Andy Biggs shares debate stage with No Labels candidate as Gov Katie Hobbs sits out

Republican Andy Biggs spent much of Tuesday night’s gubernatorial debate attacking an opponent who wasn’t there, while No Labels nominee Teri Hourihan spent hers going after Biggs.

Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs declined to participate, and Green Party nominee Risa Lombardo was a last-minute no-show.

Biggs repeatedly refocused the conversation on Hobbs’ refusal to debate, which he declared was “disqualifying” for the incumbent governor.

“Katie Hobbs … refuses to actually come out of her basement and debate with us,” Biggs said.

Minutes after the debate ended, Hobbs’ campaign manager Nicole DeMont sent a statement.

“Tonight, Andy Biggs shared a stage with a fellow long-shot candidate for a job he will never hold and still had no answer for his dangerous record of shielding child predators Warren Jeffs and Jeffrey Epstein, backing cost-hiking tariffs and voting six times for the war in Iran while Arizona families pay the price,” DeMont wrote.

Hourihan, a counselor and healthcare business owner, opened by asking Biggs about an unverified claim, circulated online in recordings linked to the Epstein case, that he physically assaulted a man when the man was a child.

“Is that true or false?” Hourihan asked.

“Yes, false,” Biggs answered. “He’s been proven to be bogus.”

Biggs said he had “never even heard of Jeffrey Epstein or Sascha Riley” and added, “I’ve already voted for the release of the Epstein files in the United States Congress.”

A Snopes review of the recordings, which name several prominent political figures, found no credible evidence supporting the allegations.

Biggs downplays water crisis

Biggs blamed Hobbs for Arizona’s latest Colorado River cuts, saying in his opening statement that she “gave up most of our allotment on the Colorado River.”

“We got quite a bit knocked off, 765,000 acre-feet,” Biggs said. “But what people forget, and when they talk about it and they start panicking, they forget that Arizona has massive and copious amounts of underground water storage. We’ve been doing that for decades.”

Hourihan accused Biggs of not believing Arizona faces a water crisis.

“He’s going to allow big business and corporations, including foreign, to come into Arizona and build, build, build, build away,” she said, calling that “very dangerous.”

Biggs, Hourihan clash over Colorado City bill

A 2013 bill targeting the police force in Colorado City, a polygamous border town, has dogged Biggs for much of the campaign, and it came up again Tuesday night.

The House-passed bill would have let the state disband the Colorado City Marshal’s Office, which was accused of protecting leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

It died without a vote in the state Senate while Biggs was Senate president.

Hourihan said Biggs failed to protect children.

Biggs called the accusation “an outrageous lie” and said she was getting her talking points from Hobbs’ ads. He added police agencies had asked him to stop the bill because it was too broad.

Biggs has previously defended his record, saying he voted for a failed 2012 bill to decertify the marshal’s office and opposed the 2013 version over how it was written.

“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. “It reflects more on her character.”

Biggs says he will accept election results

In the final moments of the debate, Biggs said he would accept the election results, win or lose.

“I will accept the outcome,” he said. He later added that he was “happy to certify the outcome of this election.”

The pledge stands out given Biggs’ role after the 2020 election.

He was among the most vocal congressional backers of then-President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election, and on Jan. 6, 2021, he voted to reject Arizona’s electoral votes for Joe Biden.

The House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol subpoenaed him over his role in efforts to overturn the results, and he declined to comply.

A former White House aide testified that Biggs sought a presidential pardon, which he has denied.

As governor, Biggs would sign off on the certification of Arizona’s statewide election results.

Early ballots go out Wednesday. Election Day is Nov. 3.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Watch the full debate on the KTAR YouTube page here.

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