Mayes (Democratic Party) is running for re-election forAttorney General of Arizona. She declared candidacy for the Democratic primary scheduled onJuly 21, 2026.^[source]

Mayes served on theArizona Corporation Commission as a Republican from 2003 to 2011 .^[1]^[2]

Biography

Kris Mayes was born inPrescott, Arizona. She earned a high school diploma from Prescott High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in 1994 and a law degree in 2003, both from Arizona State University. Her career experience includes working as an attorney.^[1]

Political career

Below is a list of offices withinBallotpedia’s scope. Offices outside of that scope will not be listed. If an update is needed and the office is within our scope, pleasecontact us.

Mayes' political career includes the following offices:

2023-present:Attorney General of Arizona
2003-2011:Arizona Corporation Commission

Elections

2026

General election

The primary will occur on July 21, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Attorney General of Arizona

IncumbentKris Mayes is running in the Democratic primary for Attorney General of Arizona on July 21, 2026.

		Candidate
		Kris Mayes

	Incumbents arebolded and underlined.
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Attorney General of Arizona

Rodney Glassman andWarren Petersen are running in the Republican primary for Attorney General of Arizona on July 21, 2026.

		Candidate
		Rodney Glassman
		Warren Petersen

	There are noincumbents in this race.
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement,click here.

2022

General election

General election for Attorney General of Arizona

Kris Mayes defeatedAbraham Hamadeh andSamantha Severson in the general election for Attorney General of Arizona on November 8, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Kris Mayes (D)	49.9	1,254,809
	Abraham Hamadeh (R)	49.9	1,254,529
	Samantha Severson (L) (Write-in)	0.0	0
	Other/Write-in votes	0.1	3,052

	There were noincumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 2,512,390
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Michael Kielsky (L)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Attorney General of Arizona

Kris Mayes advanced from the Democratic primary for Attorney General of Arizona on August 2, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Kris Mayes	100.0	556,351

	There were noincumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 556,351
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Diego Rodriguez (D)
Bob McWhirter (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Attorney General of Arizona

The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for Attorney General of Arizona on August 2, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Abraham Hamadeh	33.6	265,636
	Rodney Glassman	23.6	186,863
	Andrew W. Gould	16.7	132,253
	Dawn Grove	12.0	94,670
	Lacy Cooper	8.6	67,742
	Tiffany Shedd	5.6	44,453

	There were noincumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 791,617
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Libertarian primary election

Libertarian primary for Attorney General of Arizona

Michael Kielsky advanced from the Libertarian primary for Attorney General of Arizona on August 2, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Michael Kielsky (Write-in)	100.0	571

	There were noincumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 571
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

Kris Mayes has not yet completedBallotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.Send a message to Kris Mayes asking her to fill out the survey. If you are Kris Mayes,click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.

Who fills out Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey?

Any candidate running for elected office, at any level, can complete Ballotpedia's Candidate Survey. Completing the survey will update the candidate's Ballotpedia profile, letting voters know who they are and what they stand for. More than 25,000 candidates have taken Ballotpedia's candidate survey since we launched it in 2015. Learn more about the surveyhere.

You can ask Kris Mayes to fill out this survey by using the buttons below or emailing info@krismayes.com.

2022

Kris Mayes completedBallotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Mayes' responses.

Expand all |Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I was born and raised in Prescott, Arizona and graduated from Arizona State University.

From 2003-2011, I served as Arizona Corporation Commissioner, during which I helped create high-paying jobs, saved Arizona consumers tens of billions of dollars, and fought climate change by requiring utilities to produce more clean energy -- including solar, wind and energy efficiency.

I pushed utilities to stop spending ratepayer money on corporate bonuses and advertising, in an effort to keep rates low. When a major natural gas company was charging too much in the wintertime, I required the company to provide customers rebates. In 2003, I took on one of the biggest gasoline pipeline companies in America and persuaded its CEO to repair or replace most of the company’s 617 miles of pipelines in Arizona after a major line ruptured in Tucson. In 2006, I spearheaded the passage of Arizona’s 15 percent Renewable Energy Standard. In 2009, I co- authored and passed one of the nation’s best Energy Efficiency Resource Standards, which saved Arizona ratepayers $9 billion.

