As Democrats across the country formulate plans to oppose the incoming Trump administration, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is taking a different approach.
In the days following President-elect Donald Trump’s victory on Nov. 5, Democratic governors from around the country — including California’s Gavin Newsom, Colorado’s Jared Polis and Illinois’ JB Pritzker — announced plans to oppose key aspects of the Trump administration’s agenda, including the potential use of National Guard troops to facilitate mass deportations.
Hobbs won’t be joining them.
“I don't think that's the most productive way to govern Arizona,” Hobbs said. “As governor, I have and will continue to stand up against actions that hurt our communities, but I will work with anyone who is doing what's right for Arizona. We need the federal government's involvement.”
Hobbs pointed to the CHIPS and Science Act, one of President Joe Biden’s signature achievements that is poised to direct $15 billion in grants to Arizona’s growing semiconductor industry, as an example. The Biden administration has already completed the award of $6.6 billion to Taiwanese firm TSMC for its project in north Phoenix but another $9 billion scheduled to go to other companies with a footprint in Arizona has not yet been finalized.
Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance have both criticized the CHIPS Act, and Hobbs said she plans to engage the administration in defense of the legislation.
“We know how important that these investments are to Arizona's economy,” Hobbs said. “But coming from someone with an America first agenda, that should be right at the top of the list of things that investments that they want to continue. This is American manufacturing. It's critical for American jobs, critical for our national security.”
Republican consultant Daniel Scarpinato, who served as chief of staff under former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey during the first Trump administration, said he believes Hobbs could get an audience with Trump’s administration despite hailing from the opposing party.
“They very much valued governors and governor’s offices, and I think actually if you go back and look, people might not want to admit it now, but there were a number of Democratic governors who had really good relationships with President Trump and the administration,” Scarpinato said.
He also said that, despite Trump’s more recent criticism of TSMC’s CHIPS Act award, Trump’s first administration was supportive when the Ducey administration courted the company in 2020.
“The Trump administration was an integral part of it,” Scarpinato said.
Hobbs’ decision to take a collaborative approach with the Trump administration isn’t just at odds with Democratic governors in other states. It also runs contrary to the approach being taken by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes.
Mayes has promised to use her authority to oppose Project 2025, a conservative policy agenda written by Trump allies, saying she believes many of its tenets violate state and federal constitutional protections.
While the President-elect attempted to distance himself from the plan during the campaign, his first administration’s fingerprints are all over the document, which contains several policy priorities he championed through the presidential election.
“I'm not the only AG that was assessing, analyzing and getting ready for the parade of horribles that are in Project 2025, and so we are far more ready this year than we were in 2016 to deal with the unconstitutional actions of the Trump administration.”
Mayes’ stance isn’t unprecedented.
In recent years, state attorneys general regularly filed lawsuits against the federal government when the opposing party occupied the White House. According to a tracker developed by Marquette University Professor Paul Nolette, those partisan lawsuits peaked at 155 during the first Trump administration. And Republican attorneys general have filed 55 such lawsuits against the Biden administration over the past four years.
Specifically, Mayes said she would oppose any effort to restrict access to abortion at the federal level and also oppose Trump’s plans to deport 15 million or more people. She said that kind of mass deportation plan could lead to oversights and legal violations, such as citizens erroneously being removed from the country.
“The problem with that is that it leads to abuses,” Mayes said. “It leads to the kinds of camps and family separations that we saw in 2016.”
She said she would prefer to see the Trump administration pour more resources into interrupting the drug trade and narrow its deportation focus to narcotic traffickers.
“But that is not 15 million people,” Mayes said.
So far, Hobbs has signaled she could be more cooperative with the incoming Republican administration’s border enforcement goals — to a point.
She has repeated calls for the federal government to dedicate more resources towards border security but has so far dodged questions about how, specifically, she would respond to Trump’s deportation plans, calling them "hypothetical."
“I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty details of action that hasn't happened yet,” Hobbs said when asked about Trump’s promised mass deportations. “I will work with the administration to deliver on real border security. I think these efforts will actually pull resources away from border security, and I will make sure that our communities are safe.”
During a recent border visit announcing the continued deployment of National Guard troops to the border to assist in illicit drug interceptions, Hobbs did say she would not support efforts to break apart Arizona communities.
How Hobbs deals with border issues and interacts with the new Republican administration is inextricably linked to Arizona’s politics — rumors are already swirling that she could face a primary challenge in two years from Mayes or Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, said Scarpinato.
He said Hobbs is walking a fine line between serving Democratic priorities and responding to Arizona voters, who overwhelmingly passed a Republican border security initiative this year that included multiple measures Hobbs vetoed during the last legislative session.
“She's got to kind of pick which lane she's going to go in here,” he said. “Is she going to be focused on avoiding a primary or winning the general?”
Mayes told reporters earlier this month that she plans to seek a second term as attorney general in 2026. Fontes, meanwhile, told the Arizona Republic he has listened to others who have encouraged him to run for governor in two years but that he, too, is leaning towards seeking reelection as secretary of state.
