Gov. Katie Hobbs speaks at a press conference on July 1, 2025, after a ceremonial signing of the budget she officially signed last week. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror
Public health reform and local control of charter schools both enjoy wide support among Arizona lawmakers. But a series of bills Gov. Katie Hobbs signed into law this year addresses those issues by playing into the priorities of far-right organizations which have shaped Trump-era domestic policy, a LOOKOUT and Arizona Mirror review found.
Of the 220 bills Hobbs signed this year, LOOKOUT and Arizona Mirror identified 10 that draw directly from or mirror documents and testimony produced by groups including the Heritage Foundation and Turning Point USA.
Though the bills may not appear obviously aligned on their face, LOOKOUT and Arizona Mirror confirmed Hobbs had been previously briefed on their origins and that some versions were already being used to implement fringe policies in other states. Multiple advocacy groups said their lobbyists warned Hobbs about the potential harms—particularly for people of color, migrants, LGBTQ+ communities, and student civil rights.
In a statement made to LOOKOUT and Arizona Mirror, Hobbs’ office said the findings were taken out of context, and the bills she signed were passed with varying levels of bipartisan support.
“To say a leader like Governor Hobbs is enabling Project 2025 is out of touch with reality,” said Hobbs’ communications director Christian Slater. “She has always promised to lead with common sense and bipartisan cooperation.”
Yet, among the bills Hobbs signed into law are:
- House Bills 2112 and 2195, aimed at restricting pornographic content online and in youth-targeted apps. But the language used draws directly from Project 2025’s “Mandate for Leadership,” a conservative policy blueprint that proposes banning pornography and labeling transgender representation as adult content.
- HB 2679, which allows utility companies to offset coal-related debts by charging renewable energy users. Environmental advocates said that the bill would extend Arizona’s reliance on coal power—another goal for groups such as The Heritage Foundation which have argued to shift away from clean energy sources, albeit a 25-year trend away from fossil fuels.
- HB 2164, which bans “ultra-processed” foods in schools, pulls directly from United States Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” platform and echoes policies promoted by Phoenix-based Turning Point USA.
Other bills identified by LOOKOUT and Arizona Mirror include: House Bills 2880 and 2944, and Senate Bills 1354, 1604, 1221, and 1358.
Most of these prospective laws will take effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns, which it did last Friday after passing a budget Hobbs signed.
A conservative-aligned mandate
Many of the laws outlined above reflect language from Project 2025’s “Mandate for Leadership,” a policy playbook backed by the Heritage Foundation and a coalition of groups including Alliance Defending Freedom, Family Research Council and American Legislative Exchange Council.
Project 2025 was initially created to guide the first 180 days of Trump’s second administration, and recruit ideologically aligned personnel for federal government jobs.
The most direct example is House Bill 2112, which mandates that websites with a third or more of “sexual material” implement age-verification systems. While the bill doesn’t explicitly target LGBTQ+ content, its language mirrors wording from Project 2025’s playbook, which refers to “transgender ideology” as sexualized—without using the term pornography.
The vague definition of “sexual material” opens the door to broad interpretation, and could chill access to queer and trans educational content. HB 2112 closely parallels a Texas law that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of and follows a national trend: four states have passed similar laws since January.
Hobbs vetoed an earlier version of the bill last year, then reversed course this year and signed the updated version—prompting backlash from LGBTQ+ advocates.
HB 2195, which restricts certain advertisements in apps marketed to children, raises similar concerns. Civil rights advocates warn that the bill could censor sex education and public health content. The bill draws its phrasing from the same portion of Project 2025.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona criticized the measure, calling it “an internet censorship bill that is little more than a continuation of Project 2025.”
While tech giant Google supported the bill, its enforcement remains vague. When pressed during hearings, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Julie Willoughby (R-Chandler), offered a broad definition of “sexual content” that was not listed in the bill, leaving it subject to police and prosecutors.
Multiple LGBTQ+ and civil rights advocates have sounded the alarm on those bills, saying it’s part of a collective and subversive scheme to remove all LGBTQ+ content from the internet.
In response to criticism, Hobbs’ spokesperson Christian Slater said “These bills say nothing about LGBTQ content.”
Coal, climate, and corporate benefits
HB 2679 allows utility companies to securitize debts from coal operations, enabling them to issue bonds and transfer costs to ratepayers. Project 2025 encourages such strategies to preserve coal infrastructure.
