Governor candidate Robson: ‘My top priority in this campaign and as governor will be keeping Arizona safe’
July 29, 2025 | Karrin Taylor Robson
Karrin Taylor Robson, a candidate for Governor of Arizona, said her intention to prioritize public safety by supporting law enforcement and collaborating with federal authorities. This announcement was made during an appearance on the Grand Canyon Times Podcast.
“I will have the president’s back,” said Taylor Robson. “I will allow our local law enforcement to work with ICE agents to get the violent criminals out of our state. My number one priority in my campaign, and when I’m governor, will be to keep Arizona safe.”
Arizona’s current gubernatorial campaign is centered around public safety and immigration enforcement. According to the Arizona Mirror, Republican candidates are advocating for mandatory cooperation between state law enforcement and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In contrast, Democrats and some law enforcement officials express concerns that such measures could undermine community trust and local discretion. The debate has intensified around legislation requiring police to honor ICE detainers, underscoring Arizona’s significant role in national discussions on immigration and public safety.
The Commonsense Institute and federal prosecutors report that Arizona experienced an 11% decline in violent crime from 2020 to 2022. However, violent crime rates remain approximately 10% higher than a decade ago. In early 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office charged 261 individuals in one week for immigration-related offenses, highlighting ongoing law enforcement efforts along the border. These statistics indicate both progress in reducing crime and the continued importance of immigration-related prosecutions in Arizona.
Robson is an attorney and business executive who holds a Juris Doctor degree from Arizona State University. She served on the Arizona Board of Regents and has previously advocated for increased law enforcement funding and closer state cooperation with ICE, as reported by OnTheIssues. She has held senior positions at DMB Associates, founded Arizona Strategies, and was the runner-up in the 2022 Republican gubernatorial primary, where she emphasized public safety and border security.
According to the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Arizona’s law enforcement agencies include state police, county sheriffs, and local departments that coordinate with federal partners like ICE and Border Patrol on border and immigration issues. Despite recent declines in violent crime rates, these remain above historic lows as border enforcement continues to be a top priority in Arizona.
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FULL, UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to the Grand Canyon Times podcast.
0:04
I’m your host, Leyla Guen.
0:06
In this episode, we welcome our guest Karrin Taylor Robson.
0:10
Karrin is a lifelong conservative, business leader, mother, and grandmother running for governor of Arizona with the endorsement of President Donald Trump.
0:20
While not a career politician, her business acumen helped build one of Arizona’s top land use and economic development firms.
0:28
Karen, welcome.
0:30
Thank you, Leila.
0:31
Thank you for having me.
0:32
Well, Arizona’s gubernatorial election isn’t until November of 2026, but you’re already making some inroads as a candidate, starting with the endorsement from the president.
0:43
So, this isn’t your first encounter with President Trump.
0:47
You’ve been a major supporter during all three of his elections before we kind of dive into your relationship.
0:53
Why did you decide to run for governor?
0:57
Well, Leila, I have, I’ve been immensely blessed in my life with the opportunity to pursue the American dream.
1:05
I started working at a very young age, stocking shelves and sweeping floors at my father’s pharmacy, and, and my parents just instilled in us a work ethic, and it was, it was a blessing.
1:17
And me and my siblings all learned the value of hard work at a very, very young age and We were also taught to, to give back and attempt as you may, to, to leave it better than you found it, so to speak, and it’s, it’s easier said than done these days, but because of, of the privilege of being born an American, I, I’ve watched too many of the rungs on the ladder be taken off the bottom, and I want my kids and grandkids and everyone else’s kids and grandkids to have the opportunity to live the American dream.
1:53
And as they say, you, you can’t take it with you.
1:56
And so at the end of the day, I want to be able to look at my kids and, and say I tried, I did everything I could to pass on the legacy that I inherited so that the American dream and the promise of America can live on.
2:09
Yeah.
2:10
And you have some pretty pointed criticism of Katie Hobbs, the current governor, and I wanna talk a little bit about that, but first, you had mentioned.
2:18
You’ve come a long way from sweeping the floors of your father’s pharmacy.
2:21
Can you share with our audience just briefly, your ascent into business and where you find yourself today?
2:31
Yeah.
2:32
Well, it’s been a long journey, but one I’m, I’m quite thankful for.
