Key Points:

• Gov. Katie Hobbs leads in fundraising for 2026 re-election

• U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs trails behind both Hobbs and Karrin Taylor Robson

• Consultants say Biggs needs to step up his fundraising efforts

While Gov. Katie Hobbs continues to pad her campaign coffers ahead of the 2026 gubernatorial race, the Republican candidates hoping to challenge her aren’t keeping up despite presidential support. 

Hobbs’ fundraising lead over her potential opponents continues, with still more than a year until both the primary and general elections. Her campaign touted over $1.3 million in fundraising in the second quarter of 2025, bringing her total cash on hand to $4.7 million. 

The campaign reported that 93% of the donations were under $100, and half of the donations to the campaign in 2025 came from first-time donors.

“All across our state, Arizonans are supporting Gov. Hobbs because she is a leader who understands the challenges they face and is focused on delivering results,” said Nicole DeMont, Hobbs’ campaign manager. “While Washington politicians play partisan games and push reckless agendas, Gov. Hobbs is focused on lowering costs, securing the border, and bringing people together to solve real problems.”

Stacy Pearson, a Democratic consultant, said Hobbs’ fundraising haul shows the state may be headed for a pendulum swing in 2026.

“Raising $100,000 a week in a state that Kamala Harris lost six months ago is extraordinary,” Pearson said. “And out-fundraising her two Republican potential challengers combined really sets the stage for her to win reelection comfortably.” 

Hobbs will be able to mostly rest on her warchest in early 2026, but the two Republicans vying for the GOP nomination — businesswoman and lobbyist Karrin Taylor Robson and Congressman Andy Biggs — will need cash to fuel them through the August 2026 primary. Neither candidate’s fundraising came close to Hobbs’ in either quarter of 2025, and both are lagging behind in cash on hand, according to the latest campaign finance reports submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office on July 21. 

Robson’s campaign brought in over $570,000 in donations in quarter two, a decrease from her more than $800,000 haul in the first quarter of 2025. Robson also loaned $2.2 million of her own money to the campaign, roughly the same amount the campaign has spent on TV ads so far this cycle. 

Her campaign now has over $870,000 in cash on hand, but is likely to see more funds from Robson herself. She largely self-funded her first run for governor in 2022, a race that broke both campaign fundraising and spending records in Arizona. 

Biggs is trailing the two in fundraising this year, bringing in a little over $230,000 in quarter one and around $429,000 in quarter two. He is also spending less than Robson and is left with more than $430,000 in cash on hand. 

Despite receiving an endorsement from President Donald Trump in April — one he shares with Robson, who the president also endorsed in December — Biggs has not been able to capitalize on fundraising. Many political consultants have noted that, since Biggs entered the race, his years of running in a safe Republican congressional district have not provided him with much experience in fundraising.

“Biggs was never a big fundraiser. He didn’t have to be, but now that he wants to do something else, he’s got to be,” said Barrett Marson, a Republican public relations consultant. “So he’s got to really step up. And it’s hard to do that, especially when there is a viable conservative alternative, and someone who can spend quite literally millions of dollars of her own money.”

In fact, Biggs’ campaign said quarter two was the largest fundraising quarter in his political career. The campaign also touted his modest spending, noting Robson has already spent $2.7 million in 2025. 

Pearson said the lack of fundraising momentum for Biggs following his endorsement from Trump could foreshadow the impact it will have in a 2026 general election. In the 2022 general election, nearly every Trump-endorsed candidate lost at the state level in Arizona. 

“Trump’s endorsement always had the potential to be a liability and I think we’ll know in the next (campaign finance) reporting cycle or two whether or not that’s really the case,” Pearson said. 

All three candidates are seeing money pouring in from other areas, Biggs and Robson from independent expenditures and Hobbs from Democrats’ newly launched coordinated campaign. Turning Point USA’s political action committee has spent nearly $500,000 on Biggs’ behalf since early May, while a PAC formed to support Robson has spent nearly $60,000 on her behalf this year.

Marson said Biggs can’t rely on TPUSA to compensate in fundraising, noting “their money isn’t endless.” He said the congressman will need to step it up before campaigning begins in earnest in early 2026.

“Generally speaking, getting signatures and raising money, that’s all you need to be doing,” Marson said. “And Biggs has fallen behind for sure, whether it’s compared to Hobbs or compared to Robson.”

Copper State Victory, the coordinated campaign launched by Arizona’s top Democratic elected officials, raised over $360,000 in quarter two. The campaign was created to reroute funding from the Arizona Democratic Party to the Navajo County Democratic Committee after disputes with the party’s chair, who was voted out on July 16.

Pearson said Hobbs’ fundraising shows the recent party spats either aren’t reaching or aren’t deterring potential voters.

“It shows how much we can get stuck in our own echo chamber, we being people like me, political nerds,” Pearson said. “The average voter has no idea who the party chair is in Arizona.” 

The candidates will file two more campaign finance reports for 2025, one in October and another in January 2026.