As Corporation Commissioner, I walked into the office every day with one thing on my mind: ‘How can I make Arizonans’ lives better?’ We got big things done by working with both Republicans and Democrats, including the largest expansion of water conservation in Arizona history. That’s what you can accomplish when you focus on looking out for the people instead of focusing on politics.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

I am running for Attorney General to be an independent watchdog for the people of Arizona, protecting Arizonans against consumer fraud, elder abuse, and attacks on our constitutional rights. It’s long past time to take politics out of the Attorney General’s office and restore it to its core mission:  Consumer Protection - especially from fraud and scams aimed at elderly Arizonans  Water security and clean air - protecting Arizonans from pollution  Voting Rights and Secure Elections - protecting every Arizonan’s right to vote and have that vote counted  Protecting constitutional rights – including abortion rights – from politicians who want to meddle in private, family decisions
I am running for Arizona Attorney General to prevent the ongoing effort in our state to undermine democracy. Republicans in the Legislature and Governor Ducey have passed a series of measures designed to make it tougher for Arizonans to vote, and they have engaged in an ongoing assault on the 2020 election via the “audit” which was conducted last year. Our current Attorney General did nothing to stop this so-called audit from happening, even though it was both funded and conducted by partisan interests. As Attorney General I will legally intervene against such efforts and testify against them when they are launched at the Legislature.
I support full reproductive rights and freedoms and have been campaigning strongly in Arizona on this issue. I believe that we need a Democratic Attorney General who will fight the recently passed 15-week abortion ban, as well as the pre-existing law that would ban abortion in the event Roe is overturned. We also need an Attorney General who will fight for reproductive rights before the U.S. Supreme Court. Arizona’s constitution includes a privacy clause which is considered to be more broad than the 4th amendment to the US constitution. I believe that this privacy clause protects the right to abortion as well as many other rights, including the right to marry a same-sex partner.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am the only candidate running for Attorney General to make fighting climate change a top priority. As Attorney General I will appoint a Climate Director within the Environmental Enforcement section who will take the lead on fighting climate change, expand the number of lawyers in the Environmental Enforcement section, and will certify any clean energy rules that the Arizona Corporation Commission passes, in the hope of establishing the requirement for our state’s utilities of a 100 percent clean energy standard. I will also testify before the Arizona Corporation Commission and intervene where appropriate on clean energy and environmental issues.

Given the reality of climate change, public opinion has shifted in recent years. The change in the
public discourse from discussing “global warming” to discussing “climate change,” demonstrates
the salience of public education. Arizona’s leaders need to speak openly to the public about the
challenges we face and how we can meet them. Extreme heat, drought and wildfires are realities
that Arizonans are aware of. As Attorney General, I will work with leaders from both parties to
help the public understand why we need to address clean air and water. The Attorney General
can advocate for clean air and clean water programs and use her or his bully pulpit before
entities such as the Legislature and Arizona Corporation Commission on these issues. The AG can

also approve rulemakings by the ACC on clean energy.

The National Association of Attorneys General has described the office as being at the "intersection of law and public policy." What does that mean to you?

The Attorney General essentially leads a large public interest law firm which seeks to right wrongs, crack down on bad actors, and protect the public from powerful interests who run afoul of the law. At the same time, the Attorney General serves as the chief legal advisor to state agencies, specifically to the legal counsel in each agency.

Helping the state agencies to follow the law is part of the same mission as serving the larger public, but there are six separate Divisions (including Operations), each of which has sections within it. The State Government Division is responsible for advising most state agencies.

The attorney general often sets policy priorities for law enforcement. For example, a state's attorney general may decide to dedicate extra resources to combat human trafficking. Are there certain areas of law enforcement that you would emphasize?