2:36
In fact, my entrepreneurial spirit started at a young age when I was working in my father’s store, just kind of a fun anecdote.
2:43
I used to buy from him these little erasers that you’d put on top of your pencils that look like animals or.
2:49
Bars or what have you.
2:51
I’d buy them from him, from the store for a nickel and I’d take him to school and sell them to my classmates for 10 cents.
2:59
And that was until the nuns came along and found out what I was doing because I was actually taking my classmates’ milk money.
3:07
So my business got shut down very quickly.
3:10
But I did other similar things along the way, just trying to, trying to make money, and my parents just always taught us you gotta make your own way.
3:19
So from cleaning houses to collecting newspapers and aluminum cans before recycling was a thing, that’s just what we did.
3:26
I, I put my way through, paid my way through college, paid my way through law school, got scholarships, just did whatever, whatever needed to be done.
3:35
And all of those experiences, one thing leads to another like I, I referenced the, the latter before you just keep doing what you can do to get ahead and, and then I, I got married before I went to law school.
3:51
I had my first child during law school, ended up with 4 kids and, and running my law firm.
3:58
And then I had what I consider a tragedy in my life when I discovered my husband had another family.
4:07
And so I had to just, you know, keep going.
4:10
I had 4 kids and just keep going.
4:13
And I, I just thank God every single day that I had a good education, and that I had opportunities to work because never, never made and never allow yourself to be a victim.
4:23
That was something I was taught early.
4:25
And so you just keep going.
4:26
And that’s what I’ve done ever since.
4:29
Goodness gracious.
4:30
So your ex-husband was leading a double life.
4:34
Yeah, that’s crazy.
4:37
So, so, and that’s one of life’s experiences that obviously you wouldn’t wish on, on anybody.
4:44
But that would easily kick someone down, not encourage them to not just keep going, to keep their head above water, but here you are now finding yourself campaigning to be Arizona’s next governor.
4:56
So I’m, I’m, I’m very accustomed to challenge and, and change, but if you proceed with a heart full of gratitude and to just try and leave the place better than you found it.
5:10
Like I said earlier, you just, you keep going and I’m, I’m, my kids, knock on wood, have all turned out pretty good.
5:17
Even my husband’s out on the campaign trail trying to help me.
5:21
So it’s, I believe in redemption, I believe in good hard work and just treating people well.
5:26
So you just keep going.
5:28
Well, the political bug has been bitten.
5:30
Now , people who find their current leadership to be doing just fine, don’t typically run to campaign against them.
5:40
So, clearly there are things that the current governor.
5:44
Katie Hobbs is not doing to your satisfaction, to your standards.
5:49
So maybe you could talk a little bit about why you’ve decided to run, what are some of the particular issues that you feel that Katie Hobbs is falling short for the citizens of Arizona.
6:01
Well, there’s, there’s a long and growing list of reasons why Katie Hobbs is a disaster for our state.
6:07
We need to take our state back.
6:09
Our state has been blessed with good conservative leadership for generations, and that has created a great environment for a strong and resilient economy, and, and we see the wheels falling off right now.
6:22
on so many things because of her lack of leadership and, and lack of capability, quite frankly, and, and understanding of the, the myriad of things that governors need to deal with.
6:33
She recently, I mean, she’s now holds all sorts of records for vetoing bills coming out of the legislature.
6:39
She’s vetoed 150 already in this year’s legislative session.
6:44
She vetoed a bill that would ban China.
6:47
From buying land, specifically the People’s Republic of China, from buying land near our military bases, Arizona has a long and storied history when it comes to the military.
6:57
I have served as a civic leader for the United States Air Force for over 25 years.
7:02
I had the opportunity to, to travel all over the world with the with the Air Force from Afghanistan to to South Korea, to Japan to Alaska and all points in between, and those experiences have Number one, given me an incredible sense of gratitude for the men and women who put on that uniform, but also a very in-depth understanding of national security, the military, and the dangers that confront our country and, and Arizona specifically.
7:35
And so to allow foreign adversaries like China to get anywhere near our military installations here in Arizona is simply unacceptable.
7:45
And, for her to veto that bill signals that she does not understand the importance from a national security perspective, nor does she understand it from an economic perspective, because Arizona’s military installations add incredible economic impact to the state of Arizona.
8:03
That’s just, that’s the tip of the iceberg because she’s vetoed bills that would allow our local law enforcement to work with President Trump.
