By Alexander Lomax
Photo Credit: ABC 15
Yes, it’s not even 2026 yet. But the 2025 legislative session is over, and much like how drafts and training camps allow us to peer into the future season of our favorite sports teams, there is something that allows us to handicap future political races: fundraising. Fundraising numbers for Q2 are now in…so how do they look?
If fundraising were the only metric to be used, as of right now, it’s incumbent Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs’s race to lose. In Q2, her campaign raised roughly $1.3 million, boosting her cash on hand to about $4.7 million, far exceeding that of her Republican challengers.
Perhaps most interesting is that her fundraising notably relies on small-dollar grassroots support; 93% of donations were under $100, and half came from first-time donors. In isolation that sounds like a broad base of financial support, but it also could be the result of assistance from a large national group that is bundling donations from across the country.
On the Republican side, Karrin Taylor-Robson and U.S. Representative Andy Biggs are vying to secure the GOP nomination, and the financial outcome is pretty much to be expected, where Taylor-Robson would rely on personal wealth and Biggs on significant but not blockbuster fundraising prowess
Taylor-Robson raised around $2.78 million overall in the same quarter, but much like in previous campaigns a large amount of that largess is from her own bank account. In this case, $2.2 million of that was her own money. Her cash reserve stands at nearly $876,000 after heavy spending on self-funded advertising, which was particularly eye-raising, spending large amounts of money advertising nearly two years out from election day. Her consultants certainly made good money in an election off-year though, so there’s that.
Meanwhile, Andy Biggs reported approximately $429,000 in contributions during Q2. He also brought forward about $50,000 from prior campaigns, but his campaign’s war chest remains smaller than Robson’s and Hobbs’s, as was expected. While Republicans in his own Congressional district know him well, he will have work to do introducing himself to the other eight districts.
All else held equal, Hobbs is in a reasonably strong position, as she gets to continue to accrue cash while watching her Republican opponents spend much of theirs in the next year beating each other up. That’s not a bad place to be.