When incumbent Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs’ campaign announced she’d take a hard pass on debating her 2026 gubernatorial opponent, Republican Andy Biggs, it cast her 2018 secretary of state debate in a new light. We now know that debate is the likely last in which Hobbs will ever participate.
When offered a debate opportunity versus fellow aspiring governor Kari Lake in 2022, Hobbs ghosted the Clean Elections Commission. So, whether Hobbs wins or loses this year, she’s apt to call it a day, politically speaking.
Now, I could understand Hobbs not wanting to even be in the same room as Lake. Once Lake dove into the political pool, she became very nasty to be around – certainly compared to the affable news anchor I met in the 1990s. But Biggs is different. He may hold some of the same views as Lake, but he’s a pleasant guy and much friendlier than the way his face is depicted in Hobbs’ campaign ads.
After Biggs picked former State Senator Sine Kerr to be his lieutenant governor nominee and running mate, Stacy Pearson, a Democratic political strategist I admire, said Kerr has to answer for Biggs’ congressional track record.
I disagree! Biggs has to answer for what he’s done – good and bad – and he’s supposed to answer to Hobbs in a debate, darn it. That’s. How. It. Works. In a debate, candidates lay their ideas on the table. Then, they either get knocked around like a piñata or they deflect and counter-punch. They shouldn’t get a standalone interview on PBS, like Hobbs was unfairly afforded four years ago. (Which won’t happen this year, they say.)
But Pearson might be onto something. Let someone debate – even gubernatorial placeholders. If Hobbs won’t take on Biggs mano a mano (or even womano a mano), maybe she’d agree to sending a stand-in? If not the lieutenant governor candidates, Hobbs has a perfect proxy: her twin sister, Becky, who looks exactly like Katie and even sounds like her – although Becky uses fewer “umms” and “uuhs” in her speaking cadence.
Of course, that scenario isn’t fair to Biggs. He doesn’t have a human who shares 99.9 percent of his DNA like Hobbs does. But even if he did, Democrats would just call it an “evil twin,” because a ton of Democrats think all Republicans are evil – and it still gives Hobbs an out.
Maybe it’s best Biggs doesn’t have a twin –and maybe he doesn’t because he’s not a Democrat. Seriously, think about it: Besides Hobbs, there are only four other statewide-elected Democrats in Arizona and one of them also has a twin! U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly’s brother, Scott, is not only his identical twin, but also a fellow retired Navy captain, aviator and astronaut. Woah!
Sorry, I got lost in the weirdness. Back to 2026’s harsh reality: Arizona voters won’t see a debate between two people vying to lead our state. If Hobbs is unwilling to engage in a contest of wits and ideas, maybe she’d be open to a skills competition where the moderator would yell out “border security!” – followed by a topic-deciding gubernatorial thumb war. “Affordability!” could be settled with a rousing game of Mario Kart.
I’m not looking for a cage match, but Arizona voters deserve more than Katie Hobbs tapping out before early ballots have even been mailed.
Jim Sharpe is the host of
Arizona’s Morning News
on KTAR-FM 92.3
(weekdays 5-9 a.m.).
Visit ktar.com to find
more information
about his on-air work.
