In interview, Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs talks abortion, certifying her win and working with Legislature

Arizona Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs wants to work across the aisle to solve the state's pressing issues, but there's one issue the Democrat won't compromise on: access to abortion.

Hobbs has said she would seek to overturn the state's near-total ban on abortion that dates to 1864, and in an interview with The Arizona Republic on Wednesday suggested she could take aim at a law enacted this year that prohibits most abortions after 15 weeks.

"I wasn't supportive of it when it passed, it's too restrictive," she said, noting it has no exceptions for rape or incest beyond 15 weeks of pregnancy. "The majority of Arizonans support safe, legal abortion, and we need to roll back many of the restrictions that are in place now."

Hobbs, 52, spoke to The Republic two days after she won the election to become Arizona's 24th governor. She defeated Republican challenger Kari Lake, a former television news anchor, and flipped the Governor's Office to Democratic control for the first time since 2009 and just the second time since 1991.

Arizona's 5th female governor: Katie Hobbs defeats election denier Kari Lake

She discussed her approach to leading the Grand Canyon State and her plan to work with a Legislature that will likely have a more conservative bent than any in recent history, signaling she will use her unilateral power as the state's chief executive carefully — but when she believes it's necessary.

Before she officially becomes governor, Hobbs has a prominent task before her as secretary of state, the top election official.

She said she will certify her own election win in December, despite calls from Lake and others to step aside because of the appearance of a conflict of interest if she approved her own victory.

"Certifying the election is part of the job the voters elected me to do and it is simply a ministerial task," Hobbs said. "I will sign off along with the governor, the attorney general and the chief justice of the Supreme Court."

Several Republican secretaries of state have certified their own reelections in recent decades, Hobbs noted. And the duty of the secretary of state is, essentially, just math: To take the certified results from each county, compile them, and sign off on the statewide tallies.

Two years ago, Hobbs certified the state's election of President Joe Biden, alongside Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, with whom she has worked at arm's length as secretary of state and while she was the Democratic party leader in the Legislature. On Tuesday morning, after her victory, Ducey called to indicate he "is on board to help us make sure this is the smoothest transition possible," Hobbs said.

"He was very gracious and congratulatory and just wants to make sure that we work effectively together during this transition period," Hobbs said. Her first two days as governor-elect were a whirlwind of planning who will lead her transition into office.

Before taking the oath in early January, Hobbs must build a team to comprise her cabinet. Within days of being sworn in, she will propose a spending plan to the Arizona Legislature — her ideas for how to allocate the state's roughly $15 billion budget and over $2 billion surplus — as the new session gets underway.

How Hobbs will work with lawmakers

Beyond abortion access, Hobbs said she will approach the Legislature with a spirit of negotiation and compromise.

Many of her policy goals, like better funding education and boosting teacher salaries, or creating various tax credits for education and lower-income families, will require the cooperation of a majority of Arizona's 90 elected senators and representatives. With those seats on the ballot this year, too, the new Legislature appears headed toward a more ideologically conservative makeup.

The practical implication of that could be gridlock. It also could leave Hobbs repeatedly grabbing her veto pen to keep bills she deems too extreme from becoming law. But the governor-elect hoped the deep partisan gap would not prevent the passage of crucial bills.

"We saw voters reject this extremism at a lot of levels," she said. "And so I'm hopeful that the Legislature is responsive to that."

As governor, Hobbs can decide who runs the state's roughly 30 agencies and make appointments to over 200 boards and commissions. She will have the power to issue executive orders, something she is considering though she didn't have details about topics or issues to address in her first days of office.

Who is Katie Hobbs: Advocate turned politician is Arizona's next governor and 5th female leader

Executive order was a tool governors across the nation used in an unprecedented way during the COVID-19 pandemic to shutter schools and businesses. Those orders also can do more mundane things, like set guardrails on state agency rulemaking.

"The executive order came under a lot of scrutiny during the pandemic," Hobbs said. "I think it's important to use those judiciously, but if there's an issue that we can solve by executive order, and the Legislature is being not responsive, then yeah, we're gonna do that."

She reaffirmed her position from the campaign trail that Ducey's use of shipping containers as a barrier at the state's border with Mexico, which he authorized in an August executive order, was a political stunt. Hobbs couldn't say whether she'd remove them until her administration evaluated the costs of doing so.

"I think we could do a lot of good with those containers, like making affordable housing for people," she said.

Election claims 'way out of proportion'

Lingering around Hobbs' transition to the Governor's Office is the possibility that her opponent, Lake, may file a lawsuit or otherwise take steps to stand in the way, though Hobbs brushed that aside. Lake lost to Hobbs by a slim margin, less than 1 percentage point.

Even days later, Lake hasn't conceded the race and is the only swing state gubernatorial candidate who lost this year not to do so.

The race in Arizona often pitted Hobbs' defense of the 2020 election, which gained her national prominence, against Lake's fervent claims that Donald Trump's loss was the result of a "stolen" election she would not have certified if she were governor.

Asked if it was time for Lake to concede, Hobbs said, "We are not in a time of normal political discourse and things that are part of the process of peaceful transitions of power don't seem to happen as much anymore.

"I'll certainly take her call if she calls, but I'm focused on what we need to do to get ready to lead the state," she said.

Hobbs said Lake and others have disproportionately amplified issues such as some printers on Election Day in Maricopa County that were not using dark enough ink. About 30% of printers were affected, leading to intermittent problems with tabulators reading the ballots. Lake has also questioned the length of the vote count, a topic Hobbs knows isn't unusual: Her 2018 election as secretary of state wasn't official for 10 days.

Lake, who fell behind Hobbs in the first election returns and never led in one of the most closely watched races in the nation, on Wednesday shared a message promoting an election in Germany that a court ordered redone.

Her "war room" campaign team also has posted messages calling for voters to cast ballots again in Maricopa County.

"This is part of their game plan of sowing doubt, bolstering claims of fraud, but the fact is that they're blowing the problems that happened way out of proportion," Hobbs said.

Lake's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The problems that happened in Maricopa County were limited and there was a contingency plan, allowing voters to leave their ballots in the now-infamous "door 3" boxes that Hobbs joked were the "Sharpies" of 2022.

That's a reference to theories promoted after the 2020 election that using a Sharpie pen on a ballot would affect their vote. County officials have repeatedly said there are no issues with using a Sharpie pen.

Hobbs and Maricopa County officials have said no Arizonan lost their right to vote because of the printer problems.

Arizona raises bar on national record

This year's election solidifies Arizona's record of having more female governors than any other state, with Hobbs set to become the fifth female chief executive. New Hampshire, Kansas and Oregon will have had three each come January, while 18 states have never had a female governor, including California.

The milestone is noteworthy for Hobbs, who got her start in politics after attending a campaign training for Democratic women. Her career before public office was working for a domestic violence shelter, and she made advocating for women a priority in her eight years in the Arizona Legislature.

"I never thought I'd be sitting here, but Arizona has always been a very independent state and we've elected a lot of women," she said. "It's a big deal. There are some states who still have never had a woman governor. There are now eight Democratic women governors, the most ever, and I'm really excited to be part of that."

More: Why AP called the Arizona’s governor race for Katie Hobbs

Nationwide, 2023 will see 12 female governors from both political parties, more than any other year, according to the Center for American Women and Politics based at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Asked how she would measure success as governor four years from now, Hobbs looked forward.

"Well, it's probably too early to say I'm running for reelection," she said, "but that would be the best measure, if that were to happen."

Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at stacey.barchenger@arizonarepublic.com or 480-416-5669. Follow her on Twitter @sbarchenger.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs won't compromise on abortion