Arizona governor sets record for most vetoes while clashing with Republican lawmakers

The Republican-controlled Arizona legislature hasn’t agreed with Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ) on much. As a result, Hobbs has used her veto power 185 times since January 2023, breaking a state record.

The last governor to veto this many bills, Democrat Janet Napolitano, did so over the entirety of her term.

Arizona Republicans hold slim majorities in both chambers of the legislature, and they have been unafraid to push conservative legislation, such as one bill that would have required teachers to teach the Ten Commandments in classrooms, to Hobbs’s desk, despite her being a Democrat.

Hobbs spokesman Christian Slater told Axios that “radical legislators” should stop sending the governor bills that threaten abortion access, undermine democracy, and “attack our basic rights.”

Hobbs recently struck down a bill that aimed to remove the word “gender” from state law, replacing it with “sex,” in a move that Hobbs criticized.

“As I have said time and again, I will not sign legislation that attacks Arizonans,” Hobbs said in a letter.

Republican state Sen. Sine Kerr, who sponsored the bill, disagrees with Hobbs.

“(It) enshrines truth into law,” Kerr said earlier this week. “It rejects the fiction that the definitions of male and female are truly in question.”

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It’s not all negative in the governor’s office, however. Hobbs has nearly equally exercised her right to sign bills as well, with 167 signed this session so far. One recent bill signed by Hobbs prohibits courts from mandating children to reestablish contact with parents they’ve rejected in custody disputes.