll give you a little straight talk, we don’t need 20,000 additional border patrol agents.” McCain opposed Trump ending DACA, instead backing legal status and citizenship for Dreamers.

Can you imagine Biggs running for office in a blue state and championing the Democratic platform of transitioning children, taxing the rich, mandating DEI, climate change, expanding abortion, gun control, a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, Medicare for All, and removing election integrity measures? Of course not, because he’s honest. Far-left Democrats like Hobbs know the only way they can win in a red state is to run as a wolf in sheep’s clothing to fool the voters. And if there is election fraud, the average uninformed voter will believe she really won.

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