Karrin Taylor Robson, an legal professional and enterprise government with ties to the state’s GOP institution, launched a second run for governor of Arizona on Wednesday — this time with Donald Trump’s backing.
Her bid comes roughly three years after she misplaced a brutal Republican governor main to Kari Lake in a race that drew nationwide consideration due to Lake’s private and nasty assaults on Robson. In 2022, Lake had Trump’s endorsement.
“I’ll struggle daily alongside President Trump for stronger borders, a stronger financial system, and a stronger Arizona,” Robson wrote in a launch that talked about the president’s title a dozen instances.
Trump supplied Robson an endorsement earlier than she entered the race when he visited Phoenix in December 2024. “You’re going to have my assist,” Trump said of Robson.
It was a remark that drew sharp criticism from the hard-liners in Arizona’s Republican Occasion, who really feel Robson shouldn’t be conservative sufficient. And Robson can have a main as soon as once more. Republican Rep. Andy Biggs, a former chair of the Home Freedom Caucus and Trump ally, is accumulating signatures to run.
Robson has a protracted historical past in Arizona. She served as vice chairman of an actual property improvement firm primarily based within the state and later opened up her personal land-use consulting firm. Then-Gov. Doug Ducey appointed Robson to the state’s Board of Regents in 2017 and she or he remained there till she resigned to run for governor in 2021. Ducey endorsed her bid, turning the first with Lake into one thing of a proxy battle between himself and Trump.
Lake ran an underfunded marketing campaign towards Robson, who invested hundreds of thousands of her household’s wealth into her run. Lake accused Robson of “making an attempt to purchase the election along with her 95-yr-old husband’s hundreds of thousands.” (Robson’s husband, Ed, is an actual property developer.) Lake additionally attacked followers of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and accused one other main rival of being “OK with particular wants children being” sexually assaulted.
As Lake ran for Senate in 2024, she tried to make amends with Robson and ultimately earned her endorsement. Trump named Lake to steer the Voice of America.
Robson hopes to oust Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. Hobbs is among the many most weak governors up for reelection in 2026. She solely narrowly received the workplace 4 years in the past and Trump received Arizona final November.