8:11
, and recently she vetoed a bill that would deter anti-Semitism in our schools and on our college campuses, which is we, we turn on the TV and we see all these protests against Israel and, and it is just unbelievable what’s what’s going on to the Jewish population in America and around the world in, in light of what happened on the savagery on on October 7th.
8:37
Right.
8:38
Now, who would you say, certainly a governor’s decision affects everyone who lives in the state, but who is most impacted by some of these issues that you mentioned and and what’s at stake if these issues are not addressed?
8:56
Well, just yesterday, I had the opportunity to visit Nogales, Arizona.
9:01
Last week I was in Yuma, Arizona, two very important border towns, and, and, and those communities, those border communities take a disproportionate share of the impact that local law enforcement, every single day they’re involved in issues related to the border and And yet they don’t, it’s just from an economic perspective, they don’t get, they don’t get repaid for that, right?
9:27
You see you in Nogales, you have a community of 22,000, and yet they have to deal with on the illegal side and, and even on the, on the commercial side, a disproportionate share of the cost of being border communities and so on.
9:42
The taxpayers, the, the, the residents of those communities every day are paying more.
9:47
Our hospitals in Arizona, for example, have to, they take anybody that walks in their door.
9:54
And so having a disproportionate share of the illegal immigrants, because we’re here in a border state, it costs everybody in the state of Arizona.
10:04
It has been estimated that in Arizona, The cost to the Arizona taxpayers of all the social and education and everything else is upwards of $2 billion.
10:16
So to answer your question about the impacts of some of these things, that’s just, that’s one example that is costing every Arizona.
10:24
When you talk about anti-Semitism in our schools, if we allow teachers to teach anti-American curriculum, anti-Semitic curriculum, that affects every child, every school child and their families.
10:40
We, so these policies are dangerous.
10:42
Katie Hobbs has made, I would argue, Arizona more dangerous.
10:49
I also believe that if we didn’t have a Republican legislature in Arizona, Katie Hobbs would turn this state into California overnight.
10:58
She is, she is a, a liberal progressive, and, and the only constraint on her at this point is, is our.
11:06
Legislature.
11:07
So I don’t want our state to have to be in that posture, right?
11:12
I want this state to thrive as a conservative state that believes in the individual that creates an environment so every individual can achieve their God-given destiny, and we don’t have that today.
11:24
Yeah.
11:25
Now, your campaign has certainly caught the attention of President Trump.
11:31
He has endorsed you, but this is not your first foray into a relationship with the president.
11:36
Maybe you could share a bit about the philosophies that you align yourself with with the president and also how far back you two go because you’re very supportive starting from day one, it sounds like.
11:48
Yes, yes, we supported him in 2016, in 2020 and again in 2024.
11:53
We’ve had members of his family at our home for fundraisers.
11:57
My daughter actually worked for him at the White House in his first term, so a lot of, a lot of connectivity.
12:04
He and I both come from the business world.
12:06
We are no stranger to challenges and problems, and, and like he, that’s, that’s what my career has been, solving problems, building things, making things happen.
12:17
And to have his endorsement means a lot to me personally and, and obviously the impact of his endorsement on an election is, is, can’t be understated because it’s very, very important.
12:32
Yeah, yeah.
12:34
And what are your views currently?
12:37
So JD Vance, he just made a stop in California, the attack that they’re taking with immigration.
12:44
How do you feel about how that’s going, the tact that they are taking?
12:50
Is this something that you would want to see done in Arizona as well?
12:55
Well, I will have the president’s back.
12:59
I will allow our local law enforcement to work with ICE agents to get the violent criminals out of our state.
13:08
My number one priority in my campaign, and when I’m governor, will be to keep Arizona safe.
13:13
That starts with a safe and secure border.
13:16
And, it includes safe and secure communities.
13:21
I’m blessed to have the endorsement of multiple law enforcement agencies because they know I will have their back.
13:29
They know that’s my priority.
13:32
California kind of speaks for itself.
13:34
It’s a disaster, you know, you look at everything from there, their mismanagement of their land over there that led to the disastrous wildfires.
13:45
And now, the, the, the crime and the homelessness is rampant in from San Francisco to LA, even in San Diego, which used to be somewhat protected from all the Pardon my language crap, but California has created this environment of lawlessness.
