Kimberly Yee leading Tom Horne in bitter GOP primary for Arizona schools chief

State Treasurer Kimberly Yee is leading incumbent Tom Horne in the Republican primary for Arizona superintendent of public instruction Tuesday.

While votes are still being counted, Yee leads 54.1% to Horne’s 45.9% in one of the most expensive and personal down-ballot contests of the cycle.

On the Democratic side, Teresa Leyba Ruiz, a former president of Glendale Community College, cruised past behavior analyst and educator Brett Matthew Newby with nearly 80% of the vote.

The superintendent race was among the priciest in Arizona this year, with $1.6 million spent across all four candidates. More than $1 million of that was concentrated in the Republican contest, according to data compiled by The Beam, an investigative journalism outlet.

The GOP primary turned personal. Horne accused Yee of promoting DEI, while Yee attacked Horne over campaign finance violations from his time as attorney general.

“It does make sense that there’s so much spending because these candidates are out there really hitting each other hard and trying to counter what the other has said about them,” said Evan Wyloge, a journalist with The Beam.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Shira Tanzer contributed to this report.

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