With the 2026 election just around the corner, Governor Katie Hobbs is adopting right-leaning policies and stances.
On Tuesday, Hobbs announced the creation of a border task force, Operation Desert Guardian (ODG), to enhance border security. The task force strongly resembles the Border Strike Force (BSF) of Hobbs’ Republican predecessor, Doug Ducey.
This renewed focus on border security and support for a task force marks a significant departure from Hobbs’ initial stance as governor.
Early on in her first months in office in 2023, Hobbs began ending Ducey’s BSF, which included removing shipping containers intended to close off unsealed sections of the southern border. On the campaign trail in the summer of 2022, Hobbs promised to not end the BSF. By November, Hobbs indicated her intent to leave border security and immigration enforcement to the federal government.
Hobbs’ spokesman, Christian Slater, insisted in statements to the media that Hobbs’ task force differed greatly from Ducey’s strike force. However, the two share nearly identical structures and duties.
The BSF launched as an enforcement bureau within the Department of Public Safety’s Criminal Investigations Division. The strike force focused on improvements to addressing border-related crimes (for example: drug trafficking, weapon smuggling, vehicle theft recovery, and violent criminal apprehension) while evaluating and analyzing criminal intelligence and enhancing response capabilities along the border. The BSF combined federal, state, county, tribal, and local law enforcement agencies in the border region to carry out these duties, especially for disruption of transnational criminal organizations (TCOs).
By comparison, ODG also partners with local law enforcement within the border-inclusive counties to disrupt TCO operations and border-related crimes.
Hobbs reversed course on her support for Proposition 123. While still a state senator in 2015, Hobbs opposed the proposition’s arrangement increasing state land trust dollars to fund schools. Last month, Hobbs advocated for the proposition’s renewal as an “essential” means of providing “critical funding” for the state’s public schools and educators.
Hobbs also reversed course on a significant agency pick, Angie Rogers, opting instead to restore Michael Wisehart as director of the Department of Economic Security (DES); her predecessor, Doug Ducey, installed Wisehart.
Last month, Hobbs appointed another Ducey administration veteran, Kathryn “Katie” Ptak, to lead the Department of Child Services.
Some efforts undertaken by the current administration, often seen as red meat right-wing priorities, have backfired recently for the governor. Hobbs created a new six-figure role within DES (chief, or “senior executive consultant,” of the newly-created Office of Veteran & Military Affairs) that mirrors the work already undertaken by the Department of Veterans’ Services (DVS). The position went to Dana Allmond at Hobbs’ behest, the unsuccessful Democratic 2022 legislative candidate and failed gubernatorial nominee. Republican legislative leaders questioned the apparent duplicity of the new DES position and DVS responsibilities.
Per the secretary of state’s office, 11 individuals have filed statements of interest in the governor’s race: Republican candidates Alan White, Karrin Taylor Robinson, George Nicholson, Scott Neely, Donald Mucheck, Christian “Maverick” Grey, Andy Biggs, and Christopher Ames; Green Party candidates William Pounds IV and Lisa Castillo; and Libertarian candidate Barry Hess.
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Governor Hobbs has proposed a budget that is a radical’s dream. It increases funding for a laundry list of pet programs of the radical left, while at the same time cutting programs that are supported by the vast majority of Arizonans. The Hobbs budget expands funding for illegal immigrants and increases taxpayer funding of abortions. At the same time, Hobbs would kill the expansion of our popular parental school choice program and defund the Border Strike Force.
House Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci describes the Hobbs budget: “Attacking school choice, peddling state-funded abortions, and incentivizing illegal immigration in Arizona are all non-starters and, frankly, something you’d expect to see proposed by a politician in California, not Arizona.”
In response to Hobbs’ radical budget, Republicans passed a responsible, “baseline budget” which would continue state spending at last year’s budget levels, with adjustments to education and health care programs to account for inflation. When asked if Hobbs would reject the baseline budget Rep. Biasiucci responded, “If she does that, it’s party politics. This is everything we need to make sure that schools don’t shut down, make sure government stays open, make sure all our essential services stay open while we figure out what we need to do with the rest of the money.” Unfortunately, Hobbs vetoed the legislature’s reasonable budget. She is playing a game of chicken, threatening a government shutdown.
If Republicans stay united, the taxpayers will be protected from the free-spending Democrats. Given the one-vote margin in each house, we can’t afford to lose a single Republican vote. To protect us from Hobbs’ costly budget, it is essential that Republicans stick together.
