POLITICO: Republican Primary for Arizona Governor Is “Getting Messy”

Apr 07, 2025

POLITICO: Republican Primary for Arizona Governor Is “Getting Messy”

Politico Morning Score detailed today how Arizona’s GOP primary for governor is already off to a chaotic and messy start as Rep. Andy Biggs and Karrin Taylor Robson duke it out for a nomination that won’t be decided until August 2026.

Already, Republican infighting is defining this race as Taylor Robson looks to come back from a very expensive loss against Kari Lake in 2022, and as recent polling has Biggs up more than 50-points over Taylor Robson.

“Andy Biggs and Karrin Taylor Robson are locked into a nasty, chaotic primary that will force them to stake out increasingly extreme and out-of-touch positions, and ignore the issues Arizona’s working families care about most, in favor of winning a Donald Trump endorsement,” said DGA National Press Secretary Devon Cruz. “Between now and next August, Arizonans will see the full extent of their extremism and just how unfit they are to ever be the governor of the state.”

Republican voters in Arizona won’t head to the polls to decide their nominee for governor for another 15 months, but that hasn’t stopped the primary contest between Rep. Andy Biggs and business executive Karrin Taylor Robson from getting messy.
A hypothetical GOP primary election saw Turning Point’s Charlie Kirk, who is not in the race, tie for top placement with Biggs, with Robson in third. Forty-seven percent of the Republican voters surveyed were undecided.
The race gained more steam last week, when state Sen. and Freedom Caucus Chair Jake Hoffman proposed a ballot measure that — if sent to the ballot by the Legislature and approved by voters in 2026 — would bar lobbyists from holding office.
That very well could include Robson, who only dropped her own lobbying registration on March 25, and whose firm still lobbies for a utility company.
Hoffman said in a statement that it’s “laughable” his intention is to prevent Robson from taking office if she’s elected, not because it wouldn’t apply to her but because he thinks Biggs will win the primary.
In a statement, Robson called Hoffman’s efforts a “desperate political tactic” that “fails basic legal scrutiny.”
A Hobbs campaign state of the race report from March 6 that was shared with Score shows the Hobbs campaign is already reveling in the GOP primary.
“While Gov. Hobbs will continue to focus on delivering results for Arizona, her Republican opponents will be in a nasty primary for the next eighteen months that will force them to drain their coffers, appeal to fringe partisans, and take positions far out of the mainstream of Arizona voters,” wrote Nicole DeMont, Hobbs’ chief political strategist.

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