Former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has died at 59, according to a statement released by his family Tuesday afternoon.
"It is with profound sorrow that the Brnovich family announces the passing of Mark Brnovich,” the family said. “Best known as Arizona’s 26th attorney general, a state and federal prosecutor, and champion of justice, he will forever be remembered and cherished by us as a beloved father, husband, son, and brother.”
Brnovich is survived by his wife, federal judge Susan Brnovich, and their two daughters.
Former attorney general spokesperson Katie Conner confirmed Brnovich died of a heart attack at home Monday.
"Mark was an unbelievable person. Most people knew him as the attorney general but he was so much more than that. He was an amazing father, husband and friend. He was larger than life and he will be truly missed. I feel so blessed to have known him," said Conner.
The longtime Republican politician served two terms as Arizona’s attorney general, beginning in 2015, before mounting an unsuccessful campaign for a U.S. Senate seat in 2022, when he lost the GOP primary to Blake Masters.
Before his election as attorney general, Brnovich spent time as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona, a prosecutor with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, and served as the director of the Arizona Gaming Department.
In March 2025, Brnovich was tapped by President Donald Trump — in his second term in office — to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Serbia, but his nomination was withdrawn before he could be confirmed by the Senate.
Brnovich’s election headaches
Brnovich’s legacy as attorney general was in many ways tied to Trump, particularly following the president’s loss in Arizona while seeking reelection in 2020.
Brnovich was initially one of the first elected officials to defend the state from baseless claims of fraud surrounding Trump’s defeat. And Brnovich fulfilled his duty by certifying the results of Trump’s loss, awarding the state’s 11 electoral votes to Democrat Joe Biden.
But as Brnovich began to campaign for the Senate two years later, he, like Trump, began to raise questions about Arizona’s 2020 vote.
In 2022, Brnovich released an interim report from the Attorney General’s Office that offered no evidence of widespread fraud or criminal activity on the part of election officials in Maricopa County, which had become ground zero for election conspiracies amid a discredited election review run by state Senate Republicans.
But the report did raise concerns about “serious vulnerabilities” that raise “questions about the 2020 election in Arizona” — accusations that Maricopa County officials called a misleading and inaccurate description of the Attorney General’s Office’s findings.
A year later, the state’s newly elected attorney general, Democrat Kris Mayes, released records that showed Brnovich ignored the advice and edits of his own staff by releasing the interim report — and withheld two other reports from public view that found claims of voter fraud lacked evidence, were speculative, or in some cases were simply “found to be inaccurate.”
Mayes’ disclosure led to more than a dozen complaints against Brnovich with the State Bar of Arizona, and calls by some Arizona Democrats that he be disbarred
Reviving a territorial-era abortion ban
Before Brnovich left office, he also played a key role in Arizona’s debate over abortion in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down Roe v. Wade.
In 2022, Brnovich filed a motion to fully reinstate a near-total ban on abortions in Arizona’s law that dated back to the Civil War era.
The law was never repealed, but Arizona was barred from enforcing it by a court-ordered injunction imposed after the Roe v. Wade decision.
Later that year, a judge granted Brnovich’s request, allowing an abortion ban to take effect that makes exceptions only to save the life of the mother — sparking confusion given that Arizona Republicans in 2022 also passed a conflicting law banning abortions after 15 weeks of gestation.
After Roe was overturned, some Arizona clinics paused or limited abortion services, uncertain over what law should take effect in the absence of Roe.
That debate, sparked in part by Brnovich’s motion, had a cascading effect on Arizona elections later that same year — the issue helped propel Mayes, a Democrat, to victory as Arizona’s next attorney general in November 2022.
And two years later, Arizona voters overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, setting off even more legal battles over the arguably outdated abortion restrictions still on the books in Arizona law.
KJZZ's Kathy Ritchie contributed to this report.
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