{"id":15235346,"date":"2026-07-31T03:15:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T07:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/katie-hobbs-says-she-wont-debate-andy-biggs-opting-instead-to-tour-the-state\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T06:33:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T10:33:48","slug":"katie-hobbs-says-she-wont-debate-andy-biggs-opting-instead-to-tour-the-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/katie-hobbs-says-she-wont-debate-andy-biggs-opting-instead-to-tour-the-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Katie Hobbs says she won\u2019t debate Andy Biggs, opting instead to tour the state"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gov. Katie Hobbs speaks on June 22, 2026, at the ribbon cutting ceremony at Buc-ee’s Goodyear during the grand opening of its first Arizona location. (Photo by Gage Skidmore\/Flickr<\/a>\/CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the second election cycle in a row, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is refusing to debate her Republican opponent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hobbs narrowly won the governor\u2019s seat by about 17,000 votes in 2022 after she declined to share a debate stage with Republican Kari Lake.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, the winner of the July 21 Republican primary election, is taking Hobbs to task for refusing a debate with him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cArizona voters, especially the independent and persuadable voters up for grabs this cycle, deserve to hear from statewide candidates in a traditional debate setting, one that was held in every Arizona gubernatorial race since 1954 until Katie Hobbs ran for the position in 2022,\u201d Drew Sexton, a top advisor for the Biggs campaign, said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n