I have heard disturbing reports that some Republicans are quietly signaling they are willing to cut a deal with the Democrats behind the backs of their leadership. That would severely weaken the bargaining position of Republicans as they negotiate for smaller government. More important, it would betray their constituents who voted for them based on their promises to limit the growth of state government.
Why on earth would Republicans be willing to cave to the Hobbs budget? There are a couple of possibilities. They could trade their votes for a pet project. Or they could be self-promoters with a messianic complex seeking acclaim from the liberal press as “rising above the partisan bickering.”
Believe it or not, it could happen here in Arizona. Around the country and in Congress, turncoat Republicans have made side deals to expand government spending. And though it seems odd, these quislings frequently represent “safe” Republican districts. Senator Romney comes to mind, and he is not alone.
In California, back when Jerry Brown was governor, a Republican representing the most Republican district in the state voted for the bloated budget after she had promised to oppose it. When asked why she flipped, she blithely replied that she got a new library for UC Irvine. Another Republican sold out for even less—Willie Brown promised him an office with a wet bar in it. Judas at least got thirty pieces of silver. As sure as night follows day, the press heaped praise on both of them for their “courage” in avoiding a budget impasse. But in truth, they voted against the interests of their constituents.
To avoid such a betrayal from happening here in Arizona, conservatives must press their representatives for a firm commitment that they won’t cut a side deal on the budget. We must lock in those commitments now and shut down any side deals before negotiations start in earnest.
My State Senator is Ken Bennett, and my representatives are Quang Nguyen and Selena Bliss. LD 1 is the most Republican district in the state. Conservatives shouldn’t have to worry about them keeping faith with their promises to the voters, but as President Reagan told us, “Trust but verify.”
Therefore, I am asking all three for a firm commitment that they will only vote for a budget that is supported by the rest of their Republican colleagues. The great conservative Senator Everett Dirksen famously said, “When I fell the heat, I see the light.” And I hope conservatives in all Republican districts will turn up the heat, so Republicans stay united to protect the wallets of the taxpayers.
Otherwise, it will be every legislator for themselves, and they’ll cut the hog fat. And we the taxpayers will be the hog.
Pat Nolan is the Director Emeritus of the Nolan Center for Justice at the American Conservative Union, and lives in Prescott.
The people of Arizona do not want to turn our state into the next California. But just a few weeks into her reign as governor, Katie Hobbs has made it clear—that’s exactly what she intends to do. Last week, Hobbs released her first budget plan, and it’s nothing more than a liberal wish list of big spending, extreme proposals, and corporate welfare designed to reward her special interest friends.
Her first target is education, and she wasted no time going after Arizona’s expansion of Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs). Yes, the program that is so popular that it overwhelmed the Department of Education’s website immediately after launch—the one that even some Democrats have openly supported. Despite being a private schooler herself, Hobbs wants to dismantle school choice for all with a full repeal of universal ESAs. And that’s just the start…
On Wednesday, Governor-elect Katie Hobbs flipped on her campaign promise to continue providing support for the state’s Border Strike Force (BSF).
Hobbs told AZFamily that she was “taking a hard look” at whether the BSF should continue. Hobbs reportedly expressed doubt that it was an appropriate job for the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
Hobbs’ latest remarks conflict with her campaign trail promise in June to continue the strike force. Hobbs claimed at the time that she valued the strike force in curtailing drug trafficking.
“The governor created the Border Strike Force that really in reality is a drug interdiction unit, and so continuing to provide the support so that they’re able to carry out that job,” said Hobbs.
Hobbs also claimed she would continue to support National Guard presence along the border, so long as it was needed.
Governor Doug Ducey established the BSF in 2015. Since its inception, it has received more than $100 million in state funding. This past year, the state budget awarded $11.6 million to expand the BSF, as well as $50 million to improve patrolling, physical barriers, detention, and prosecution efforts.
Since 2018, the BSF seized over 190 million lethal doses of fentanyl, 400 pounds of heroin, $14 million in cash, 700 firearms, and 8,000 prescription pills.
In April, Ducey helped launch a 26-state expansion of his statewide strike force to combat the border crisis, called the American Governor’s Strike Force. Considering Hobbs’ perspective on the state’s BSF, it’s unlikely that this coalition will continue.
That’s not all the border policy that Hobbs has in mind.
Hobbs promised earlier this month that she would remove the shipping containers closing up the border wall gaps. She told reporters that they were an ineffective, “political stunt.” Hobbs said that the state needed to rely more on the federal government rather than taking initiative on its own.
Arizonans are tired of the inaction at the border, and more importantly, they’re tired of Washington using the border as a political football. Here's what I'll get done: pic.twitter.com/8zmRb8YLWV
