AZ Political Podcast: What were the state’s biggest political stories of 2025?

Our final AZ Political Podcast of the year is called “2025: The A-to-Z of an Arizona Political Year.”

In it, I get the honor of looking back at the past year with two of the smartest people working in Arizona politics (and two people I had the honor to work with in my past political life):

• Democrat Stacy Pearson of Lumen Strategies
• Republican Sean Noble of Washington, D.C. and London.

The three of us jump in with January and we don’t surface until December — the month that Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is holding America Fest in Phoenix — and conclude by touching on the political assassination of TPUSA’s founder, Charlie Kirk.

The latest AZ Political Podcast is a recap of 2025’s top stories

We also discuss two Republican members of Arizona’s congressional delegation who want to shift their duties from Washington, D.C., to Phoenix.

Both Andy Biggs and David Schweikert — along with Karrin Taylor Robson — are running to replace Gov. Katie Hobbs in 2026. Stacy and Sean weigh in on whether one of them might be running for governor as a way to escape D.C. politics.

In between, there are moments of levity — mostly revolving around Kari Lake’s attempts to stay relevant (which seems to be something President Donald Trump is working against).

Thanks for watching the AZ Political Podcast. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and that 2026 brings us all a heckuva midterm election year!

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