By Staff Reporter |
Gov. Katie Hobbs is rumored to have picked the leader of the Republicans for Harris movement to serve as her lieutenant governor should she win in November.
Unnamed sources told The New York Times that Hobbs picked John Giles as her running mate, a former Republican and the mayor of Mesa from 2014 to 2025. Giles co-chaired Republicans for Harris, a campaign advisory committee for 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Multiple media outlets reported that Giles was a “moderate Republican,” but voter records reflect that Giles changed his voter registration to be an independent back in May and voted in this year’s Democratic primary.
Giles was initially reported to be among a handful of candidates that had allegedly rejected Hobbs’ request, according to sources cited in earlier reporting by The New York Times.
Giles has been a consistent supporter of Hobbs leading up to and throughout her governorship.
Giles served on Hobbs’ transition team; as our reporting noted, Giles was one of several on the team with connections to a fellow transition team member running a nonprofit under investigation for pandemic loan fraud. Giles had backed a proposition put forth by that nonprofit granting in-state college tuition to illegal aliens.
Giles also issued a statement commending the governor on her first 100 days in office.
During the 2024 election, Giles was promoted as leading a coalition of Arizona Republicans campaigning for Harris via their communications director at the time, Delaney Corcoran, who is currently Attorney General Kris Mayes’ campaign manager and until recently, Mayes’ deputy communications director. Giles described President Donald Trump as the “path of political extremism.”
Giles’ public commitment to the Harris campaign occurred following a widely circulated guest column in the Arizona Republic in which he criticized pro-life and pro-gun policies as “far-right” threats to constitutional rights.
“Trump poses a serious threat to our nation. We can’t have a felon representing us on the national stage, let alone one who would threaten to abandon NATO and ruin our standing abroad,” wrote Giles in the column. “Kamala Harris is the competent, just and fair leader our country deserves. This year too much is at stake to vote Republican at the top of the ticket.”
While mayor of Mesa, Giles implemented the Off the Streets program, which provides 90-day transitional housing to the homeless using roughly $14 million in pandemic relief funds. Under Giles’ tenure and following the program’s launch in 2021, the homeless population increased by 31%. Giles structured the program using the Built for Zero approach promoted by the nonprofit Community Solutions.
Giles also ensured Mesa was the first in the state to have a Google data center.
Following Harris’s loss and his departure from the mayor’s office, it appears Giles’ involvement with Arizona Republicans for Harris concluded.
Arizona campaign finance records reflect just one expenditure mentioning Giles’ Arizona Republicans for Harris group: a $600 cash payment from the Democrats of Rim County to the organization in September 2024 for signs. The address for Giles’ group was listed as “Unknown, Phoenix, AZ, 85001.”
It appears Arizona Republicans for Harris was absorbed or combined with a political action committee (PAC) that helped Joe Biden win the presidency in 2020, Arizona Republicans Who Believe In Treating Others With Respect.
Daniel Barker, retired Arizona Court of Appeals judge and leader within the Maricopa County Mormon community, co-founded the PAC with his wife, Nan, in 2020.
No campaign finance records for the PAC were available as of this report on the Arizona secretary of state website. Federal Election Commission (FEC) records report the entity to be an active super PAC which reported raising more than $470,000 in 2024. Nearly half of those funds — $200,000 — came from the revocable trust belonging to Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. $125,000 came from Justin Durand, a Mesa guest ranch owner.
Most of the funds raised went to supporting the Harris campaign.
At the national scale, Republicans for Harris has since rebranded as “Maverick,” a group of “bold centrists fighting for America.” It is maintained by Reed Howard, who formerly ran Young Republicans for Harris and currently serves as chief strategy officer for the Future Caucus.
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