Arizona’s Democratic Governor Set to Pick a Republican Running Mate

Gov. Katie Hobbs of Arizona, a vulnerable Democrat running for re-election, plans to tap a longtime Republican and former mayor of a Phoenix suburb to serve as her running mate, according to two people familiar with the decision.

John Giles, a former mayor of Mesa, Ariz., is expected to be announced in the coming days as Ms. Hobbs’s lieutenant governor nominee. Neither Ms. Hobbs nor her campaign would confirm the choice, and nothing is final until an announcement.

But the apparent pick is a nod to bipartisanship in a campaign that will pit Ms. Hobbs, a low-key Democrat, against Representative Andy Biggs, a fiercely partisan Republican with President Trump’s endorsement.

Ms. Hobbs’s narrow victory four years ago was secured with the backing of moderate Republicans and independent voters who have recoiled against hard-line Republican nominees in each of the last two election cycles.

Reached at his home in Mesa, Mr. Giles would not confirm or deny that he had joined the ticket, but a person close to the campaign and another close to Mr. Giles said the choice had been made.

Arizonans for the first time this November will elect a lieutenant governor running on the same ticket as the governor, thanks to a 2022 ballot measure that created the lieutenant governor position.

Calli Jones, a spokeswoman for the Arizona secretary of state’s office, said the office told all governor candidates last Friday that their lieutenant governor picks must be submitted by Aug. 7 to ensure the office has enough time to print their names on the November ballot.

Arizona has emerged as a critical swing state since President Trump carried it in 2016, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. won it in 2020, and Mr. Trump won it back in 2024. Ms. Hobbs defeated Kari Lake, a close Trump ally, by less than a percentage point in 2022, the same year another hard-right ally of the president’s, Blake Masters, lost his Senate bid. Ms. Lake lost her own Senate bid in 2024.

Mr. Biggs, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, will again try to expand an appeal to the state’s Trump base into a broader winning coalition. Last week, Mr. Biggs announced his own lieutenant governor pick, Sine Kerr, a former state lawmaker, dairy farmer and strong conservative.

A spokesman for Ms. Hobbs’s campaign, Michael Beyer, said only that the campaign had held multiple events with Mr. Giles “since he became the first endorsement in our Arizona Over Party coalition,” a cohort of dozens of Republicans and independents backing the governor’s re-election.

Mr. Giles, who endorsed Kamala Harris two years ago, told The New York Times last year that he had discussed the lieutenant governor role with Ms. Hobbs in 2024. He rebuffed her initial overtures, as did Jimmy McCain, the son of longtime Senator John McCain of Arizona, according to three people familiar with the outreach to Mr. Giles and Mr. McCain.

Last year, Mr. Giles told The Times that he was skeptical of how much the selection of a moderate Republican like himself would help Ms. Hobbs broaden her appeal if she faced Karrin Taylor Robson, another moderate Republican who was at the time running for governor. But Ms. Taylor Robson dropped out of the Republican primary in February after polling far behind Mr. Biggs.

A longtime critic of Mr. Trump, Mr. Giles spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 2024, urging moderates to vote for Ms. Harris and saying he felt “more at home here than in today’s Republican Party.” He is one of many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who have drifted away from the Republican Party in the Trump era.

Lauren McGaughy contributed reporting.