Longshot gubernatorial candidate Teri Hourihan bombarded Republican Andy Biggs, and both attacked the race's frontrunner in a debate on the eve of early voting in Arizona.
The race leader, Democratic incumbent Gov. Katie Hobbs, did not attend the Oct. 6 debate. But both opponents made complaints about Hobbs' leadership a focus of their time onstage in an hourlong meeting that at times turned tense.
"Under Katie Hobbs, achieving the American dream has become almost impossible," Biggs said. "She's been a failure."
Hourihan said career politicians — she put both Hobbs and Biggs in that category — were the problem.
"I am 41 years old, I've been here my whole life, born and raised, and I have never seen Arizona so bad," Hourihan said in her opening statement.
"I blame the elected officials, including who I share the stage with here tonight, and the one who is hiding in her basement."
Hourihan is a licensed professional counselor who has never held elected office before. She won a surprise upset for the No Labels Party's nomination for governor in July after she campaigned in social media videos that often aired grievances with Hobbs' administration.
Hobbs, who was elected governor in 2022 by less than 1 percentage point, has not attended debates she dismisses as opportunities for political theater and soundbites. Prior to becoming governor, Hobbs was Arizona's secretary of state for four years and a state lawmaker for eight years.
"It's been over eight years since she's debated publicly," Biggs said. "I think that's disqualifying. I am sure it's disqualifying. And I think it doesn't provide Arizonans with the information they need to make an informed decision."
Biggs, a congressman who represents the ruby red 5th Congressional District in the southeast Valley, is hoping to win statewide for the first time in his nearly 25-year political career. Biggs was first elected to the Arizona Legislature in 2002 and stayed there until voters sent him to Washington, D.C., in 2016.
A fourth candidate, Green Party nominee Risa Lombardo, had previously said that she would participate in the debate, but was unable to attend. Debate staffers made the announcement less than 15 minutes before the event began.
Just hours earlier in the day, the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission voted to continue an investigation of Lombardo and whether she was truly qualified for nearly $2 million in public financing she has received. Clean Elections Executive Director Tom Collins is investigating after finding a "suspicious" number of the supporters Lombardo claimed to qualify were duplicated with two other candidates.
Those aren't the only troubles for Lombardo's campaign. Her candidacy is also actively opposed by the Green Party, which claims she was recently Republican and is a sham candidate who is only seeking to siphon votes away from other contenders.
Biggs and Hourihan tussled over policy and especially Medicaid, the state and federally funded healthcare program for low-income and other vulnerable Arizonans.
Hourihan's behavioral healthcare business was flagged as part of the Hobbs administration's massive 2023 crackdown on Medicaid fraud. Her business was cleared of wrongdoing, Hourihan said, but she said that being unfairly targeted motivated her to run for office.
Hourihan said she knows the Medicaid system well because of that experience, but did not take specific positions other than to support the program. It is undergoing major changes as the result of President Donald Trump's 2025 H.R. 1, known as the Big Beautiful Bill.
Biggs supported that bill, and has previously declined to answer questions about his past votes to curtail Medicaid enrollment.
"I support giving help to those who are truly need," Biggs said. Asked after the debate how his administration would define who is truly in need, Biggs' answer was murky as he appeared to talk about provisions in H.R. 1.
He said the "current state" was that "nobody who is on traditional Medicaid is going to be cut, and nobody who's a single working adult is going to be cut. They will be asked to perform work requirements, that's probably a pretty good plan and that's where I'll sit right now." Families on Medicaid wouldn't be impacted, he said.
Though Hobbs wasn't onstage, many of her campaign's attacks on Biggs were echoed by Hourihan. Hourihan peppered Biggs, reminding viewers about his 2025 vote against releasing the Department of Justice files related to the convicted financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Biggs noted he ultimately voted to release the files.
In a discussion about securing the state's southern border, Hourihan contended Biggs could not be trusted to do so, pivoting to a controversial 2013 bill that died when he was the Arizona Senate president. The bill would have allowed police to take over in Colorado City, home to a polygamous sect of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Hobbs' campaign has spent millions accusing him of protecting pedophiles over that move 13 years ago.
Biggs said onstage the bill was poorly written and opposed by law enforcement at the time. He voted for a slimmed down version a year earlier.
And then he attacked Hourihan.
"I am just baffled that somebody with such little knowledge of either the legislative process or even water policy in this state would stand here and have the temerity to berate me and assault my character," Biggs said, adding it showed more about Hourihan's character.
Hourihan did show some inexperience, for example, she said Biggs' running mate Sine Kerr was part of Hobbs' administration until 2023. Kerr was a state senator at the time, in a separate branch of government that frequently served as a check on the Governor's Office rather than part of it.
But Hourihan sought to turn that into something that might speak to Arizonans who are frustrated with the status quo and want to see outsiders in office.
"That is what happens to people like me all the time," she said while speaking to reporters after the debate, noting Biggs at one point laughed at her comments at the podium.
"Elected officials treat us like we're nobodies, and that is what we saw onstage," she said.
Early voting begins Oct 7 and election day is Nov. 3.
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at stacey.barchenger@arizonarepublic.com or 480-416-5669.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Hourihan attacks Biggs as both target absent Hobbs in governor debate
