Key Points:

• The Senate voted to reject the nomination of Barbara Richardson to lead the Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions

• The full chamber vote came one month after Richardson was rejected by the Senate Director nominations committee

• Gov. Katie Hobbs and Democrats defended Richardson and accused Republicans of making “excuses” to reject her

The Senate has officially rejected Gov. Katie Hobbs’ nominee to lead the Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions nearly a month after the Director Nominations Committee voted against the nomination.

Barbara Richardson was rejected on a party line vote on May 6 after Republicans said her participation in insurance industry working groups and her communications with regulated entities sparked concerns over her ability to lead the department.

“There were serious flaws in the execution of the operation at DIFI that led to the rejection,” Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman, the chair of the nominations committee, said. “There were serious problems and pressure being put on … many insurance companies to bend to the will of DIFI without having gone through the regulatory framework that exists in statute and as such, denying those people due process.”

Hobbs’ spokesman Christian Slater defended Richardson in a statement provided to the Arizona Capitol Times shortly after the vote.

“Barbara Richardson is a non-partisan, career public servant who has served both Democratic and Republican governors.” Slater said. “She was railroaded by a partisan witchhunt driven by (Hoffman) and enabled by Warren Petersen and Senate Republicans who are too cowardly to stand up to his extremism. Arizonans are tired of the relentless partisan games being played by Senate Republicans, who are sabotaging basic government functions in pursuit of their ‘single most important task,’ defeating Katie Hobbs in 2026.”

Democratic Sens. Analise Ortiz and Flavio Bravo both served on the nominations committee and defended Richardson, noting her qualifications and calling the issues raised by Republicans “excuses.”

“(Richardson has) been an insurance regulator for 21 years, and has been in the industry for over 30,” Bravo said. “She’s a highly qualified candidate and served our country as an ammunition specialist in the Army Reserves.”

Richardson appeared for two confirmation hearings before the nominations committee, both of which centered around her involvement with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and her alleged refusal to issue substantive policy statements. After her first hearing on March 27, Hoffman instructed her to appear again on April 10 with a response to concerns from lawmakers and the public, but the committee rejected her anyway.

Richardson served on the Climate and Resiliency Task Force and the Special Committee on Race and Insurance at NAIC, but told lawmakers she cut all ties with them after concerns were raised and never implemented recommendations from the groups at DIFI. Republicans said the groups promoted diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, which Hoffman and other lawmakers have railed against this session.

During the vote, Hoffman said the “DEI component” was only “the icing on the cake, that was a cherry on top,” of other, more serious concerns. 

He also took issue with Richardson’s use of the Systems for Electronic Rates and Forms Filing (SERFF), a website that allows the public to view forms and rules filed by insurance companies with the department. He accused Richardson of issuing bulletins on SERFF to create new department policies instead of issuing a substantive policy statement, which could be challenged by the industry or the public at the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council.

Richardson denied using SERFF in lieu of policy statements and said she had only used it to provide clarification regarding existing statutes and department rules that were not being followed by some insurance companies. She pledged to stop posting bulletins to the site, but the promise was not enough for the committee.

Republican activists and groups came out in full force against Richardson’s nomination at both her confirmation hearings and online. Many of the members of the public who testified against her confirmation on April 10 were current or former officers of local and state Republican Party groups and decried Richardson as a “DEI activist.”

Ortiz said members of the insurance industry that came forward to speak against Richardson did so because of partisan motivations, not real problems with her leadership. She specifically called out former Arizona Republican Party treasurer and current state treasurer candidate Elijah Norton — who testified against Richardson’s nomination based on his experiences with her in Nevada — noting that he only started companies regulated by DIFI in February. 

Hoffman and other Senate Republicans rejected that argument and said other members of the insurance industry had brought up their own problems with Richardson.

She is the second nominee to be rejected by the full Senate this session after Joan Serviss at the Department of Housing was rejected in February. Richardson’s rejection comes less than a week after two other Hobbs nominees at the Department of Health Services and the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System resigned citing a refusal from the Senate to confirm them.