SCOTTSDALE, AZ — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and her Republican opponent, Senate President Warren Petersen, repeatedly clashed in a contentious debate Wednesday night.

In addition to policy differences, the two candidates criticized each other in deeply personal terms.

Mayes described Petersen, who received his law license in December 2023, as “not qualified to be attorney general,” and Petersen said Mayes didn’t have the temperament for the office.

“Kris Mayes is known for having meltdowns, yelling, screaming, pounding her fist on the table, shouting the F-word,” Petersen said, adding he would work to restore professionalism to the office.

Mayes interrupted him, calling his comments “outrageous.”

“He’s lying to the people of Arizona in the most outrageous and disgusting and defamatory way,” she said.

Petersen cited a tweet about a meeting with federal, state, county and local law enforcement.

Mayes told reporters after the debate that the federal government had been threatening to take away the state’s Federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas funding, money used to fight drug trafficking. Mayes said she told people at the meeting that Arizona needed to fight for the dollars.

“If I’m passionate about something? Yeah. Do I, you know, drop an F-bomb every once in a while? I do,” she said. “I’m passionate about protecting the funds that the people of Arizona deserve.”

Mayes vowed to fight for Arizonans, saying she is proud to have seized more fentanyl than any other attorney general in the state’s history and to have worked to allow law enforcement to shoot down drones piloted by Mexican cartels. She also said she is proud of her office’s lawsuits against companies that use algorithms to drive up prices for rent and health insurance.

Suing the Trump administration

Petersen called Mayes too extreme for center-right Arizona, pointing to the dozens of lawsuits she has filed against the Trump administration and remarks she made earlier this year about how she was worried an Arizonan could shoot federal immigration agents if they forcibly enter a home without a judge’s warrant.

“Those that are paying attention to what Kris Mayes has been doing for the last four years know that her top two priorities are political lawfare and environmental radicalism,” he said.

He said Mayes is the wrong person to be attorney general, saying she is soft on crime, doesn’t help business and has weaponized the AG’s office. He also criticized her handling of pay-for-play allegations involving Gov. Katie Hobbs and a state contractor.

“I will be tough on crime, defend our laws and root out fraud, waste and corruption,” he said. “I’m going to protect families and businesses and keep your costs low.”

Petersen called Mayes “the most political and partisan AG this state has ever had.”

Mayes said the state sometimes has to sue the federal government, saying she’s prevailed in 83% of the lawsuits she’s filed against the Trump administration and won all three cases that have reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We do it when the federal government violates states’ rights, when the federal government harms Arizonans,” she said.

Petersen said such legal challenges should be left to states like California.

“For our attorney general to be going completely far left on a bunch of these lawsuits is a waste of money,” he told reporters after the debate.

Mayes argued the lawsuits have saved programs like Meals on Wheels, Head Start and AmeriCorps, adding up to $2.3 billion in saved funding.

“Warren Peterson seems to think it’s OK to strip away all of that funding from our state,” she said. “I mean, this is not a guy who will fight for the people of our state. I’m a fighter.”

Petersen said he is willing to challenge the Trump administration in court over Arizona’s share of Colorado River water if elected.

“If I need to sue the Trump administration over water … I will absolutely be prepared to do something like that,” he said.

Want more news in your community? Add ABC15 as a preferred source on Google below: