ROUNDUP: In Mesa, Katie Hobbs and John Giles Kick Off Historic Bipartisan Ticket With Supporters

FOX10: “To come out here and to see the mayor work across the aisle with the Democrats was a beautiful thing”

PHOENIX – On Saturday, August 15th, Gov. Katie Hobbs and her lieutenant governor pick, former Mesa Mayor John Giles, kicked off their historic, bipartisan ticket with supporters in Giles’ hometown of Mesa, showcasing the broad coalition of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents they’re building heading into the general election.

Read more below:

ABC15: John Giles joins Hobbs’ ticket as lieutenant governor candidate

• Anchor: Former Mesa Mayor Giles calls his non-traditional ticket with Hobbs historic.

• Mayor John Giles: To me, I think it’s a shining example of the behavior that needs to be modeled throughout our country. 

• Anchor: Giles, a lifelong Republican is now an Independent, a longtime critic of President Trump, who says the Republican Party has left him.

• Giles: Independent is a good place for me to be. It accurately describes where I’m at politically.

• Anchor: Now he’s running for lieutenant governor with Arizona’s Democratic Governor. Hobbs is going up against Andy Biggs, the Republican who represented Giles in Congress for nearly a decade.

• Giles: Whenever there’s a choice there’s a choice between what’s in the best interest of Arizona and his extreme political agenda, Arizona is going to lose. 

• Anchor: Giles says he and Hobbs have few disagreements.

• Giles: We share a common agenda for what our priorities are going to be and those are nonpartisan agenda items. 

• Anchor: Those priorities include economic development, education, water, and transportation.

• Hobbs: These aren’t Democratic or Republican issues. 

• Anchor: Giles and Hobbs insist the solutions should not be partisan, but the two parties are far apart on many of those issues.

• Giles: Folks in the Democratic Party, if their top issues are Arizona issues, they’re going to be thrilled with this ticket.

12 News: Gov. Hobbs, running mate John Giles host campaign kickoff event in Mesa

• Anchor: Governor Katie Hobbs and her new running mate former Mesa Mayor John Giles kicking off their campaign today. The two met with supporters in Mesa this afternoon, Giles hometown, as they start their push toward the general election. Hobbs announced Giles as her lieutenant governor pick earlier this week, Giles is a former Republican who now identifies as an Independent.

• Former Mayor John Giles: If you had said to me a few short years ago that I was going to be standing next to a Democratic governor as an Independent candidate for lieutenant governor I would have had a few questions. But the more you know about Katie Hobbs and and the more you know about John Giles, this makes perfect sense. 

FOX10: Gov. Katie Hobbs, running mate John Giles kick off campaign

• Anchor: This week Governor Katie Hobbs announced her pick, former Mesa Mayor John Giles, and the two kicked off their campaign this evening. 

• Reporter: Now during today’s event he said that had you told him years ago that he would be an Independent candidate for lieutenant governor standing with a Democrat he said that he would have some questions. But that’s the reality of this race and that is what the Hobbs campaign is leaning into, building a coalition of  voters that aren’t just Democrats. That is what they say they’re trying to do. Now Giles was born and raised here in Mesa serving on the city council before becoming Mayor in 2014, a role that he held up until last year.  Giles was a Republican up until recently and now is an Independent.

ABC15: Gov. Katie Hobbs, former Republican John Giles focusing campaign on nonpartisan issues

• Former Mesa Mayor John Giles, a lifelong Republican who left the party in May, is now running for lieutenant governor on a ticket with Hobbs, a Democrat.

• Both Giles and Hobbs told reporters they are focused on nonpartisan priorities.

• “So many of the issues we’re facing – protecting our water, protecting public education, growing the economy – these aren’t Democratic or Republican issues, and I’ve said that for four years,” Hobbs said.

• Giles said he and Hobbs disagree on “remarkably little or nothing.”

• “We have a shared agenda, and the things that are important to Arizonans and to people who are not obsessed with partisan politics are nonpartisan issues,” he said.

• When asked what their message is to Democratic voters who want progressive policies, Giles said there shouldn’t be partisan solutions to water, education and economic development.

• “I think folks in the Democratic Party … if their top issues are Arizona issues, they’re going to be thrilled with this ticket,” he said.

• “I was drawn to the Republican Party because of my admiration for people like John McCain, because of a belief in limited government and free enterprise. That’s never changed,” he told reporters. “I feel like the party left me, not the other way around.”

• Hobbs’ Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, has represented Giles in Congress for nearly a decade. The former Mesa mayor said Biggs prioritizes partisan politics, pointing to the congressman’s vote against a new air traffic control tower for Mesa Gateway Airport “minutes” after Giles met with him to thank him for his support.

• “Whenever there’s a choice between what’s in the best interests of Arizona and what is going to support his extreme political agenda, Arizona is going to lose,” Giles said.

FOX10: Katie Hobbs, John Giles launch joint Arizona campaign for governor, lieutenant governor

• Gov. Katie Hobbs campaigned for the first time with her running mate, former Mesa Mayor John Giles, a former Republican who is now an independent, on Aug. 15.

