Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes may run for governor in 2026, which would create a primary challenge against incumbent Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, according to multiple news outlets.
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Former Senate and gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, R-Ariz., has settled a defamation lawsuit with Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer that centered on Lake’s false allegations that Richer helped steal the 2022 governor election.
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The incoming 2025 Arizona Legislature is choosing leadership and committee positions, and selected State Rep. Steve Montenegro (R-Goodyear) as speaker of the house on Tuesday. The longtime legislator, who was born in El Salvador and describes himself as MAGA and America First, will be Arizona’s first Latino speaker of the house.
The Arizona Sun Times spoke to Montenegro shortly after he won the three-way race with 18 votes from 33 Republican voting members. He defeated Rep. Joseph Chaplike (R-Scottsdale), a member of the Freedom Caucus, and current House Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci (R-Lake Havasu).
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A Montana state judicial panel recommended suspending Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen’s license to practice law for 90 days over his actions related to the appointment of conservative judges. Knudsen defended a law allowing Montana’s Republican Governor Greg Gianforte to fill judicial vacancies without the input of the state’s judicial commission, which had been passed due to concerns about the commission’s bias.
The charges arose out of Knudsen’s tangling with the Montana Supreme Court over the matter; Knudsen believed that the state supreme court was overstepping its constitutional power and usurping the authority of his client, the state legislature.
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Eight candidates competed for the three open seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission – three were registered Republicans in the race, three were Democrats and two were affiliated with the Green Party.
All three of those candidates endorsed by Arizona’s Republican party claimed the available seats with Rachel Walden receiving 17.89% of the votes, Rene Lopez receiving 17.37% and Incumbent Lea Marquez Peterson receiving 16.89% at 99% of precincts reporting.
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The Pinal County Attorney’s Office (PCAO) declined to prosecute former Maricopa County prosecutor April Sponsel, whose license was suspended by the State Bar of Arizona for bringing charges against Antifa. PCAO also rejected charges against several Phoenix Police officers involved in quelling a riot by the gang in 2020. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) had recommended to PCAO to charge the six after the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (MCAO) suggested there was wrongdoing.
Initially, MCAO fully supported prosecuting Antifa, but after ABC-15 issued a series of videos critical of how law enforcement handled the incident, the office reversed its position. In February 2021, then-Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel made a decision to dismiss all the charges against Antifa. Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell testified against Sponsel at her bar disciplinary trial.
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The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) was sued last week by a group of Arizona workers who claim the foreign company discriminated against United States citizens after the President Joe Biden successfully convinced the company to build multiple facilities near Phoenix with $6.6 billion in taxpayer funding and $5 billion in federal loans through the CHIPS Act of 2021.
According to the lawsuit filed last Friday by 13 Arizonans, which was made public Thursday, TMSC failed to address the effects of a “hostile work environment” that affects “employees who are not of East Asian race or Taiwanese or Chinese national origin.”
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Arizonans have passed a law that would allow both commercial and residential property owners to be eligible for a tax refund if they can provide proof that the city failed to enforce public nuisance laws affecting their property.
At 90% of precincts participating, 58.6% of voters approved Prop. 312. This proposition has received a national audience as one of the laws encouraging law enforcement to criminalize homelessness put forth following the 2023 ruling by SCOTUS striking down protections for homeless individuals.
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The Arizona state Legislature is seeing some new leadership in its upcoming session.
In private meetings in and around the capitol on Tuesday, members voted on their picks to run the show. State Rep. Steve Montenegro will succeed outgoing Speaker Ben Toma. Montenegro won with 18 votes and ran against State Rep. Joseph Chaplik and current Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci.
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A nationally recognized research center released a report detailing policy suggestions that Tennessee could implement to help protect property acquisitions and increase housing development.
As a state, Tennessee’s population is estimated to increase to around 8 million people by 2040.
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Democrat Ruben Gallego was declared early Wednesday the winner of Arizona’s U.S. Senate race, defeating Republican Kari Lake and further limiting GOP gains in the chamber.
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Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert) promised to submit legislation to increase the speed of the state’s election reporting after it was the last state in the union to declare the the winner of its presidential election on Saturday, when it confirmed President-elect Donald Trump will receive Arizona’s 11 electoral votes.
