Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes won a second term over Republican Warren Petersen, the president of the state Senate. The Associated Press called the race for the Democrat early Wednesday.
“I think the results say that the people of Arizona agreed with me and not Warren Petersen and the Republicans in the legislature,” Mayes said Tuesday evening, KJZZ reported. “I think Arizonans wanted a fighter.”
She read the results as voters backing the Democrats who have led Arizona for the past four years. “Look, I think it’s a sign to go full speed ahead with what we’re doing, and that’s what I plan on doing,” Mayes said.
Mayes, a lesbian, became Arizona’s first openly LGBTQ+ attorney general after winning the office in 2022. The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund backed her reelection.
From a 280-Vote Win to a Second Term
Mayes first won the office in 2022, beating Republican Abe Hamadeh by 280 votes after a recount, the Arizona Mirror reported. “Our race is, once again, a reminder that every vote matters and that democracy is truly a team sport,” she said at a Dec. 29, 2022, news conference.
Mayes grew up in Prescott and worked in Gov. Janet Napolitano’s administration before serving on the Arizona Corporation Commission, according to her Victory Fund biography. She became a Democrat in 2019, KJZZ reported.
Mayes’ Record on LGBTQ+ Discrimination
In June 2023, Mayes told Arizonans who believed they’d faced discrimination over their sex, sexual orientation or gender identity in a public accommodation that they could file a complaint with her office’s Division of Civil Rights. “My office is fully committed to enforcing these laws,” she said in a June 12, 2023, release.
Later that month, the Supreme Court ruled in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis. The case concerned compelled speech in custom wedding websites. The ruling did not create a general exemption from all anti-discrimination laws.
Mayes criticized the decision in a June 30, 2023, statement. “I will continue to enforce Arizona’s public accommodation law to its fullest extent,” she said.
Petersen’s Fight to Defend Arizona’s Trans Sports Ban
Petersen co-sponsored Arizona’s 2022 law barring transgender girls from girls’ school sports teams. In May 2023, he and then-House Speaker Ben Toma sought to defend it in federal court, the Arizona Mirror reported. “Female athletes deserve equal opportunities in sporting events,” Petersen said.
Two families of transgender girls, ages 11 and 15, had sued that April, and Mayes told state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, a defendant, that she was “disqualified” from defending the law, according to the lawmakers’ brief, the Mirror reported.
In July 2023, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Zipps blocked enforcement against the two girls who brought the case. The injunction applied to those plaintiffs, not every transgender student in Arizona. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that order in September 2024.
Petersen, Toma and Horne petitioned the Supreme Court on Oct. 17, 2024. On June 30, 2026, the justices upheld sports restrictions in cases from Idaho and West Virginia, Cronkite News reported.
That same day, the Supreme Court vacated the 9th Circuit’s judgment in Petersen v. Doe. It sent the case back “for further consideration in light of West Virginia v. B. P. J.,” according to the official docket.
Trump Lawsuits Divided the Candidates
“But she is the attention general,” Petersen said of Mayes at their Sept. 23 debate in Scottsdale, Capitol Media Services reported. “She loves the headlines.”
Petersen said Mayes could’ve let California and New York lead the legal fights with the Trump administration. “We are a center-right state,” he said. “For our attorney general to be going completely far left on a bunch of these lawsuits is a waste of money.”
Mayes said the suits protected programs Arizonans count on. “This federal government was going to defund Meals on Wheels, Head Start, AmeriCorps funding for our public schools,” she said, according to Capitol Media Services.
What Petersen Promised Arizona Voters
Petersen framed his campaign around public safety and limits on government spending. “I’m running to keep Arizona safe, free and prosperous. I do not want to allow Arizona to turn into California,” he said at the debate, AZ Luminaria reported.
“What I’m going to do is fight crime, defend the laws in the Constitution, and root out fraud, waste, and corruption,” he said.
Mayes made a different case. “I promised that I would be a lawyer for all of the people of Arizona,” she said in her opening statement.
When Does Mayes’ Second Term Begin?
Mayes’ new four-year term begins Jan. 4, 2027. The Arizona Constitution sets the start of the term on the first Monday of January after the election.
Follow Gayety’s live LGBTQ+ election results and Election Day guide for the other races and ballot measures.