I believe that the Attorney General’s office should expand the Environmental Enforcement section so there will be more bandwidth to protect Arizona from polluters. This is especially true with our air and water, which must be protected. Arizona relies on three sources of water to make life in the desert possible: groundwater, Colorado River water, and surface water. With the Colorado River water diminishing, it’s only practical to do whatever we can to protect the health of surface water such as intermittent streams.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign finance summary

Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf.Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at theFEC website. Clickhere for more on federal campaign finance law andhere for more on state campaign finance law.

Kris Mayes campaign contribution history
Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2022	Attorney General of Arizona	Won general	$3,121,812	$2,985,245
Grand total			$3,121,812	$2,985,245
Sources:OpenSecrets, Federal Elections Commission *This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

Noteworthy events

Lawsuit dismissed after Adelita Grijalva's swearing-in (2025)

On October 21, 2025, Arizona Attorney GeneralKris Mayes (D) andAdelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) filed a lawsuit against U.S. House SpeakerMike Johnson (R-La.), after he refused to seat Grijalva while the House was out of session leading up to and during the federal government shutdown. Grijalva won a special election to representArizona's 7th Congressional District on September 23, 2025. At the time the lawsuit was filed, Johnson had not called the House into session since September 19. Johnson did not swear Grijalva in for 50 days after her election.^[3] Grijalva was sworn in on November 12, when the House returned from an 8-week recess to vote on acontinuing resolution to fund the government.^[4] The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed on November 14, 2025.^[5]

In a statement when the lawsuit was filed, Grijalva said, "Speaker Johnson’s obstruction has gone far beyond petty partisan politics – it’s an unlawful breach of our Constitution and the democratic process. The voters of Southern Arizona made their choice, yet for four weeks, he has refused to seat a duly elected Member of Congress – denying Southern Arizona its constitutional representation."^[6] Johnson responded to the lawsuit, saying, "We run the House. She has no jurisdiction. We're following the precedent. She's looking for national publicity. Apparently, she's gotten some of it but good luck with that."^[7]

On October 29, the gap between Grijlava's election and swearing-in reached 39 days, making it the longest span between these events in U.S. history.^[8] Before Grijalva's election, there were three otherspecial elections to the U.S. House during the119th Congress. Two special elections in Florida on April 1, 2025, resulted in the election ofJimmy Patronis (R-Fla.) andRandy Fine (R-Fla.). Both Patronis and Fine were sworn in during a pro forma session the following day.^[9]James Walkinshaw (D-Va.) was elected in a special election in Virginia on September 9, 2025, and was sworn in the next day during a regular session.^[10]

External links

Search Google News for this topic

Candidate

Attorney General of Arizona

Officeholder

Attorney General of Arizona

Personal

Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by Mark Brnovich (R)	Attorney General of Arizona 2023-Present	Succeeded by -
Preceded by -	Arizona Corporation Commission 2003-2011	Succeeded by -

	v • e State ofArizona Phoenix (capital)
Elections	What's on my ballot? \|Elections in 2026 \|How to vote \|How to run for office \|Ballot measures
Government	Who represents me? \|U.S. President \|U.S. Congress \|Federal courts \|State executives \|State legislature \|State and local courts \|Counties \|Cities \|School districts \|Public policy

Retrieved from "https://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=Kris_Mayes&oldid=10862872"

Categories:

Movatterモバイル変換

Kris Mayes

Biography

Political career

Elections

2026

General election

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Attorney General of Arizona

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Attorney General of Arizona

Endorsements

2022

General election

General election for Attorney General of Arizona

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Attorney General of Arizona

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Attorney General of Arizona

Libertarian primary election

Libertarian primary for Attorney General of Arizona

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

2022

Campaign finance summary

Noteworthy events

Lawsuit dismissed after Adelita Grijalva's swearing-in (2025)

See also

External links

Footnotes

Information about voting

2026 Elections

2025 Elections

Election analysis

Trending

Public Policy

Information for candidates

Get Engaged

Services

Additional analysis

SITE NAVIGATION