Petersen made the pledge in a post to the social media platform X, where he wrote that Senators Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff), JD Mesnard (R-Chandler), and Shawnna Bolick (R-San Miguel) will receive help from Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd to craft “the best legislation possible for introduction in January.”
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While the mainstream media has called every other state in the country for Donald Trump and almost all other candidates, Maricopa County and some other Arizona counties are still tabulating ballots several days after the election, leaving the results of the U.S. Senate race between Kari Lake and Ruben Gallego up in the air. In response, Turning Point USA and Lake supporters launched a massive ballot curing effort, and Lake sent a stern letter to Pima County about anomalies.
Arizona has not announced its presidential results even though Trump is leading by 6 points over Kamala Harris with 99 percent of precincts reporting. When Joe Biden ostensibly won the state in 2020 by 10,457 votes, or 49.4 percent to 49.1 percent, Fox News called the election for Biden on election night.
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A new Arizona law giving power to the state to jail and deport migrants who have crossed the border illegally will be going into effect after voters approved the proposition with 62.93% in favor at 97% of precincts reporting.
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With 95 percent of precincts in Arizona reporting results the day after the election, Donald Trump appeared headed to a decisive victory over Kamala Harris. As more ballots came in, from Tuesday evening through Wednesday afternoon, his lead increased to 108,521 votes, about 5 points. At the same time, in the other high-profile race in the state, Kari Lake appeared to be losing her bid to replace outgoing U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema to Democrat U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego. As of press time, Gallego’s lead stood at 59,656 – less than 3 points ahead.
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The results from Arizona’s election began trickling in Tuesday at 8 p.m., and within a couple of hours it became clear Trump was leading by a few thousand votes, with his lead steadily increasing to 9,316 votes. Kari Lake lagged behind Ruben Gallego in the U.S. Senate race by a little over 100,000 votes. However, the preliminary results were based on early ballots, and ABC-15’s “Data Guru” Garrett Archer acknowledged on X that Election Day ballots had not been counted yet, but when they did they would favor Republicans.
By late evening, 10 percent of precincts across the state had reported their numbers. Archer observed that independents surged in Election Day voting. While they trailed Republicans in early voting, by late afternoon 83,000 independents had voted on Tuesday, compared to 79,100 Republicans and 43,800 Democrats.
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Rachel Alexander, lead reporter at The Arizona Sun Times, is warning that Arizona’s final election results may be “dragged out” for days after Tuesday night as an opportunity for Democrats to “figure a way to change the results.”
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Secretary of State Adrian Fontes was ordered on Thursday to turn over by Monday the voter registration information on 218,000 voters in Arizona who are registered to vote but who failed to provide proof of citizenship. He appealed the decision immediately afterwards, with two organizations submitting amicus curiae briefs supporting him, but the Arizona Court of Appeals issued an order Monday morning affirming the lower court’s decision to require the list in response to a public records request from America First Legal (AFL).
James Rogers, America First Legal Senior Counsel, said in a statement regarding the case, “When Secretary Fontes discovered the glitch that allowed 218,000 individuals to register without providing proof of citizenship, he should have immediately shared the list of affected individuals with Arizona’s county recorders, who are in charge of verifying the citizenship of voters. Instead, he has jealously guarded the list, refusing to share it with anyone.”
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Arizona has seen a decline in early voting compared to recent years, with only 51.7% of registered voters voting early – about 300,000 less voters than in the 2020 general election, according to data compiled by Uplift from Arizona county recorder offices.
Most notable is the drop in registered Democrats voting early. In 2020, 36.5% of early voters were Democrats.
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Ruben Gallego has been able to outraise Kari Lake by about three to one, but some are questioning the sources. In addition to large amounts of money from out-of-state donors, a significant amount of his contributions come from “Smurfing,” donations from elderly unemployed Democrats who are unaware their names are being used to donate to Democratic candidates.
According to Arizona Capitol Media, Lake has raised over $19 million throughout the race, while Gallego has raised almost $54 million. Gallego currently has $7.2 million on hand, while Lake has $4.5 million in the bank.
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Arizonans can now have marijuana brought to their doorstep.
The Arizona Department of Health Services announced the change will go into effect on Friday.
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The Arizona race for U.S. Senate between Kari Lake and Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03) is statistically tied, according to dueling polls that each show the Republican or Democrat leading by less than 1 percent in the race to fill the seat being vacated by Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ).
