This post originally appeared at https://thestarnewsnetwork.com/2025/04/08/arizona-senate-president-warren-petersen-running-for-attorney-general-since-legislature-is-already-acting-as-the-de-facto-ag/

Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Mesa) announced recently that he is running for attorney general, challenging incumbent Democrat Kris Mayes. So far, only one other Republican has filed a Statement of Interest: Rodney Glassman, a formerly active Democrat and aide to the late Representative Raul Grijalva, who ran for office multiple times.

Petersen sat down with The Arizona Sun Times to explain why he decided to enter the race.

Petersen (pictured above), who was endorsed by Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) on Monday, said multiple key people recruited him to run. They perceived him as capable of beating Mayes since, in the last election, he outperformed even President Donald Trump in his East Valley district by 2.5 points. A poll taken before he decided to run showed him beating Mayes. Petersen said the best candidates can garner more support than Trump. He said someone once said that Arizona is a red state; it just has some bad Republican candidates.

He became a lawyer in 2020 after passing the bar exam. He has practiced real estate law and worked as a prosecutor. While working for the City of Scottsdale, he handled nine trials.

Petersen said he’s already acting with the Arizona Legislature as the “de facto AG” since Mayes refuses to defend the state’s conservative laws, prompting the legislature to step up and intervene.

Mayes’ record is pretty bad, he said. She sued the legislature over using some opioid funds from her office and lost, resulting in her paying the legislature $40,000 in attorneys fees. Petersen is fairly certain Mayes has lost all her battles with the Republican-controlled legislature so far.

Similarly, the legislature’s high-profile tangles with the other two top Democrat officials in the state, Governor Katie Hobbs and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, resulted in losses for the Democrats. Last year, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled that Hobbs violated Arizona law when she appointed “de facto directors” to lead state agencies without securing Senate consent. The Arizona Court of Appeals sided with Petersen and the Republican Party last month in their lawsuit against Fontes for making illegal changes to the state’s Election Procedures Manual.

Petersen told The Sun Times that he would crack down on election fraud.

“There will be no fraud when I’m attorney general because the recorders will fear me.” He said he will send them a warning letter ahead of elections instructing them to preserve all election records, including the Cast Vote Record, in case there is litigation. “Prevention is better than prosecution,” he said.

Distinguishing himself from Mayes, he said, “We already have the laws; we just need someone to enforce them.” Instead of fighting the Trump administration like Mayes, who has filed 15 lawsuits against Trump this year, he said he would enforce its policies.

Petersen said Fontes isn’t much better than Mayes.

The state senator ranks among the most conservative members in the State Senate. He regularly tops ratings from conservative organizations, often achieving a perfect score. His lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union is 97. Progressive Arizona Republic opinion columnist Laurie Roberts admitted that it is the “most conservative Legislature in our lifetime.” Petersen said part of that conservative agenda was getting five bills proposed by the Arizona Free Enterprise Club successfully referred to the ballot. He already “DOGED” the Senate, he said, cutting its budget by $2 million.

Petersen explained why some constituents attack the legislature for not doing enough. He said legislators act like they can do everything — when the reality is they can jump in and defend the law when the attorney general won’t, but they can’t prosecute. Similarly, the public needs to call law enforcement or an attorney for many issues, not the legislature.

Petersen said more key endorsements will be released this week. He will eventually release a list of his accomplishments at the legislature, showing how it became more conservative under his leadership.

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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to rachel.r.alexander@gmail.com.
Photo “Warren Petersen” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.

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