Do we like them?

Do we like Katie Hobbs?

Our score: 7 out of 10. A solid record of vetoing anti-trans bills, with one old staffing mess and a contested donor-contract probe on the other side.

Hobbs is a social worker by training who came up through domestic violence services before politics, and she has leaned on that identity as governor. In October 2023 she signed a proclamation and an executive order keeping alive a state commission on violence against women. It's a thread that runs through her whole pitch.

The old stain is a staffer's firing case from her days as the Senate's Democratic leader. A federal jury found the state Senate had fired a staffer after she complained about her pay, and testimony put the decision with Hobbs. In December 2021 she issued a video apology, and the staffer said she was unmoved by it.

The newer cloud was the alleged pay-to-play row. A June 2024 Arizona Republic report alleged a group home operator that gave about $400,000 to her inauguration committee and the state Democratic Party then got a 30% rate rise. Hobbs denied wrongdoing. In August 2026 AG Kris Mayes, a fellow Democrat, said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute, though Republican lawmakers launched their own probe and issued subpoenas in September.

On the harm check she comes out well. In May 2025 she vetoed a bill blocking trans people from updating birth certificates, along with a DEI funding ban, and told lawmakers to “focus on real issues that matter and impact people’s every-day lives.” Earlier vetoes of school bathroom bills drew the same kind of response. I found nothing from her on climate denial, anti-vax claims or targeting migrants.

In 2024 she signed the repeal of Arizona's near-total 1864 abortion ban, a move reproductive rights groups wanted. She also signed it knowing a 15-week limit would remain. There's a centrist streak, too: critics on her left have called her too moderate, and I haven't dug into every budget deal.

So the verdict is a yes. She's a rare Republican-state Democrat who holds the line when it counts for trans and queer kids, and the mess in her record is real but not a pattern of mistreating people. Where you land on the donor-contract story depends on whether you trust the AG's finding or the Republican-led probes that followed.