Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs has won a second term. CBS News projected the Democratic incumbent the winner at about 8:38 p.m. Arizona time on Tuesday night, shortly after the first batch of unofficial results was released, and the Fox News Decision Desk also projected Hobbs's reelection — a hold for Democrats in one of the country's most closely watched battleground states, against a Republican challenger personally backed by President Donald Trump.
Source: Arizona Globe — Hobbs wins second term
In the Associated Press vote count, which the AP had still not converted into a formal race call at the time of publication, Hobbs had 1,012,520 votes to 720,441 for Republican Congressman Andy Biggs — about 58.4 percent to 41.6 percent — with 1,255 of Arizona's 1,762 precincts reporting and an estimated 71.24 percent of the vote counted. The projections by CBS and Fox rested on that widening margin: the first returns reported by the Arizona Mirror at 8:23 p.m. already showed Hobbs at approximately 58 percent to Biggs's 40 percent, figures reflecting early ballots returned before Election Day, with substantial numbers of ballots still awaiting tabulation.
Source: Associated Press — Arizona Governor results
A Wider Win Than 2022
The projected margin is far more comfortable than the race that first made Hobbs governor. In 2022 she defeated Republican Kari Lake by approximately 17,000 votes. This time she faced Biggs, a five-term congressman, a former chairman of the House Freedom Caucus and a close political ally of President Trump. Trump endorsed Biggs and campaigned for him in Arizona, a state the president carried by approximately five percentage points in 2024 — so the result also reads as a rejection, in a state Trump won, of the president's chosen candidate on a night his party lost control of Congress.
Money followed the same pattern. According to the Arizona Mirror, Hobbs raised approximately $15 million compared with $5.8 million for Biggs, and outside organizations also spent heavily on the contest. At the Arizona Democratic Party's election-night gathering, U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego greeted the early returns enthusiastically, telling supporters: “You smell that? Smells like victory!”
Source: Arizona Globe — Hobbs wins second term
A First in the Lieutenant Governor's Office
The election also makes history one rung down. Hobbs's running mate, former Mesa Mayor John Giles, will become the first person ever to hold the office of lieutenant governor of Arizona, a position voters created through a constitutional amendment in 2022. Giles, a longtime Republican who became an independent earlier this year, joined Hobbs's ticket in August in an explicit effort to appeal across party lines. “So, Gov. Hobbs and I are different people. We have different perspectives,” Giles said in an August interview with KTAR, defending his decision to join the Democratic ticket. Announcing the pick, Hobbs made the same pitch: “If you believe in solving problems and putting Arizona first, there's a place for you on this team.”
Biggs campaigned on lowering taxes, reducing housing costs, protecting school choice and strengthening border security, and he frequently criticized Hobbs's record — particularly her extensive use of the veto against legislation passed by Arizona's Republican-controlled Legislature. After his July primary victory he declared that “no matter what your political party is or your background, you deserve a better leader than Katie Hobbs.” Hobbs also faced criticism over allegations that a state contractor received preferential treatment following political donations; she has denied wrongdoing. Republicans made the controversy a campaign issue, while Hobbs emphasized her record of bipartisan budget agreements and her efforts on affordability.
The governor's office in Phoenix signs or vetoes the state budget, education and housing policy, and the state's side of border and immigration enforcement debates — decisions felt directly by Arizona's large Latino population and by its growing South Asian and Punjabi communities in the Phoenix valley, from small-business owners to the truck drivers who run the I-10 and I-40 freight corridors through the state. A second Hobbs term means the veto pen that blocked Republican bills for four years stays in Democratic hands for four more.
One question election night did not settle is which party will control the Arizona Legislature. Early returns on Tuesday showed Democrats leading in several competitive legislative districts, but those contests remained unsettled as additional ballots were counted — and that balance will decide how much of either side's agenda can actually become law in Hobbs's second term.
Counting continues: Tuesday night's projected victory remains subject to completion and certification of the vote count, and Arizona's official statewide canvass is scheduled for November 23. Hobbs will begin her second term in January 2027 — this time with Giles as lieutenant governor, rather than the secretary of state standing next in the line of gubernatorial succession.
A media projection is not an official result, and the remaining ballots will change the final numbers. But with a lead approaching 300,000 votes in the AP count and two network decision desks calling the race on the first returns, Hobbs's hold on the governorship was one of the clearest battleground results of the night.