Arizona Governor 2026: the ads, and who's paying for them
Katie Hobbs (Democrat), Andy Biggs (Republican), Risa Lombardo (Green) and Teri Hourihan (No Labels) are the candidates for governor of Arizona in the November 3, 2026 general election. Katie Hobbs is the incumbent. Semblen has analyzed 15 ads in this race; 11 used at least one manipulation technique, most often appeal to fear and name calling.
Katie Hobbs (DEM, incumbent), Andy Biggs (REP), Risa Lombardo (GRE), Teri Hourihan (NLP).
On the ballot as listed by Ballotpedia. 15 ads analyzed, 11 with at least one technique in the copy.
Newest first. The paid-for-by line is the advertiser's own filing. Updated 2026-10-08.
10 of 14 (71%) flagged · Appeal to Fear (6), Name Calling (5), Loaded Language (4)
YouTube
1 of 1 flagged · Appeal to Fear (1), Appeal to Prejudice (1), Exaggeration/Hyperbole (1)
Reported Meta spend
$9,600–35,847 on all ads, $9,200–27,725 on flagged ads · Meta reports ranges; these are the sums of their ends
Example
“a safer Arizona” — Appeal to Fear, paid for by TURNING POINT PAC INC.
· the flagged ad with the highest reported spend that shows the most common technique
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Leaving out the softer ones (loaded language, glittering generalities, slogans, exaggeration, repetition): 67% of ads.
The words doing the work
The words that show up most in phrases our model flagged as loaded language or name calling in this race's ads, by number of ads.
MAGAin 3 ads· e.g. “MAGA Republicans”, “MAGA allies”
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Money in this race
Candidates for governor report their fundraising to Arizona's state campaign-finance office, not the FEC. This page doesn't cover those reports yet, so it shows no money figures.
The ads
15 ads, newest first. Video transcripts are shown as the model read them, without caption cues like [music].
Showing the 1 ad paid for by Andy Biggs for Arizona Governor. Show all 15 ads
Paid for by Andy Biggs for Arizona Governorvideo · 1:33from 2026-10-02
What is your opening statement? Governor Hobbs. Opening statements, Congressman Biggs.
Thank you. My fellow Arizonans, what a great state we live in. It is the greatest state in the union, in the greatest country in the history of the world.
That's Arizona. At least it should be the greatest. Under Katie Hobbs, we've gone from one of the most affordable states to one of the least affordable states.
We've gone from actually creating jobs to losing over 100,000 jobs last year in this state. And I will tell you this, a Biggs-Karr administration will make Arizona affordable again, make our housing affordable again. We're going to enforce our laws and make Arizona safe again.
And we're also going to enforce the border to make sure that we stop the scourge of fentanyl coming into our state. And we're also going to make sure that our education is tops in the country, that we are producing people who, if they choose to go to college, they're going to come in ready to go to college and not have to remediate. We're going to make sure that we have people who, if they want to go to a trade or a get certificated, so they can be a welder, a framer, we're going to make sure they get that opportunity, because Arizona has always been the land of creators, uh entrepreneurs, opportunists, idealists.
We've always been that leader. And we will once again be the leader under Andy Biggs and Sine Kerr.
Appeal to Prejudice: The phrase 'My fellow Arizonans' invokes in-group identity to create a sense of shared belonging and loyalty — for example: My fellow Arizonans
Glittering Generalities: Vague emotionally positive language about the state with no substantive content — for example: what a great state we live in and greatest country in the history of the world.
Exaggeration/Hyperbole: Absolute superlatives used to describe the state and country without any evidentiary basis — for example: the greatest state in the union, in the greatest country in the history of the world
Repetition: The phrase 'affordable again' is repeated twice in quick succession to reinforce the slogan through familiarity — for example: make Arizona affordable again, make our housing affordable again
Appeal to Fear: The implicit suggestion that Arizona is currently unsafe creates anxiety intended to drive support for the candidate — for example: make Arizona safe again
Loaded Language: The word 'scourge' is emotionally charged, framing fentanyl as a plague-like evil to provoke fear and urgency — for example: 'stop the scourge of fentanyl'
Appeal to Prejudice
Glittering Generalities
Exaggeration/Hyperbole
Repetition
Appeal to Fear
Loaded Language
Looks up the ad's factual claims in fact-checkers, primary sources and wire reporting. Takes up to a minute.
Watch on YouTube ↗Transcript above is auto-generated; the analysis is of the spoken words.
Follow the Arizona Governor race
An email when new ads come in from either side or the outside groups: the techniques, the words doing the work, and who paid. And each debate's analysis the morning after. One-click unsubscribe.
An ad is on this page because its own "Paid for by" line is a campaign in this race; or it ran mostly in AZ and names a nominee for governor — unless its sponsor is a campaign for some other office (a U.S. Senate or House campaign included), or it also names AZ's Senate nominees, in which case it is on the Senate race's page. Ads from outside groups appear alongside the campaigns' own.
The candidates are the ones certified for the November ballot, from the source linked at the top. Governors are state offices, so there are no FEC filings behind this page: no money figures, and outside groups are placed on a side only when they are a campaign or a party committee.
Campaigns run one text as many separate ads. Identical text from the same sponsor is one card here, marked with its number of variants.
A technique is a specific manipulative move in the wording, found by our model and explained in one line. It is not a claim that the ad is false.
Claims are checked when a reader asks: press "Check this ad's claims" on a card. The check runs once and its result is shown to everyone afterwards. The ten ads with the most money behind them in each race are checked ahead of time.
Claim verdicts say what the cited sources say. A verdict that an ad is wrong or misleading is shown only when it cites an established fact-checker or an institutional record — Congress, a federal agency, a court — and its confidence is not low; a weaker one is not shown at all. Each verdict shows what it rests on and how confident it is. If we got one wrong, press Disagree: a verdict that readers dispute and no one defends comes down.
Video ads come from the campaigns' own YouTube channels; the transcript is analyzed. Meta ads are analyzed on their text; their video and images are not, yet.
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