Katie Hobbs has a new reelection campaign ad. We fact-checked it

When she ran for office the first time, Gov. Katie Hobbs notoriously laid pretty low, trusting voters to reject far-right GOP candidate Kari Lake. Now that she’s spent three years in office — years that have also been relatively low-key, despite her constant fights with legislative Republicans — Hobbs is working to boost her name recognition as she runs for reelection.

Hobbs recently announced a multimillion-dollar ad buy for her reelection campaign, launching English- and Spanish-language ads to tout her record in office. The English ad, a 30-second spot entitled “Work,” opens with a voiceover of Hobbs saying, “My family didn’t make a lot of money.” It goes on to highlight Hobbs’ “working-class background” and a few of her accomplishments as governor. 

“And I’ll keep working,” Hobbs says at the end of the video, “to make Arizona work better for you.” 

It’s pretty bland, especially compared to the attack ad that Rep. Andy Biggs, one of the Republicans running to unseat Hobbs, released last month. Yet, there are claims worth fact-checking. Here’s how they hold up. 

At 16, she started working at a Burger King in Tempe during her sophomore year of high school and continued until the summer before she left for college. While attending Northern Arizona University, Hobbs worked at a Pizza Hut in Flagstaff during her junior and senior years.

More pertinent to her blue-collar backstory is her stint as a rideshare driver. While serving as a state senator, Hobbs drove for Uber for three months in late 2016, bringing home $2,682, according to reporting by the Arizona Republic.

It’s not uncommon for state lawmakers to have second jobs — or, more realistically, being a state lawmaker itself is often the second job. It’s a low-paid, part-time gig. However, while it’s become a common talking point for Hobbs, she got herself into some hot water over the Uber stuff, as she failed to report that income in her required financial disclosure at the time.

The budget has been balanced, because Arizona law requires it to be. The law requires the governor to submit a balanced proposed budget to the Arizona Legislature. Under Hobbs, the Republican-controlled legislature has generally tossed that proposal aside and attempted to push through its own priorities, though both sides have eventually come together all three years to hammer out a budget compromise.

It is true that taxes weren’t raised in the last three budgets Hobbs oversaw, according to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee’s four-year general fund budget analysis. You can quibble with some details around the edges — a property tax exemption for disabled veterans here, a cap on the Corporate School Tuition Organization Credit there — but the average Arizonan hasn’t faced more state taxes under Hobbs.

Then again, legislative Republicans are just as responsible for that, as Hobbs needs their signoff to pass any budget at all. The budget for fiscal year 2027 is still being negotiated between Hobbs and lawmakers. Depending on how that plays out — and what you consider a tax increase — her pledge may no longer be true. Her initial budget proposed no tax on tips and overtime but also proposed a $3.50-per-night fee for short-term rental stays and a data center water usage fee.

In a press release, Biggs campaign spokesperson Drew Sexton criticized Hobbs’ claim as “completely misleading,” adding that Hobbs’ budget proposals have been described as having “fantasy revenue” by Republican legislators. (That appears to be a reference to a Hobbs budget proposal that relied on the federal government paying back the state’s expenses for border- and drug interdiction-related activities, which may not happen.) Sexton also argued the short-term rental fee would be paid by Arizona residents.

It’s also worth noting that there’s been a fair amount of budget whiplash under Hobbs, though Republicans are just as at fault for that, too. In 2023, there was enough of a budget surplus for lawmakers to divvy up extra money for projects in their own districts. The next year brought a budget deficit of roughly $1 billion. Then in 2025, there was again a bit of extra money to spread around.

This year, the state faces more deficits, largely due to dried-up federal funding. Some better advance planning by the governor and the legislature might have blunted that damage.

In fiscal year 2025, the budget allocated $3.8 million to the Arizona Department of Education to eliminate the school meal copay for some low-income families, specifically those earning between 131% and 185% of the federal poverty level. That allocation was maintained the following year. According to the Arizona Food Bank Network, this allocation covered family copays for more than seven million meals.

Additionally, all three budgets included funding for community college financial assistance. The fiscal year 2024 budget allocated $15 million for a dual-enrollment student initiative, allowing high school students to take college courses that can be transferred to community colleges or universities. If a student received a passing grade, they’d receive a $50-per-credit-hour subsidy. That subsidy was extended over the next two fiscal years, with the amount reduced to $12 million in 2025 and then to $1.5 million in 2026, at which point it was categorized as a one-time allocation.

The fiscal year 2025 budget allocated $4 million to a community college adult education workforce development program. It allocated $3,000 per full-time student to community colleges. The program was initially a one-time allocation, but it was renewed in 2026 and increased to $6 million. In 2026, the budget specifically allocated $300,000 to the Maricopa County Community College District for wrestling scholarships.

Of course, as with any budget item, Republican votes were needed to pass all of those budgets, even if they were priorities for Hobbs more than for the GOP. 

Electricity rates haven’t gone down in general while Hobbs has been in office, though it’s the Arizona Corporation Commission and not the governor who has a say over that. The average Arizona household spent between $131 and $135 per month on its electricity bills in December 2022, a month before Hobbs took office. Now, the average household spends between $163 and $167 per month on electricity. 

Those increases are likely the result of inflation, which is a nationwide issue. In fact, when adjusted for inflation, Arizonans saw a nominal decrease in retail electricity prices, according to reporting by Grist. Still, the majority of Arizonans didn’t see their salaries and incomes keep pace with inflation, resulting in a larger share of their monthly pay going toward rising electricity bills.

It could be worse. But it’s incorrect to say Arizonans’ electricity bills have decreased under Hobbs, even if it’s beyond her control. In a press release, Sexton called this claim “jaw-dropping dishonesty” and cited a claim from the conservative Arizona Free Enterprise Club that utility rates have increased by 27% under Hobbs. (Then again, Biggs voted for the federal budget bill that nuked many of Arizona’s energy grants.)

Hobbs has taken more limited actions to chip away at energy costs, however. “We’re doing what we can to lower utility costs,” Hobbs’ spokesperson Michael Breyer told Phoenix New Times.

Breyer cited two utility programs the administration launched to help families pay their bills. In April, Hobbs and the Arizona Department of Economic Security launched a $15 million Power AZ program to expand the state’s utility bill assistance program by offering it to households with incomes below 100% of the state’s median income. Hobbs also introduced the Efficiency Arizona program, which offers homeowners an average of $7,000 in rebates to improve their homes’ energy efficiency.

Hobbs has more agency to cut red tape to build affordable housing, which she’s done — with one glaring exception.

In 2024, Hobbs signed legislation requiring cities to allow accessory dwelling units — or casitas — to be built in single-family home neighborhoods. She signed a bill forcing larger Arizona municipalities to allow the development of “middle housing,” such as duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and townhouses, in single-family residential zones. She also signed a bill that essentially prevented Scottsdale residents from voting to reject a new headquarters and associated residential development for the company Axon.