• At a campaign kickoff in Mesa, Giles defended his decision to leave the Republican Party and join Hobbs’ ticket as an independent candidate for lieutenant governor.

• “If you had said to me a few short years ago that I was going to be standing next to a Democrat as an independent candidate for lieutenant governor, I would have had a few questions,” Giles said.

• Giles said he sees common ground with Hobbs on issues including economic development, education, public safety and transportation.

• “I feel like the party left me, not the other way around,” Giles said.

• The Hobbs campaign is leaning into that appeal, saying it is building a coalition that goes beyond Democrats.

• “These aren’t Democrat or Republican issues and I’ve said that for four years,” Hobbs said. “They’re Arizona issues.”

• Sherry Von Riesen, a Mesa resident, said she appreciates Giles’ willingness to work across party lines.

• “To come out here and to see the mayor work across the aisle with the Democrats was a beautiful thing, because it’s not just Democrats and Republicans,” Von Riesen said. “It’s working together.”

• Hobbs’ Statement: “I asked John Giles to join this ticket because he shares my commitment to putting Arizona first and delivering results for the people we serve. We come from different political parties, but we share the same belief that leadership is about bringing people together, solving problems, and doing what’s best for Arizona—not playing partisan games.”

• Giles’ Statement: “This very non-traditional ticket that Governor Hobbs has put together, to me, I think is a shining example of the behavior that needs to be modeled throughout our country. We need Republicans, we need Democrats, we need Independents.”

KJZZ: Former Republican John Giles leans in to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ platform

• When Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs picked former Republican John Giles as her running mate last week, her campaign pitched the move as an olive branch to Arizona voters from across the political spectrum.

• “We come from different political parties, but we share the belief that leadership is about bringing people together, delivering results, and doing what’s right for Arizona, not playing partisan political games,” Hobbs said at a campaign kickoff event in Mesa on Saturday.

• But beyond their voter registration, Hobbs and Giles appear in lock-step on most major issues.

• “Well, like I said, remarkably little or nothing, because we’re focused on these nonpartisan agenda items, transportation, education,” said Giles, a former Mesa mayor. “There’s not a partisan approach to these very important challenges that Arizona’s facing.”

• Appealing to voters across the political spectrum is critical for Democratic candidates running for statewide office in Arizona, a state where independent voters make up more than one third of the electorate and Republicans make up the single largest voting bloc.

• But Giles, who was a registered Republican for four decades, argued there are plenty of current and former GOP voters disaffected with the state of their party.

• “So I felt like I needed to be there to advocate for people like myself that were being shoved out of the party a few months ago. I realized that’s a lost cause right now,” he said of the decision to re-register as an independent this year.

• But he said he doesn’t view Republican voters themselves as a lost cause.

• “It means we share a lot of priorities; that I identify with them,” Giles said. “And I think many of them feel like I do that they are being left behind by their party. They’re being forced out.”

• At the campaign event, Giles argued the Republican tent “is getting smaller and smaller” as the party has become fixated on partisan hot button issues like President Donald Trump’s false claims that his loss in 2020 was the result of voter fraud.

• “When it came time to defend our democracy, Andy Biggs voted to put your votes in the toilet,” he told supporters, referring to Biggs’ vote against certifying Arizona’s 2020 presidential election results.

• Hobbs and Giles contrasted those positions with the “non-partisan issues” they want to tackle, such as water, education and economic development.

• “There shouldn’t be a Republican and a Democratic solution to that. I mean, it’s a shared solution,” Giles said.

• “I’m going to spend my time out talking to Arizonans, and I have had more than 100 open press events just this year. That’s not going away,” Hobbs said.

Arizona Republic: Katie Hobbs’ running mate John Giles says GOP is a ‘lost cause’

• Giles was a lifelong Republican who left the party in May, and is now not registered with any political party.

• The event was billed as an introduction of Giles and drew a friendly group of about 100 people to his law office, Udall Shumway. Giles said those supporters had a choice: Republican gubernatorial hopeful Andy Biggs, who Giles dismissed as “Washington Andy” for prioritizing partisan politics, or “Arizona Katie,” who would tackle the state’s nonpartisan issues.

• Giles acknowledged that other than past partisan affiliation, he has a lot in common with Hobbs, who has campaigned on issues that often align with conservative ideals like tax cuts and growing business.

• They might differ on approach, he said. “But we share a common agenda for what our priorities are going to be and those are nonpartisan agenda items,” Giles said, naming transportation and education.

• On some of the state’s most high-profile issues, the pair is aligned. Hobbs and Giles agree there should be guardrails on the state’s school voucher program and supported a ballot measure enshrining abortion rights in 2024, for example.

• “As mayor he brings so much expertise in the work he did in Mesa to grow the economy, to expand educational opportunity, and so I’m really excited to have that in my administration and we’ll figure out where that fits best,” Hobbs said.