Hobbs’ ‘bipartisan’ ticket hinges on a non-Republican, and unanswered questions about the job

The New York Times reported that Gov. Katie Hobbs plans to put former Mesa Mayor John Giles on her ticket for Arizona’s first election with a lieutenant governor. Hobbs has not formally announced the choice, but multiple outlets say an announcement is expected within days.

This is not a ceremonial flourish. Under Proposition 131, the lieutenant governor will be first in the line of succession and must also be assigned a concrete executive role, such as chief of staff or leading the Department of Administration, according to the Arizona Globe’s summary of the new office. If Hobbs is serious about governing, she needs to tell voters what job Giles would actually do.

There is also a basic truth-test on the “bipartisan” label. The Arizona Globe reported, citing Axios, that Giles left the Republican Party in May after years of endorsing Democrats. Axios obtained voter records showing he is no longer a registered Republican. So if Hobbs is selling a cross-party ticket, the cross is mostly rhetorical.

Giles is hardly obscure. He served a decade as Mesa’s mayor, calls himself a McCain Republican, and is rooted in the East Valley’s business community. During his tenure, Mesa expanded around Gateway Airport, pushed downtown infill tied to light rail and an ASU campus, and adopted measures like a nondiscrimination ordinance, a climate plan, and a community college tuition program, the Globe recapped.

But Giles has functioned as a Democratic surrogate for several cycles. In 2022 he endorsed Mark Kelly over Blake Masters and Hobbs over Kari Lake, appeared at a Democratic rally with Barack Obama, and framed the race as a choice between “sanity and chaos,” per the Globe. Local GOP committees censured him for it.

By 2024 he was co-chairing Republicans for Harris, endorsing Kamala Harris, and speaking at the Democratic National Convention. “John McCain’s Republican Party is gone,” he told the convention, “and we don’t owe a damn thing to what’s been left behind,” according to the Globe’s account. Whatever one makes of that line, it does not position him to move current Republican voters.

On June 26, the Hobbs campaign rolled out Giles’s reelection endorsement and, this week, launched an “Arizona Over Party” coalition that included him, the Globe reported. The reported running-mate pick followed a day later. Meanwhile, Republican nominee Andy Biggs named former state Sen. Sine Kerr as his running mate, offering voters a very different model for the office. The Globe also framed Biggs as Trump-endorsed.

Here is the problem for Hobbs’s pitch: a Republican-turned-no-party-preference running mate does not prove she can govern with Republicans. It proves she can assemble former Republicans already gone from the party. As the Globe noted, the open question is whether Giles can reach movable GOP voters who still identify with today’s party or whether he simply reflects a bloc that already left.

Process matters. Prop 131 did not create a branding exercise. It created an executive officer who will either sit in the governor’s chair if something happens or run central levers of state government. Hobbs should specify now whether she intends to make Giles her chief of staff, put him over Administration, or task him with a defined portfolio, and why he is the best qualified for that work.

Until Hobbs and Giles explain the May party switch, the scope of the lieutenant governor’s job under her, and how this ticket would manage the state, voters are being asked to buy a vibe. Arizona does not need vibes. It needs transparent roles, testable promises, and clear lines of responsibility before Arizonans vote this fall.

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