Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, announced her reelection campaign on Thursday.
“I’m proud to announce my campaign for re-election as I continue fighting for a more just and more affordable Arizona,” Mayes said in a statement.
Mayes has emerged as one of several Democratic attorneys general who have strongly pushed back against the Trump administration in court. She has joined many lawsuits challenging President Donald Trump’s tariffs, immigration policies, and his attempt to eliminate birthright citizenship.
“By protecting Arizonans from corporate greed, safeguarding our groundwater for generations to come, and standing up to Donald Trump’s unlawful attacks on our Constitution, I’ve been a lawyer for the people every single day,” Mayes said in her statement.
Mayes’s win in the 2022 election was one of the closest elections in state history. She beat now-Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ) by just 280 votes or 0.01%. That election is believed by some measures to be the only major election affected by COVID-19 deaths during the pandemic.
In 2019, Mayes left the Republican Party and joined the Democratic Party, citing Trump’s increasing influence on the GOP.
DEMOCRATIC ATTORNEYS GENERAL EMERGE AS SOME OF THE ONLY REAL RESISTANCE AGAINST TRUMP 2.0
“I was a lifelong Republican, but the party left me and many moderates like me. We need a healthy two-party system in this country, so it makes me really sad to see the party I once served has fallen this far and gotten this sick,” Mayes told The Guardian in 2022.
Mayes is the only Democrat currently running in the August 2026 primary election. On the Republican side, a primary battle is emerging between Senate President Warren Petersen and Air Force veteran Rodney Glassman.
