Kristin Kay Mayes (born September 6, 1971) is an American reporter, lawyer, and politician who is the

Arizona Attorney General The Arizona Attorney General is the chief legal officer of the State of Arizona, in the United States. This state officer is the head of the Arizona Department of Law, more commonly known as the Arizona Attorney General's Office. The state attorn ...

. A member of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

, Mayes was elected in 2022, defeating

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

Abraham Hamadeh by a margin of just 280 votes, making this one of the closest elections in the state's history. Previously Mayes was a Professor of Practice at

Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (ASU Law) is one of the professional graduate schools at Arizona State University in Phoenix, Arizona. The school is located in the Beus Center for Law and Society on ASU's downtown Phoenix campus. The law ...

and Chair of the

Arizona Corporation Commission The Arizona Corporation Commission is the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Arizona, established by Article 15 of the Arizona Constitution. Arizona is one of only fourteen states with elected commissioners. The Arizona Constitution exp ...

. Mayes is the second woman elected Arizona Attorney General (after

Janet Napolitano Janet Ann Napolitano (; born November 29, 1957) is an American politician, lawyer, and university administrator who served as the 21st governor of Arizona from 2003 to 2009 and third United States secretary of homeland security from 2009 to 20 ...

), the third openly lesbian woman elected attorney general of a state in the United States (after

Maura Healey Maura Tracy Healey (born February 8, 1971) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the Massachusetts Attorney General since January 2015. She is the governor-elect of Massachusetts, having won the 2022 Massachusetts gubernatorial elect ...

and

Dana Nessel Dana Michelle Nessel (born April 19, 1969) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the 54th Attorney General of Michigan since January 2019. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Nessel is the second openly lesbian woman elected at ...

), and the second openly LGBT person elected to statewide office in

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

(after

Kyrsten Sinema Kyrsten Lea Sinema (; born July 12, 1976) is an American politician and former social worker serving as the senior United States senator from Arizona since January 2019. A former member of the Democratic Party, Sinema became an independent in ...

Early life and education

Mayes was born and raised in

Prescott, Arizona Prescott ( ) is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2020 Census, the city's population was 45,827. The city is the county seat of Yavapai County. In 1864, Prescott was designated as the capital of the Arizona T ...

. After graduating from Prescott High School she attended

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

(ASU) on scholarship from the Flinn Foundation. While attending ASU she served as

editor in chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of the ''

State Press State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

'', the university's newspaper. In addition, Mayes won the

Harry S. Truman Scholarship The Harry S. Truman Scholarship is the premier graduate fellowship in the United States for public service leadership. It is a federally funded scholarship granted to U.S. undergraduate students for demonstrated leadership potential, academic ...

. She graduated

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution. The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA ...

from ASU with a degree in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

Journalism career

Mayes worked as a general assignment reporter for the ''

Phoenix Gazette The ''Phoenix Gazette'' was a newspaper published in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It was founded in 1881, and was known in its early years as the ''Phoenix Evening Gazette''. In 1889, it was purchased by Samuel F. Webb, who at the time was ...

'', and later as a political reporter for ''

The Arizona Republic ''The Arizona Republic'' is an American daily newspaper published in Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain. Copies are sold at $2 daily or at $3 ...

'', covering the

Arizona State Legislature The Arizona State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is a bicameral legislature that consists of a lower house, the House of Representatives, and an upper house, the Senate. Composed of 90 legislators, the s ...

. Mayes then attended

graduate school Postgraduate or graduate education refers to Academic degree, academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by higher education, post-secondary students who have earned an Undergraduate education, un ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, where she earned a

Master of Public Administration The Master of Public Administration (M.P.Adm., M.P.A., or MPA) is a specialized higher professional post graduate degree in public administration, similar/ equivalent to the Master of Business Administration but with an emphasis on the issues of ...

. Following graduate school, Mayes returned to ''The Arizona Republic'', where she was assigned to cover the 2000 presidential campaigns of Senator

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...

, former Vice President

Dan Quayle James Danforth Quayle (; born February 4, 1947) is an American politician who served as the 44th vice president of the United States from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republic ...

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

Steve Forbes Malcolm Stevenson Forbes Jr. (; born July 18, 1947) is an American publishing executive and politician who is the editor-in-chief of ''Forbes'', a business magazine. He is the son of longtime ''Forbes'' publisher Malcolm Forbes and the grandso ...

and Governor

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

. During this time 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 Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

Arizona Corporation Commission

Mayes was appointed to the

in October 2003. She devoted much of her effort towards

pipeline Pipeline may refer to: Electronics, computers and computing * Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on ** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to risk management, the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are ...

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

and

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

issues. Mayes was elected to a full term in a

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

special election, defeating

Libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

nominee Rick Fowlkes. Term-limited in 2010, she was succeeded by fellow Republican

Brenda Burns Brenda Burns (born November 22, 1950) is an American politician, real estate agent and member of the Republican Party from the state of Arizona who served as a member of the Arizona Corporation Commission from 2011 to 2015. Elected in 2010, she wa ...

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

Trumpism Trumpism is a term for the political ideologies, social emotions, style of governance, political movement, and set of mechanisms for acquiring and keeping control of power associated with Donald Trump and his political base. '' Trumpists ...

within the Republican Party.

Arizona Attorney General

Mayes was the Democratic nominee for the

2022 Arizona Attorney General election The 2022 Arizona Attorney General election took place on November 8, 2022, to elect the next Attorney General of Arizona, attorney general of Arizona concurrently with other 2022 Arizona elections, federal and state elections. Incumbent Republic ...

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

Electoral history

References

Notes

External links

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes
''official state government site''
Kris Mayes for Arizona Attorney General
campaign website
Official Arizona Corporation Commissioner profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mayes, Kris 1971 births 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American women lawyers 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century American women writers American political journalists American politicians who switched parties American newspaper reporters and correspondents American LGBT politicians American women journalists Arizona Attorneys General Arizona Democrats Arizona Republicans Arizona State University alumni Journalists from Arizona LGBT people from Arizona LGBT lawyers Living people Politicians from Prescott, Arizona Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law alumni School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University alumni Women in Arizona politics