Arizona AG candidate Kris Mayes calls out state, federal governments over fentanyl crisis

PHOENIX – Kris Mayes, Arizona’s Democratic nominee for attorney general, said Friday the state and federal governments should both be doing more to combat the fentanyl crisis.

“It’s killing our kids. It’s tearing our families apart. We need an attorney general who will advocate for, first of all, the federal government to do its job,” Mayes told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show.

Mayes said the nation’s ports of entry need to be modernized to stop fentanyl from coming into the country.

“I will do that with the Biden administration. I don’t think they’re doing a good enough job in this area. They’re just not,” she said.

Mayes, an attorney and Arizona State University professor who served on the Arizona Corporation Commission, is facing Republican Abraham Hamadeh in the race to become the state’s top legal officer. Early voting started this week for the Nov. 8 general election.

If elected, Mayes said she plans to work with prosecutors statewide on fentanyl cases.

“I’ll be an AG who will … prosecute this and who will bring resources to help county attorneys, especially those county attorneys along the border who are trying to prosecute fentanyl,” she said. “But it’s in all of our counties. It’s here in Maricopa county; it’s throughout the state.”

Mayes also said wants the state to spend some of its $5 billion surplus on the problem.

“What in the world is it for, if not to go after something like a fentanyl crisis that’s killing our kids,” she said.

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