14:05
And so, had the president not intervened, but it, it would have, it would have just continued to degrade and, and California is their own worst enemy.
14:15
Gavin Newsoms is an absolute disaster.
14:18
And I, I, like I said, I would have, if I, if I was the governor of California, I, I would have invited the president in to come help me get control.
14:26
They’re doing the complete opposite.
14:28
So, so is border security, obviously Arizona being a border state, very important law enforcement, the support of law and order within Arizona.
14:37
I wanted to also touch on some of the other issues that affect Arizonans including The major challenges with water management and growth.
14:47
They say if you’re not growing, then you’re dying.
14:51
So how would your administration address these long term sustainability issues while encouraging economic development?
15:00
Well, that is actually my, that is my sweet spot.
15:03
I’ve been involved in real estate growth issues my entire professional career for over 30 years now.
15:10
So I have a very good understanding of water policy, transportation, tax policy, regulatory policy, land use.
15:19
Policy.
15:20
As a land use lawyer, I’ve spent my entire career working specifically on these issues, and I will say that Arizona has done a phenomenal job of water management.
15:32
We use less water today, even though our population has grown 5-fold, we use less water today than we did 70 years ago.
15:40
And, and what our governor has done when it comes to water, it’s been a disaster.
15:45
She announced that we have a water emergency and we’re out of water, and it’s simply not true.
15:50
I mean, we, I, I spent 10 years of my career splitting my time between Arizona and California, and you would think that California would be very sophisticated when it came to water management.
16:00
Arizona is light years ahead.
16:03
Our agriculture community continues to innovate and find ways to be more efficient with every drop of water.
16:14
Moreover, with the rest we’ve been, because of our low tax, low regulatory environment, we have attracted significant employers to the state, which attracts people to this state.
16:26
And when you convert ag land to residential land, it’s a net net benefit to the water mix.
16:34
So we’ve done a great job.
16:35
Now, all that being said, we live in a desert and we’re in the middle of a drought, so we can’t take our eye off the ball.
16:41
We have to continue to innovate and conserve and find ways to stretch every single drop of water.
16:48
But since the Groundwater Management Act was adopted in Arizona back in the 1980s, we have banked over 13 million acre feet of water underground for future use.
17:00
So, we’ve done some incredible things, and our governor has, I, I don’t believe has any idea about any of this.
17:06
I think she did what she did in creating a water crisis to make some political statement.
17:13
I don’t know, but it, it, it, it was tragic what she did, and we will, we will take a much more responsible approach to the management of our water going forward.
17:24
OK.
17:25
Now, the 2024 election cycle reignited some debates around election integrity and voter confidence.
17:34
How are you addressing these concerns on the campaign trail and what, what specific reforms would you advocate for as governor?
17:43
Well, a couple of things.
17:44
Our governor, in in the long list of bills she vetoed, election integrity bills are on that list.
17:50
And so I, I will ask the state legislature to immediately send to me election reform legislation that I will sign into law.
18:00
I, I, you look back at, at the 2000 election and the hanging chads in Florida, where Florida was kind of the laughingstock of the country because they couldn’t count their votes.
18:12
Florida.
18:14
Took action, reformed their election process, and now they have election results on election night.
18:20
Imagine that.
18:22
Arizona, unfortunately, because of the laws, drag out the counting of votes for in some cases, weeks, that’s unacceptable.
18:33
That to me, because the longer you drag it out.
18:36
The more opportunities there are for chaos, the more opportunity there is for fraud.
18:41
We can and we should do better, and when I’m governor, I will sign legislation to reform our election system to make it more efficient, so we can get returns just like Florida.
18:53
Yeah, yeah.
18:54
And, and what about some of these other more broad pieces of legislation in terms of, say, eliminating taxes on tips, that’s making headlines, impacts on workers.
19:08
How, how do you feel about that and, and what would you hope to see change in Arizona?
19:13
Well, I think I’d love to get rid of all taxes, as, as we all would.
19:18
You’re gonna win a lot of votes that way.
19:21
Yeah.
19:22
Yeah.
19:22
And, and also, obviously that’s, that’s not our, our reality.
19:27
Government exists to, to take care of some basic things like safety and security in our communities, law enforcement, basic infrastructure like like roads and wastewater infrastructure, right?
19:39
So we got to take care of those basic needs.
