Attorney General candidates square off in contentious debate

Want to learn more about what the two candidates running for Arizona Attorney General will do if they win office? Do anything but watch Wednesday night’s debate. Mud was slung. Spats were had. But informative policy discussion? Fuhgeddaboudit.

For just under an hour on Wednesday night, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and her Republican challenger, State Senate President Warren Petersen, faced off in a debate hosted by Clean Elections and the Arizona Media Association. In theory, they covered topics like immigration, election security, utility rates and water access. 

But to say they debated the issues or shed light on the nuances of their approach if they win (or keep) office is generous. Instead, the two sparred in a studio in Scottsdale with Danielle Lerner and Steve Goldstein moderating. Petersen accused his opponent of “political lawfare” and “environmental radicalism” while Mayes nicknamed him “Pay-to-Play Petersen,” and criticized the length of his…legal career (get your mind out of the gutter, Phoenix!).

“I can’t even believe that your party nominated you for this position,” she said. 

It was reminiscent of the infamous Hofstra Affair, the first presidential debate in the 2016 election between Hillary Clinton and then-Republican candidate Donald Trump. It was marred by virulent hostility, an endless string of interruptions, and pugilism with the moderators. The Hofstra debate was novel. It had its moments. It was maybe entertaining. It was not illuminating. Afterward, the country’s politicos and think-piece writers debated debates and touted the benefits of literally cutting off candidates who misbehave. 

Mayes and Petersen engaged in similar acrimonious crosstalk, interrupting and arguing. Goldstein and Lerner never silenced the candidates during their tirades, but they did threaten to. 

“We’re happy to cut your mics,” Goldstein told the candidates about halfway through. “That’s fine with us.” A little while later, after Mayes snapped back at Petersen for interrupting, Lerner had to reiterate the threat.

KTAR news counted how many times the undynamic duo accused each other of lying. Eleven in total. Peterson can claim ownership of seven of those accusations. One popped out of his mouth in response to a question from a moderator about whether he agrees with any of Mayes’ ever-growing pile of lawsuits against the Trump administration. Petersen, instead, continued their previous argument about an alleged “meltdown,” to use Petersen’s terminology, that Mayes experienced according to a Republican state senator who posted about it on X. 

“This is truly disturbing that Kris Mayes would look into the camera and lie to your face,” Petersen said about Mayes’ denial of the incident.

Reporters assigned to cover the debate waited in a separate industrial-feeling room in the same building as the studio. They sat on hard chairs at fold-out tables on their laptops, their cameras at the ready in the front of the room near an empty podium. Quietly, they watched the squabble unfold nearby on television screens. Some groaned. “What about the question!” one seated at a table in the front of the echoey room said. 

Petersen eventually said something vague about water. Don’t worry, Mayes did not rise above the fray for her version of that question either. She too began her answer by fixating on the alleged “meltdown.”

When the hour was finally over, the candidates joined the media — separately. Before they entered the room, the reporters joked around. 

“Who won the 2020 election?” someone yelled.

“Who won the 1920 election — pop quiz!” another reporter responded. Mayes and Petersen said in their answers to one of the final questions that they would accept the results of the 2026 elections “100%,” to quote them both. (Petersen aided Trump’s 2020 election probe). 

It was a brief press gaggle where the combat continued. Reporters poked and prodded to get at the substance lacking from the previous hour with some success. Then, the night ended. Time, as True Grit’s Mattie Ross would say, just got away from the press corps. 

If this is the best we can expect from a political debate in 2026, then maybe Governor Katie Hobbs has a point with her debate dodging after all.