Key Points:

• Gubernatorial candidates are tossing around labels like “career politician” and “political outsider”

• All four candidates have long careers in or around politics, despite labels

• Incumbent Gov. Katie Hobbs was a social worker before 2011

As 2026 grows ever closer, Arizona’s gubernatorial candidates are going on the offensive, attempting to pigeonhole their opponents — and themselves — with labels about their political experience.

Phrases like “career politician,” “Washington politician” and “political outsider” have been hurled by the campaigns of the four candidates vying for the Ninth Floor: Gov. Katie Hobbs, U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, U.S. Rep. David Schweikert and businesswoman Karrin Taylor Robson. But each candidate’s professional career is a little bit more complex than the labels their opponents are trying to attach to them. 

All four gubernatorial hopefuls have had long careers in or around politics, each treading their own path to their current positions. 

“Career politician” Gov. Katie Hobbs

Despite attempts to brand the governor as a career politician, Hobbs was a social worker before entering politics in 2011. She is the first and only social worker elected governor in the United States. 

After being elected to the state House of Representatives, Hobbs continued in the social work field for much of her time in the Legislature.

According to financial disclosure statements, Hobbs worked at the domestic violence shelter Sojourner Center in various roles between 2011 and 2015. During the same time period, Hobbs was serving in the House and then the Senate. 

The governor also pursued several other jobs while in the Legislature, many of which she held concurrently with other positions. She worked as an adjunct professor, held contract positions with local nonprofits, ran a political training program and managed volunteers for Phoenix Pride.

At times, Hobbs held as many as four positions in one year, while also driving for Uber to earn extra money for Christmas presents for her family. 

“She ran for office after working in domestic violence advocacy and seeing politicians look the other way as Arizona families struggled,” Michael Beyer, Hobbs’ campaign spokesman, said in a statement. “Her opponents are exactly the kind of out-of-touch politicians she ran to challenge: career politicians and a billionaire corporate lobbyist who put partisan politics ahead of Arizonans.”

Financial disclosure statements show that Hobbs did not begin to focus on politics as a full-time job until she was elected secretary of state in 2018.

“Washington politician” and “career politician” U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs

Hobbs has attempted to portray Biggs as out of touch with the needs of average Arizonans after spending nearly a decade in Congress, and Taylor Robson, who is likely to be Biggs’ most significant Republican contender, has continually criticized him as a career politician who got his start in Arizona politics more than two decades ago.

Biggs first ran for office in 2002, successfully snagging a seat in the state House of Representatives. After serving the maximum eight years in the House, Biggs moved to the Senate, where he became president in 2013. 

Biggs’ tenure as Senate president overlapped with Hobbs’ stint as Senate minority leader and the two have spoken about their cordial working relationship. 

After 14 years in the Legislature, Biggs ran for his current seat in the 5th Congressional District in 2016. He hasn’t faced a competitive primary or general election challenge since his first run for the seat. 

Biggs is an attorney by trade, and he worked as a prosecutor for the city of Phoenix before opening his own practice in Mesa. He did not practice law or hold any other job during much of his time in the Legislature, according to financial disclosure documents. 

The congressman became a multimillionaire in 1993 after winning $10 million from the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes. Biggs also reported income from a publishing company he owned, which published two books he wrote in 2011 and 2015. 

In a 2013 interview with the Western Growers & Shipper Magazine, Biggs said he did not have a road map for his political future.

“If I have a road map it is very short term,” Biggs said. “I never thought of holding public office as a career.”

In a statement, Biggs’ campaign consultant Drew Sexton emphasized the congressman’s involvement in his local community.

“Congressman Biggs has always valued serving his community, whether it be in a leadership role in his church or in public office,” Sexton said. “East Valley residents know the congressman well and trust him to stand for their conservative values, which is why voters keep electing him and why Arizona will choose him to be their next governor.”

“Washington insider” U.S. Rep. David Schweikert

Hobbs and Taylor Robson also accuse Schweikert of being a career politician too deeply entrenched in the politics of Washington, D.C. to focus on Arizona. However, like Hobbs and Biggs, Schweikert got his start in local politics.

Schweikert was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1990 and served for four years before being appointed chair of the State Board of Equalization. He served in that role for eight years.

In 2004, Schweikert was appointed chief deputy treasurer of Maricopa County and later that year elected treasurer. He resigned from that position in 2007 to run unsuccessfully for Congress. Schweikert was elected to his current seat in the 1st Congressional District in 2010. 

Professionally, Schweikert owned a real estate investment company called Sheridan Equities. He was a managing member of the company until 2023, according to federal financial disclosure reports. 

Schweikert’s campaign is branding him as a workhorse and the only Republican in the race who “isn’t a sellout,” according to a radio ad. 

“In Congress, I helped write President Trump’s tax cuts, fought for the toughest border security laws out there, and voted for the largest spending reduction in American history,” Schweikert’s website reads. 

“Political outsider” Karrin Taylor Robson

The biggest misconception about Taylor Robson’s career history comes not from her opponents but from her supporters. Building A Better Arizona, a political action committee formed to bolster Taylor Robson’s campaign, ran an ad in early December claiming the businesswoman is a “political outsider.”

However, most Arizona politicos know that Taylor Robson has a long history of involvement in state politics, despite never having held elected office. She is the daughter of former Senate President Carl Kunasek and the sister of former Maricopa County Supervisor Andy Kunasek, both of whom spent decades in office. 

Taylor Robson is also an attorney by trade, specializing in land-use, zoning and real estate. She has been a registered lobbyist in the state since 1999, with a few gaps in the early 2000s and during her first run for governor. 

Taylor Robson was executive vice president and a lobbyist at real estate development company DMB Associates, a principal at local law firm Biskind, Hunt & Taylor and eventually founded her own land-use consulting firm, Arizona Strategies.

She was appointed to the Arizona Board of Regents by former Gov. Doug Ducey in 2017, and served until 2021. Taylor Robson also leads Arizona PAC, a group that poured significant funds into strengthening Republican majorities in the Legislature in 2024. 

Most recently, Taylor Robson was a lobbyist for Resolution Copper, before terminating her lobbyist registration in March. Her campaign spokesman did not respond to requests for comment, but Building a Better Arizona PAC doubled down on her “political outsider” status in a post on X.

“Karrin Taylor Robson is the ONLY candidate who isn’t a career politician,” the PAC wrote. “It’s obvious career politicians cannot get the job done.”