First, a survey released by Data Orbital on Tuesday found Lake with the support of 45.2 percent of likely voters, leading Gallego by 0.7 percent, with the Democrat at 44.5 percent. The pollsters found an additional 5.8 percent were undecided, while 1.6 percent plan to vote for Green Party candidate Eduardo Quintana.
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Ruben Gallego sent a panicky text message to supporters this week, after a new poll showed Kari Lake pulling ahead in the U.S. Senate race just days before the election. A survey released on Tuesday from Data Orbital showed Lake ahead by about a point, 45.2 percent to 44.5 percent. Data Orbital is ranked the eighth highest accurate pollster out of hundreds of polling companies by the polling aggregator site 538.
AtlasIntel, which is ranked 22nd for accuracy by 538 and considered very reputable by the left-leaning site MediaBias/FactCheck, released a poll about the same time which showed Gallego just one point ahead of Lake. However, that survey was heavily weighted with women responding, who trend more Democratic than men, surveying about 53 percent women to 46 percent men. It also failed to survey Democrats and Republicans relative to their numbers in the state; oversampling Democrats.
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There were nearly 565,000 illegal border crossers reported in Arizona in fiscal 2024, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
Arizona’s 378 miles of shared border with Mexico is staffed by CBP and Border Patrol agents in the CBP sectors of Tucson and Yuma. Tucson Sector’s 262-mile shared border with Mexico extends from the Yuma County line to the Arizona-New Mexico state line. Yuma Sector’s nearly 182,000 square miles of primarily desert terrain extends from Imperial Sand Dunes in California to the Yuma-Pima County line.
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The progressive group Save our Schools Arizona (SOSAZ) filed an ethics complaint with the Arizona Commission on Judicial Conduct against Arizona Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick, alleging some remarks he made during a speech crossed into politics. Bolick and another conservative Arizona Supreme Court Justice, Kathryn King, are up for reelection this election and progressives are heavily targeting them for defeat due to their vote upholding Arizona’s strict old abortion law, which has since been repealed.
SOSAZ cited an article in Politico which quoted Bolick’s remarks to the Sun City West Republican Club in early October. He said their ruling on abortion was only “a convenient excuse to try to get people on the left riled up and replace us with judges who will rubber stamp their ideological agenda.” He said he would continue “fighting for conservative principles,” and brought up his work for the Goldwater Institute and the Reagan Justice Department, and mentioned that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is a mentor and his child’s godfather.
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The political action committee associated with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has reportedly ignored the Kari Lake campaign for U.S. Senate, with not one dollar going to the contentious Arizona race, even as high profile senators voiced their early support for the Trump-aligned Republican.
McConnell’s lack of interest in Lake’s race was reported first by Axios on Monday, when it reported, “McConnell PAC snubs Lake,” and revealed the influential Senate Leadership Fund “has not reserved a single dollar to help” Lake during “the final weeks of the campaign.”
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Republicans have expanded their lead in registered voters in Arizona according to data published Friday by Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, gaining nearly 110,000 more registered voters between July 30 and October 1.
The Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP) boasted 1,562,091 registered voters on October 1, according to the Arizona Secretary of State.
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As Republicans warn of long lines on Election Day in Maricopa County, Ariz., local election officials also expect election results to be delayed. Republicans in both Arizona and on the national level are claiming that Maricopa County has not sufficiently prepared for Election Day, which may result in long lines and persuading eligible voters to avoid voting.
The possible Election Day issues are in addition to the announcement by Maricopa County election officials that it will take 10-13 days to completely tabulate all ballots, meaning that some races may not be called on election night.
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When Ashley Wineland’s song, “Tumbleweed,” came across my email, I knew from the heartfelt song that I wanted to feature the artist. The more I dug into her bio, the more intrigued I became.
I was interested in how Wineland got her start in music. She said, “I have always had a strong love for the performing arts and just telling stories, especially in front of people.”
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Donald Trump was back in Arizona Thursday afternoon for another packed rally, filling up Mullett Arena at Arizona State University, a stadium that seats 5,000. Several speakers gave brief speeches first, including Kari Lake, Vivek Ramaswamy, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), and local congressmen Andy Biggs and Eli Crane.
Lake said during her talk that she heard Bill Clinton said she was “attractive” while he was in town stumping for her opponent for the U.S. Senate, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03). She said, “I thought I was too old for him, doesn’t he like interns? … Nobody in their right mind wants to cross Hillary Clinton. It’s just dangerous.”
