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Kristin Mayes

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Kristin Mayes

Arizona Attorney General

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Kristin Mayes

Arizona Attorney General

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Kristin Kay Mayes is an American lawyer, politician, and journalist who has been the 27th Arizona attorney general since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she was previously a professor of practice at Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law and chair of the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Occupation: politician
Position held: Arizona Corporation Commissioner
Citizenship: United States
Born: September 6, 1971

Democratic Partypolitical party Republican Partypolitical party Arizona Corporation Commissionerposition held Arizona Attorney Generalposition held Columbia Universityeducated at School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia Universityeducated at Sandra Day O'Connor College of Laweducated at Arizona State Universityeducated at United Statescountry of citizenship

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Kristin Kay Mayes (born September 6, 1971) is an American lawyer, politician, and journalist who has been the 27th Arizona attorney general since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she was previously a professor of practice at Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law and chair of the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Mayes was first elected in 2022, defeating Republican nominee Abraham Hamadeh by 280 votes. She is the second woman elected to the office (after Janet Napolitano), the third openly lesbian woman elected state attorney general (after Maura Healey and Dana Nessel), and the second openly LGBT person elected to statewide office in Arizona (after Kyrsten Sinema).

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Also known as Kris Mayes, Kristin Kay Mayes

About Kristin Mayes

Kristin Kay Mayes is an American lawyer, politician, and journalist who has been the 27th Arizona attorney general since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she was previously a professor of practice at Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law and chair of the Arizona Corporation Commission.

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Occupation: politician
Position held: Arizona Corporation Commissioner
Citizenship: United States
Born: September 6, 1971

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Kristin Kay Mayes is an American lawyer, politician, and journalist who has been the 27th Arizona attorney general since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she was previously a professor of practice at Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law and chair of the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Occupation: politician
Position held: Arizona Corporation Commissioner
Citizenship: United States
Born: September 6, 1971

Democratic Partypolitical party Republican Partypolitical party Arizona Corporation Commissionerposition held Arizona Attorney Generalposition held Columbia Universityeducated at School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia Universityeducated at Sandra Day O'Connor College of Laweducated at Arizona State Universityeducated at United Statescountry of citizenship

Article

Kristin Kay Mayes (born September 6, 1971) is an American lawyer, politician, and journalist who has been the 27th Arizona attorney general since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she was previously a professor of practice at Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law and chair of the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Mayes was first elected in 2022, defeating Republican nominee Abraham Hamadeh by 280 votes. She is the second woman elected to the office (after Janet Napolitano), the third openly lesbian woman elected state attorney general (after Maura Healey and Dana Nessel), and the second openly LGBT person elected to statewide office in Arizona (after Kyrsten Sinema).

Contents

4.4Lawsuits against the Trump administration

5Personal life

Early life and education

Mayes was born and raised in Prescott, Arizona. After graduating from Prescott High School she attended Arizona State University (ASU) on a scholarship from the Flinn Foundation. While attending ASU she served as editor in chief of the State Press, the university's newspaper. She graduated valedictorian from ASU with a degree in political science.

Journalism career

Mayes worked as a general assignment reporter for the Phoenix Gazette, and later as a political reporter for The Arizona Republic, covering the Arizona State Legislature. Mayes then won the Harry S. Truman Scholarship and attended graduate school at Columbia University in New York, where she earned a Master of Public Administration.

Following graduate school, Mayes returned to The Arizona Republic, where she covered the 2000 presidential campaigns of Senator John McCain, former Vice President Dan Quayle, publisher Steve Forbes and Governor George W. Bush. From this experience, Mayes co-authored a book entitled Spin Priests: Campaign Advisors and the 2000 Race for the White House. After the presidential campaign, Mayes attended ASU College of Law and graduated magna cum laude.

Early political career

Mayes was the press secretary for Janet Napolitano during the 2002 Arizona gubernatorial election.

Arizona Corporation Commission

Governor Napolitano appointed Mayes, then a Republican, to the Arizona Corporation Commission in October 2003. She devoted much of her effort towards pipeline safety, renewable energy and natural gas issues.

Mayes was elected to a full term in a 2004 special election, defeating Libertarian nominee Rick Fowlkes. In 2008, Mayes considered a candidacy for Arizona's 1st congressional district. She was term-limited in 2010 and was succeeded in her position by fellow Republican Brenda Burns.

In 2019, Mayes left the Republican Party and joined the Democratic Party, citing the expansion of Trumpism within the Republican Party.

Arizona Attorney General

2022 election

Mayes was the Democratic nominee in the 2022 Arizona Attorney General election, running against Republican Abraham Hamadeh. The race was one of the closest in Arizona history and required a mandatory recount because the vote difference was significantly less than the 0.5% vote threshold required by state law for recounts. The recount started on December 5, 2022.

In the final vote tally, Mayes led by 510 votes. On December 29, Judge Timothy Thomason announced the results of the recount, confirming Mayes as the winner with a reduced margin of 280 votes.

Tenure

Mayes took office as Attorney General on January 2, 2023.

In January 2024, Mayes announced that the Attorney General's office would file suit against Kroger's proposed acquisition of Albertsons, citing antitrust laws. In June 2024, investigators from Mayes's office raided the Apache County Attorney's Office in connection to allegations of County Attorney Michael Whiting's "misuse of public monies" and "threatening and intimidating a political opponent".

On November 1, 2024, Donald Trump spoke at a rally in Arizona in which he said of former congresswoman Liz Cheney, "She's a radical war hawk. Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her. Okay, let’s see how she feels about it. You know when the guns are trained on her face — you know, they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building". That day, Mayes launched an investigation as to whether Trump's statement qualified as a prosecutable death threat under Arizona law.

Mayes supported Arizona's constitutional amendment codifying abortion rights.

Prosecution of 2020 fake electors

In July 2023, Mayes's office announced that it was "investigating the transmission of an alternative slate of electors" by allies of former President Donald Trump to be counted by Congress during the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count. Mayes's office indicted 18 individuals in April 2024.

Lawsuits against the Trump administration

As of October 2025, Mayes' office has filed 39 lawsuits against the Trump administration. Collectively, these lawsuits protected $1.5 billion in federal funds allocated to Arizona.

Personal life

Mayes is openly lesbian and has a daughter, Hattie. Mayes is the second woman elected Arizona Attorney General (after Janet Napolitano), the third openly lesbian woman elected attorney general of a state in the United States (after Maura Healey and Dana Nessel), and the second openly LGBT person elected to statewide office in Arizona (after Kyrsten Sinema).

Article from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), where it is maintained by volunteer editors.

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Democratic Party Republican Party Arizona Corporation Commissioner Arizona Attorney General Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law Arizona State University United States