Top 5 Things You Need to Know About This: The Quiet Power Move of Kris Mayes
- Kris Mayes is the Democrat who defied the odds to win the Arizona Attorney General seat in 2022, breaking a decades-long Republican hold on the office by a razor-thin margin of just 280 votes.
- She’s currently leading a high-stakes legal challenge against a controversial 1864 Arizona law that would ban nearly all abortions, a case that has national implications for reproductive rights and could reshape election-year politics.
- Mayes has become a key figure in water rights battles, pushing to enforce stricter regulations on groundwater pumping in the drought-stricken state, directly challenging corporate agriculture and developers.
- She’s launched a fraud investigation into a 2022 election audit funded by GOP allies, signaling her commitment to holding officials accountable for spreading disinformation about the integrity of Arizona’s voting system.
- Her aggressive approach has made her a target of right-wing backlash, but a recent grassroots fundraising surge suggests she’s galvanizing a new wave of progressive voters ahead of the 2026 midterms.