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Attorney General Kris Mayes joined 24 other attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in support of legalizing “emergency abortion care” for Idahoans in the case U.S. v. Idaho. This brief is the most recent event in the two-year long litigation process.
The initial lawsuit stems from the reversal of Roe v. Wade resulting in a near-total abortion ban in Idaho allowing exceptions only for rape and incest, accompanied by a signed report, or the immediate death of the mother. The key difference between Idaho’s ban on abortion and federal statute occurs when a woman is facing a serious threat to her health but not an immediate risk of losing her life.
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Donald Trump Jr. gave a speech at the West Valley Trump campaign headquarters on Wednesday in Sun City to a small room of volunteers who make phone calls for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
He began his speech by discussing how hectic the campaign trail was. “I almost feel like Joe Biden where I wake up,” he said. “I don’t even know where I am. It’s just, it’s because I’m traveling a lot, not because of the dementia. So it’s a little different.”
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Proposed legislation would transfer 3,060 acres of land from the United States Forest Service to the Tonto Apache Tribe in the Payon, Arizona, area in the form of a trust.
Arizona Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly introduced the “Tonto Apache Land Transfer Act” would fulfill the tribe’s goal to expand its reservation and construct more housing. Roughly 100 people live on the reservation, according to the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona website.
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Arizona U.S. Senator Mark Kelly admitted he is “[a]bsolutely frustrated” by the odds former President Donald Trump will regain the White House on Election Day during an appearance on “Outspoken with Bruce and Gaydos” on KTAR News 92.3.
Kelly told the Phoenix radio station he is currently, “Absolutely frustrated that this guy’s back and has a chance,” to be elected to a second term on November 5.
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The Arizona Department of Real Estate is asking a housing developer to stop subdividing land in Rio Verde Foothills as they say there is no assured water supply yet for the area they are working in.
The Arizona Department of Real Estate sent a cease and desist to Morning Vista Homes for allegedly not getting the proper “subdivision public support” that prompts a “certificate of assured water supply” or another guarantee that there will be water for the homes, according to a news release from Gov. Katie Hobbs’ office.
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Progressive activists are warning conservative election attorneys to avoid getting involved in litigation over the 2024 election or they will have their jobs threatened, will be targeted for disbarment, and even prosecuted. Many attorneys who assisted with litigation over the disputed 2020 presidential election, such as Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar John Eastman, underwent disciplinary proceedings and prosecution.
The New York Times published an op-ed a few days ago by law professor Kate Shaw warning attorneys not to represent Trump in election litigation. She said, “Lawyers cannot, consistent with their ethical obligations, participate in devising litigation that is retrofitted to support the position Mr. Trump seems to hold — that the only ‘real’ Americans are those who cast their ballots for him and that those who vote against him are by definition engaging in fraud.”
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Governor Katie Hobbs on Friday appointed one Democratic and one Republican official to lead a bipartisan investigation into the Arizona Department of Transportation’s Motor Vehicle Division after her administration confirmed it lacks confirmation of citizenship for more than 200,000 registered voters earlier this month.
Hobbs stated on Friday that she “directed MVD to work swiftly in coordination with election officials” immediately upon learning Arizona lacked citizenship information for approximately 218,000 voters, and on Friday launched what her office called, “an independent, bipartisan audit of MVD policies.”
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U.S. Senator and vice presidential nominee JD Vance (R-OH) will visit Peoria and Tucson for two events on Tuesday, October 22, the Trump campaign announced.
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A recent report from the Fiscal Research and Education Center shows that school choice programs may save taxpayers money despite some Arizona politicians’ concerns about oversight of the statewide ESA program.
The report looked at 25 states plus the District of Columbia, including Arizona. The report looked at school choice programs through 2022, but since Arizona’s universal ESA program was not enacted until 2023, the report includes a separate fiscal analysis looking at the impacts of Arizona’s universal ESA program from 2023 through 2024.
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After a 10-month long legal battle, The Washington Free Beacon finally prevailed this week in its lawsuit to obtain divorce records from Ruben Gallego and his ex-wife, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego. The Gallegos, who had the records sealed when they began the divorce in late 2016, fought the media outlet’s request to open their file, claiming there was personal financial information and information regarding their yet-unborn child in them. However, due to persistent rumors of domestic violence, great interest developed in releasing the file.
