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Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs on her faith, her career and a bruising campaign
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Bridget Dowd/KJZZ
Gov. Katie Hobbs gives her inaugural address on Jan. 5, 2023.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has been in office a little over a week, and she’s deep into the job already.
After pledging to be bipartisan, the Democrat’s first State of the State address angered some Republican lawmakers so much they walked out during the speech. She has issued several executive orders — one designed to protect LGBTQ state workers has led to threats of a lawsuit. And Arizonans will learn even more about her intentions when Hobbs releases her first budget later this week.
From public education to abortion rights, the former social worker’s priorities are clear — and they’re riling up her conservative opponents.
Hobbs says this was what she’s been waiting to do, following a long and bruising campaign against Kari Lake.
Up against the charismatic former news anchor, Hobbs was seen as weak, often described as a timid campaigner. She notoriously refused to debate her opponent, and faced a deluge of criticism from all sides. Polls had her down throughout much of the election season, and many were surprised when she came out on top — if only by 17,000 votes.
So, what was going on behind the scenes when all of that was happening? And what led Hobbs to this position, to begin with?
The Show sat down with her to find out about that and more.
Arizona governor’s office
Katie Hobbs shakes hands with Gov. Doug Ducey during a November 2022 meeting in the governor’s office.
Interview highlights
You were born and raised in Arizona. Tell us a little bit about you and your impressions having lived here your whole life. How much it’s changed?
Growing up here, it has changed a lot. When, when we moved to Tempe, there was nothing but cotton and cornfields to the south and east of us, and it’s grown so much. And being born here, I didn’t necessarily want to stay — until I did. And I took a job where I just started getting more involved in policy, and then I felt more of a community. Like sometimes Arizona doesn’t feel like a community — and then it did. I’m an Arizonan, and I’m proud of it and really glad to be in this moment right now.
You’ve been a social worker since 1992. You worked at the Sojourner Center, one of the biggest domestic violence shelters in the in the country. What led you there? Did you always want to go down that road?
I got to college not knowing what I wanted to do, except to help people. And I think so much of it stems from how I grew up. My parents were middle class, but there were periods of struggle. And during those times, experienced a lot of just shame about the support and assistance that my family was on, like food stamps. But then also just a lot of love and support from church community and specifically the church we belong to. But then the larger just community around my parents, from that faith — it was Catholic — and I just really had a sense of belonging there. Early on, my parents were very involved. I think that had so much impact on the value of service and belonging to a community and giving back to your community. And so I knew I wanted to help people, and I don’t think I knew there was a career of social work when I got to college. And as soon as I figured it out, I was like, “Oh yeah, this is what we’re going to do.”
You were raised Catholic as you said. Did that play a role?
Oh, absolutely. I mean, I call myself a social justice Catholic. And I think really people that were some of my role models — Mother Theresa in particular just really impacted me a lot.
The big issue where you talk about your work in social work a lot is abortion. We’re in an incredibly tumultuous moment with abortion and politics and in policy. As a Catholic, how do you reckon with that? What your philosophy is there?
I think the issue of access to reproductive health care is an issue of justice. And that it’s so much an issue of women’s autonomy. I’m sure the bishop would disagree with me on this position and perhaps not allow me to receive communion. But I’m not going to back down because of that. I during the campaign talked a lot about my own experience with having a miscarriage and needing a D&C (dilation and curettage, also known as uterine aspiration), which is in effect in abortion. Even the 15-week ban — so we’re now not in the territory of having a full ban, but there’s a 15-week ban — even that has caused a lack of access to reproductive healthcare for people who need it, that are experiencing miscarriage or other complications of pregnancy. I heard a story from a therapist who had victim of incest that was so traumatized by the experience that she didn’t recognize her pregnancy until after 15 weeks. So it’s off the table for her. I fully believe this is a decision that belongs between a patient and their doctor, and that there’s no one-size-fits-all government restriction that is going to allow doctors to provide the care they need in every situation. So we have to do more to make sure that there’s more access.
What’s on this slate? What can you do here?
Well, I think all things are pointing to a ballot measure in ’24. I don’t anticipate this Legislature reversing course on the restrictions that have been put in place in Arizona.
This sounds like one of many issues to you that is really personal.
Oh, yeah. I mean, so I talked about my own story. But working in a shelter with victims of domestic violence who routinely part of the abuse they experienced was sabotage over their birth control, forced pregnancy, forced abortion. They didn’t have that autonomy. And something that’s such a personal decision when you decide to become a parent. It’s also a really important economic decision for most women and families.
You were harshly attacked during your campaign, not just from your opponent but from all sides — for not debating, for dodging the media. What do you make of that — how you chose to run this campaign and the question of transparency?
Well, I think the thing that is the most hard to reconcile about that whole thing is that I would be sitting in front of reporters talking to reporters, and they’d be asking me like, “Why aren’t you out talking to reporters or out in communities?” And they’d be covering me at community events or whatever. So it just was like this narrative that wasn’t real and it was really hard to tune out that noise and just stay focused on the plan that we knew, that we had to stick to and that we were running the campaign that was gonna win. Something that I’ve been pretty disciplined about being able to do, to just be able to state like, “We’re getting through this really tough thing so we can get to do the work that we want do and that we need to do.”
Do you plan on approaching the media transparency differently in the office now that you’re in it and you don’t have to campaign anymore?
I mean, I’m coming into this office with an imperative to increase transparency, and we’re figuring out how that looks in terms of media access. Certainly you wanna be more accessible than the previous governor. You know, the staff I have on board here in terms of the stuff that is all behind the scenes that you don’t necessarily see in public, but response to inquiries that are coming like a mile a minute at this moment; response to public records requests. And we’ve always had that responsiveness in the Secretary of State’s Office. And so certainly that is going to continue.
Do you worry that this affected the way that people view your leadership style? What is your leadership style? What do you want people to know about that?
I think that certainly the way the race was covered affected some people’s perception. There are certainly a lot of people now who are saying, “You are right. You were doing the right thing all along.” And I think that says a lot right there about my leadership style. And, and I don’t mean to say I’m not someone who’s, who’s not willing to listen to constructive criticism. I think that’s always important. And not to surround yourself by people who are just gonna always tell you yes, but who are gonna tell you what you need to hear. But at the same time, balancing that with like, knowing what is the noise that you have to tune out. Which is really hard sometimes. And then having that resolved to stick to that decision once you made it.
You’re the fifth female governor of the state of Arizona, and Arizona has this really long line of strong female leadership. If you think in the current landscape, does that mean anything to you? Does it matter?
It does. I think that at the same time that, you know, the campaign was so hard and I think it was harder for me, especially as a woman, and it sometimes I think it would be hard to tell other women they should run for office. I feel really proud to be a part of that legacy in our state, and I wish I had the chance to talk to former Gov. (Rose) Mofford and ask her advice. I sit at her desk. Her desk was in my office in the Secretary of State’s Office, and I asked them to move it up here. I just inherited former Gov. Napolitano’s veto stamp, so it has a place on Rose Mofford’s desk.
