Democratic Governors Association pumping $10 million in Hobbs' race in Arizona

Democratic governors are pumping $10 million into Arizona to protect who they believe is the most vulnerable incumbent in the 2026 race.

And there may be more cash coming — all on top of the money that Katie Hobbs herself and the Democratic party apparatus in Arizona have collected and are spending.

"Arizona is the swing state in 2024 that Trump won by the most," said Sam Newton, communications chief for the Democratic Governors Association. "We know that this is a really competitive race."

He also noted that registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 300,000. And then there's the fact that Hobbs managed to squeak into office in 2022 by just 17,117 votes against Kari Lake, a Republican with no experience in elective office and who divided the state GOP.

"So we're making this investment at a very critical time when people are tuning in and at the start of the general election," Newton said.

The infusion comes as Congressman Andy Biggs, the Republican nominee, already is trailing in cash.

He had to spend $2.4 million to win the four-way GOP primary, leaving him with about $1.2 million as of July 1. And, to date, there has been no commitment by the Republican Governors Association, which in the 2022 race, already had booked $10.2 million in advertising in March of that year in hopes of hanging on to the open seat being vacated by Republican Doug Ducey.

"I think they believe I can win," said Biggs, who made a trip to Colorado last week to meet with RGA officials at a political retreat. "Part of what I was doing was meeting with individual governors who will support me and will join in raising money for me.”

And Biggs said the fact the DGA is putting so much into the race shows that organization also believes he can win.

The infusion from the Democratic governors boosts the incumbent governor's already huge financial edge. Unopposed in her primary, she already has spent more than $11 million, including $7 million in the past three months.

All that leaves Biggs in the financial dust.

With just $1.2 million in the bank, Biggs has been forced to focus his media efforts on non-traditional media, meaning commercials that people can watch on their computers, phones, and tablets.

Biggs acknowledged that it's going to take cash to combat the governor's TV spots as well as get his own message out.

"Money does matter, that's for sure," he said. And he said more is now being spent since the end of the primary.

An aide to Biggs said the campaign spent $120,000 in such ads in the past week and will spend about the same amount in the coming week. But with limited dollars, Biggs said, his ads have to be "targeted."

Biggs said he remains confident that the Republican governors, recognizing the importance of the race — and the rare chance to unseat an incumbent Democrat — will start spending money. And he said there are others who will weigh in, if not giving directly to his campaign, finding ways to build public support or attack Hobbs.

That includes the political action committee of Turning Point which, even before he had won the primary, had spent $458,000 on his behalf.

The DGA's Newton said the $10 million is just an initial deposit into the race and that more money could be poured into Arizona. He said that should not be surprising — and not just because of the Republican edge in the state and Trump's 187,382 vote margin of victory here in 2024.

"The DGA is very much an incumbent protection organization," he said.

"And I'd like to think we're pretty good at it," Newton said, having managed to preserve the administrations of 26 of the last 27 Democrats who were seeking reelection.

The lone failure, he said, was in 2022 in Nevada when incumbent Steve Sisolak was beaten by Republican Joe Lombardo.