The records revealed that the couple avoided a trial by agreeing to terms of a Consent Decree. It stated, “The parties acknowledge and agree that there was no domestic violence during the marriage or that significant domestic violence did not occur.” The judge added to that portion, “The Parenting Plan shall include ‘A statement that there has been no significant history of domestic violence between the parties.’”
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Maricopa County is adding more funding the ongoing effort to increase Arizona’s trades workforce.
The county has already spent $12 million on the program, but the Board of Supervisors recently cleared another $500,000 to be spent on it in hopes of bolstering sectors like manufacturing, healthcare, and construction in the Phoenix metropolitan area, according to a news release.
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Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA-30) will reportedly break from his California campaign for U.S. Senate to travel to Arizona for a joint campaign event held by Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03).
Schiff will reportedly travel to Arizona as part of an effort to help Democrats in tough elections, according to Punchbowl News, which reported on Monday that a person familiar with the Californian’s travel plans confirmed he plans to appear with Gallego.
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A new film by Public Interest Legal Foundation is bringing attention to the illegal listing of hundreds of commercial addresses as voters’ residences on Arizona’s voter roll ahead of the November 5 general election. According to state law, these addresses are not considered residences.
Under the Arizona Revised Statutes 16-152, the voter registration should include the “complete address of the registrant’s actual place of residence, including street name and number, apartment or space number, city or town and zip code, or such description of the location of the residence that it can be readily ascertained or identified.”
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Two polls conducted after the debate between Kari Lake and Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03) show their race to represent Arizona in the U.S. Senate could be narrowing as some cast early ballots.
Lake used the debate to remind viewers of her decades in broadcast news, repeatedly call Gallego’s campaign the “extreme makeover version” of the candidate, and criticize the Democrat’s record in Congress, while Gallego attacked Lake’s ties to former President Donald Trump and her efforts to contest the gubernatorial election results in 2022.
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A super PAC called Frontiers of Freedom (FF) has released ads this campaign cycle against Ruben Gallego, highlighting his far-left record and his “record of anti-Catholic bigotry.”
George Landrith, president of FF, explained the purpose of the hard-hitting ads in a statement.
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The debate between U.S. Senate candidates Kari Lake and Ruben Gallego last Wednesday left many pundits and political operatives in agreement that Lake outperformed Gallego, who currently serves in the U.S. House of Representatives in Arizona’s 3rd congressional district.
While the debate received little mainstream media coverage, some of the few outlets that did address it, as well as Democrats, expressed their disappointment in Gallego’s performance.
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Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said that her administration has not reached out to anybody that they would like to see fill the upcoming state Supreme Court vacancy.
“We’re looking for someone who is committed to the independence of the court, and we have not specifically reached out to anyone,” Hobbs said at a media availability on Thursday.
However, the choice will ultimately be hers to make.
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Democrats in Congress, including Ruben Gallego, voted to bring Afghans to the U.S. through Operation Allies Refuge (OAR) in 2021-2022 whose backgrounds were not thoroughly investigated first. One of them, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, was arrested on Monday and charged with “conspiring to conduct an Election Day terrorist attack in the United States on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO),” according to the Department of Justice.
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The Common Sense Institute’s “Inflation Misery Index” said that inflation continues to have a stinging impact on Arizonans’ wallets.
According to the report, Arizonans spend $9,996 more each year compared to 2019. When adjusted for the usually expected 2% inflation yearly, it’s still a $6,276 difference. The report adds that 24% of the average Grand Canyon State’s household income was eaten up by inflation, or roughly $25,000.
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Davos in the Desert, a civic organization in Arizona, held a daylong virtual seminar last Friday addressing how Democrats are destroying democracy. The event, titled Defending Democracy, featured numerous national experts, including Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar John Eastman. Eastman spoke about whether Kamala Harris is ineligible to be president due to the natural-born citizen requirement of the 14th Amendment, whether that amendment applies to illegal immigrants, and how the Democrats are scheming to invoke its Section 3 to prevent Trump from taking office if he wins the presidential election.
Shawn Smith, who served more than 25 years in active duty for the United States Air Force, including as a colonel and now leads Cause of America, a nonpartisan nonprofit establishment to help grassroots American citizens restore integrity and trust in our elections, spoke about election laws the Democrats are violating.
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