Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs wins re-election over GOP Rep. Andy Biggs in Arizona

Democrat Katie Hobbs has won re-election as governor of Arizona, NBC News projects, defeating Republican Rep. Andy Biggs in the key battleground state.

Hobbs ran as a moderate in a state that Donald Trump won by 5 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election. She focused on issues such as border security and tax cuts, and she chose John Giles, a former Republican and former mayor of Mesa, as her running mate.

“Whether you’re a Democrat, independent or Republican, if you believe in protecting our freedoms and putting Arizona first, we’re ready to fight for you,” she said in a video announcing Giles as her pick for lieutenant governor.

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Hobbs, who previously was the state secretary of state, also highlighted her differences from Trump’s policies, including the unpopular Iran war and tariffs, and she enacted a three-year pause on tax incentives for data centers.

While Hobbs’ campaign touted her record of working across the aisle and said she had signed more than 900 pieces of bipartisan legislation, Biggs focused on the record number of vetoes she signed during her four years as governor.

“She doesn’t give in on anything, pretty much,” Biggs told Fox News in October. “I’d be working with the Legislature, not against them.”

Biggs, a former chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, also ripped Hobbs for refusing to debate him, which she said she would not do because it’s “political theater.”

Hobbs, meanwhile, hammered Biggs for his support of Trump’s tariffs, votes against resolutions to end the Iran war and refusal to acknowledge Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

In 2022, Hobbs similarly defeated a Trump ally who did not publicly accept the results of the 2020 election. That year, she defeated Kari Lake by about 17,000 votes. (Lake also challenged Hobbs’ victory in court and lost.)

And as in her race against Lake, Hobbs refused to debate Biggs.

Pressed about Hobbs’ 2022 victory during his gubernatorial campaign, Biggs said that “every court has said she’s won” and that “she’s the governor.”

“Andy Biggs won’t admit that I won in ’22 or that Trump lost in 2020, and I think that it is dangerous and wrong. Arizonans have paid the cost of this election denial for a long time, and we will continue to if Andy Biggs is in the governor’s chair,” Hobbs said on a local radio program in July.

Asked at the debate Hobbs skipped in October whether he would accept the election results no matter the outcome this time, Biggs said: “Yeah, I will. I will accept the outcome.”

He said he believes Arizona elections are more secure now than in 2020. “I think that there’s been so much improvement, and there will continue to be improvement, that I’m happy to certify the outcome of this election,” he said.

Trump initially backed businesswoman Karrin Taylor Robson when she declared her candidacy in early 2025, but he also backed Biggs when he jumped into the race later in the year. Taylor Robson later dropped out, at which point Trump gave Biggs his “complete and total endorsement.”