When President-elect Donald Trump came to Arizona last month to celebrate his win, he announced his support for someone who didn’t get it in her bid for governor a few years ago: Karrin Taylor Robson.
Then, Trump backed Taylor Robson’s GOP primary opponent, Kari Lake. And, at the time, Taylor Robson didn’t want the former president’s support. Oh, how the times have changed.
She once called him a “drag” on the Republican Party, but today, Taylor Robson supports the incoming president. Though, she’s not considered a MAGA Republican.
Reaction from GOP hardliners has been mixed — and now, questions are swirling about who might run from the Republican side against incumbent Katie Hobbs in two years.
KJZZ's Camryn Sanchez has been covering it all and joins The Show now to tell us more.
Full conversation
LAUREN GILGER: Good morning, Camryn.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Good morning.
GILGER: OK, so the new state lawmaker, like the new state lawmakers have barely taken office. We're barely starting this new year, but we're already talking about the next election. Has Robson even said if she is running yet?
SANCHEZ: No. But there's, you know, there's no time like the present, and you can't get too much of a jump on things, I guess. In this case, it seems as if, you know, she has a good shot if she wants to jump into the race. I think pretty much everyone is expecting her to, given that she has this new endorsement, which really opens all these doors for her, because last time, the thing that kind of tanked her campaign is that she had to go against Kari Lake and Carrie Lake had that MAGA wing of the party. But now, if Karrin Taylor Robson already has it in the bag, or at least Trump and his support, then she'll be walking in with a really nice advantage.
GILGER: Tell us more about Karrin Taylor Robson. She ran for that nomination a few years ago as a more kind of centrist, traditional, middle of the road Republican, lost to, as you said, MAGA, you know, acolyte Kari Lake in 2022. Tell us more about her.
SANCHEZ: Well, she's been around forever, and she's known for being a somewhat wealthy and influential person in the Valley, and I believe her father was the head of the state Senate at one point. He was also on the Corporation Commission. She had a big real estate business, and I believe her brother was also on, I think, the Board of Supervisors, so a lot of experience staffing for politicians and being in that world, etc.
So when she ran, you know, she had the support of sort of that wing of Republicans, people you might expect, not the MAGA wing of the party. And of course, going up against Kari Lake. We all remember who Kari Lake is and who would be in her corner, and it turned out that Kari Lake won and she had to go up against Katie Hobbs and then of course, Katie Hobbs beat Kari Lake and then, of course, once again, Kari Lake ran for something and she didn't make it. Now she's been tapped by Trump. She intends to lead Voice of America, so she's kind of moved on and now we're looking at who else is going to be running for governor in 2026. That's the big question. That's the biggest position available, right?
Karrin Taylor Robson, even though she hasn't announced that she's running, she did thank Trump for the endorsement, and she did say something supportive about him, which is a break from the past because not only did he endorse Kari Lake, but she was endorsed by Mike Pence, and she endorsed Mike Pence a few years ago.
GILGER: Yeah, yeah. So what does this say about the sort of takeover, the MAGA takeover of the Republican Party here in Arizona? Is Taylor Robson still representative of that more traditional business friendly branch of the GOP?
SANCHEZ: I guess we'll have to wait and see what she does because typically during campaign season we have to watch and see, you know, what are people doing and how are they adjusting themselves to make sure they're getting all the votes that they need. I also wonder on the other side of that, does it mean that the MAGA wing of the party is more willing to work with the other kinds of Republicans? Does it mean that Trump is making more of an effort to do that, because presumably someone talked to him and said, “Hey, we think this person has a shot at winning. You should really consider endorsing her.”
And that's how we got to this point, which was not something that all of the Freedom Caucus and all the MAGA Republicans loved, by the way. I mean, there was plenty of pushback to the idea of Karrin Taylor Robson getting his endorsement, people calling her a RINO and a swamp creature on social media.
GILGER: Right, right. So some pushback from Trump loyalists to this endorsement. What about some of the other Republicans who have expressed interest or at least been rumored to be thinking about running for governor next time around? We've got names out there being floated like Congressman Andy Biggs or Turning Points’ Charlie Kirk.
SANCHEZ: I saw that Kirk and Biggs specifically were completely silent about it, but I heard that other Republicans like Jake Hoffman were more vocal in their frustration, and Jake Hoffman is another name I've heard that he could be possibly interested in running for governor.
But, you know, it makes it a lot harder if your opponent already has the Trump endorsement to go up against that person if you're in the MAGA wing of the party, because that's The vote you're trying to get is the Trump supporters, right? And if Trump supports someone else, then what are you telling those people?
But keep in mind, you know, it's still so early that Trump could change his mind, or he could even double endorse, which sounds like a weird concept, but he's done it in the past.
GILGER: Yes, he has. So what chance, I mean, a couple of years out here, so, you know, everything can change obviously, but what chance does a Republican candidate have against Katie Hobbs coming up? Like Katie Hobbs won very very narrowly back in 2022 on sort of a centrist ticket as well. Is there a sense among Republicans that Taylor Robson would have won if she had been the one up against Katie Hobbs in that general election?
SANCHEZ: I've definitely heard that suggested. I think Katie Hobbs is vulnerable to being taken out. I think she's been in for a few years. Republicans have been watching her and working hard against her, and I think that they're building a long campaign of anti-Katie Hobbs sentiment and campaign signs, campaign slogans, campaign fodder. So I think that Republicans are maybe well positioned, especially considering this last year's results.