19:41
Now, Arizona is blessed with the lowest flat income tax in the nation.
19:47
And we also, and this is an interesting point that a lot of people don’t focus on, only 17% of our land is privately owned.
19:57
So 83% of our land is public.
19:59
It’s either owned by the state, the federal government, or Indian communities.
20:04
Unlike a state like, let’s say Texas or Florida.
20:07
Right, where 98% of their land is privately owned.
20:10
So 98% of their land is producing taxes, it’s producing income.
20:16
Now, they might not have income taxes, but when you calculate the total tax burden between the states, Arizona’s tax burden is lower, and I want to keep it that way.
20:25
I will do everything I can to keep the total tax burden in Arizona among the lowest in the country.
20:32
Yeah, yeah.
20:33
Well, I, I think that will certainly help you keep your momentum moving forward.
20:39
But how, how else, what, what is your strategy for sustaining the momentum that you’ve built and standing out in, in what could inevitably be a crowded field?
20:50
Yeah, well, I’ve, like President Trump, I’m a business person, I’m not a career politician, and the who’s my primary, my primary opponent is a career politician.
21:01
And the governor, our current governor is a social worker, and with all due respect to social workers, we need them.
21:07
In fact, we need more of them.
21:08
We don’t need a social worker as the chief executive officer of the state of Arizona.
21:13
We need a business person who knows how to tackle tough problems and come up with solutions.
21:19
But as a career politician, it’s easy to say no to everything, and you never really have to produce anything.
21:26
But as a business person, you have to produce, or you’re gonna be a failure.
21:30
And so I’m going to bring that experience to the table, bring people together to solve problems.
21:37
We have plenty of them, but to specifically answer your question on how we keep the momentum going.
21:43
It’s an incredible quality of life.
21:46
And as I said, we have an incredible business friendly environment right now.
21:51
That’s what’s attracted so many people to the state, and, and I’m gonna tip my hat to our previous governor because he spent so much time trying to diversify our economy and bring companies in with high paying jobs.
22:04
All of that’s great, but we now have an affordability problem, in particular in housing.
22:11
Why?
22:12
Because we got more demand than supply.
22:14
We need to be able to get more housing units into our market to create market equilibrium, and our governor has has exacerbated that problem by creating a moratorium on housing.
22:29
You know, which is crazy to create a moratorium on housing and then wonder why the prices of housing is going up, and then turn around and say we need to build affordable housing.
22:38
No, we just need to build housing, and you can’t put growth bound boundaries and moratoriums on these cities that need to build housing.
22:48
So it’s things like that that are going to be required to keep our economy going and growing.
22:54
I also, while it’s great to bring in new companies, I also, we’ve got great homegrown companies in Arizona that we can’t overlook.
23:04
And more importantly, the young people who are moving here.
23:09
They want the young entrepreneurs, the young innovators.
23:13
I want to make Arizona the startup capital of the world.
23:16
I want to attract those people that don’t want to be in LA anymore, they don’t want to be in San Francisco anymore.
23:22
They don’t even want to be in Austin, Texas anymore.
23:25
They want to come to a state where they can work hard.
23:30
Treat people well, have the government out of their way, and accomplish anything they want to accomplish.
23:35
Very good, very good.
23:37
Do you have any events scheduled?
23:39
Anything coming up on the calendar?
23:41
Well, there is, it’s an unending list.
23:45
Last week my my campaign manager reminded me we did 17 events last week.
23:50
Yesterday we were all over the state from Suarita to Nogales to Mesa.
23:56
I’m going back to Mesa as soon as we conclude, and I will go wherever and, and whenever I’m invited if, if.
24:05
There’s a group of 2 people or 200 people or 2000 people, I’ll be there.
24:09
Very good, very good.
24:10
Now, how do people find out more information about you or get in contact with you?
24:14
They can go to my website at www.kren for Arizona.com.
24:20
Wonderful.
24:21
Now Karrin, is there one last message you want to send us off with or any final?
24:27
I, I just want to say I am proud to have President Trump’s endorsement.
24:31
He endorsed me because I’m a businesswoman and not a career politician, and he knows that I will have his back.
24:37
I will always have his back to keep our borders secure, and of course cut waste, fraud and abuse in state government just like he has at the federal level.
24:46
Karrin Taylor Robson, thank you very much for joining us today.
24:50
Thank you.