Environmental groups say the measure prolongs coal reliance and benefits shareholders at the public’s expense. The Arizona Public Health Association (AzPHA) and state Attorney General’s Office flagged potential legal concerns, warning the bill could extend the life of the Four Corners Power Plant that’s slated for closure.
Other states with securitization laws include ways to transition away from coal to clean energy, AzPHA said Arizona’s bill lacks regulatory protections to ensure such a shift.
Hobbs’ office thinks that critique misrepresents the bill. Her spokesperson noted the governor secured amendments supported by clean energy stakeholders.
“Signing legislation with significant support from clean energy builders is the exact opposite of Project 2025,” Slater said.
But environmental groups like the Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter disagreed, calling the bill a gift to the “Trump coal agenda.”
From public health to public housing
Public health legislation SB 1354, HB 2944, and SB 1604 reflect Project 2025’s criticism of “Housing First” policy approaches, which provide permanent shelter for unhoused people before addressing other needs like employment or health care.
Collectively, these bills expand the authority of who can petition the court for mandated mental or behavioral health treatment, exclude time spent in jail from the number of days required in psychiatric treatment, and physically separate people in facilities under evaluation from those already charged with crimes—despite Arizona’s lack of available secure behavioral health facilities.
“Our state needs to focus on the real issues, not attack certain demographics,” said Brandie Reiner, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers’ Arizona chapter. “The Legislature is scapegoating these individuals instead of addressing root causes, like the lack of mental health resources.”
Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice said the bills will lead to extended incarceration for those needing care, without real consideration of systemic solutions.
“Legislators don’t want to talk about what it takes to make lasting change,” said Katie Gipson McLean, co-chair of the advocacy organization’s legislative committee. “Instead, they slap Band-Aids on deep issues.”
A crackdown on campus dissent
Soon-to-be law, HB 2880, bans overnight encampments on college campuses. Introduced in response to protests for Palestine at the University of Arizona, the bill affirms the goals of Project Esther—also created by The Heritage Foundation—that targets campus demonstrations from specific youth-led organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine.
National groups such as the Conservative Political Action Coalition (CPAC) have accused such protests of fueling antisemitism and have urged Congress to defund “DEI-obsessed universities.”
Critics are calling HB 2880 unnecessary: “There are already laws on the books for trespass. This bill intentionally targets people who are protesting,” Gipson McLean said. (Numerous protestors present when police arrived at Gaza solidarity encampments last spring were arrested and still face charges.)
Universities during the encampments claimed students were trespassing according to current Arizona law, which requires people to leave public or private grounds after police requests.
Slater, Hobbs’ spokesperson, said the legislation reinforced existing institutional policies: “The First Amendment does not protect a person’s right to camp out on private property.”
State universities and community colleges, though, are not exclusively private property.
‘Coordinated and dangerous’
The Heritage Foundation’s social welfare arm, Heritage Action for America, registered in favor of SB 1221, which prohibits publicly managed funds from holding investments in China and any companies it controls, and requires them to divest from those firms within one year.
In 2023, Indiana approved a similar law–an action that granted it praise from the Heritage Foundation, and more than a year later the organization launched a new platform online with a web page directing state lawmakers to model legislation “to combat the influence of China.” While several states followed suit, Hobbs vetoed a 2024 version that would have compelled divestment from companies in countries determined by the federal government to be foreign adversaries, including China.
HB 2164, passed unanimously, aims to block certain additives and coloring in foods from Arizona schools that accept public funds. The bill has bipartisan support, yet fits into a broader national agenda promoted by groups like Turning Point USA and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who came to the Capitol to push for it.
Rep. Leo Biasiucci (R-Lake Havasu City) said the bill was inspired by a California law restricting school lunches with artificial dyes. But public school advocates argued that implementation without additional funding would hurt districts with already limited food budgets.
Rep. Nancy Gutierrez (D-Tucson), a teacher, said many districts are already moving in this direction voluntarily.
In another education-related bill, SB 1358 gives charter schools final authority over curriculum and student learning, a position the Heritage Foundation has urged locally as well as the federal level with reducing congressional oversight of charter school funding.
“It’s overkill,” said Jeanne Woodbury, senior associate at the progressive lobbying firm Creosote Partners. She said the law grants unchecked discretion to charter operators: “It hands total power to decide what gets taught and to whom.”
Though the topics range widely—from housing to food dyes—the common thread among the 10 bills is their adherence to fringe policy frameworks. Whether through Project 2025’s or Project Esther’s plans, Arizona has become a successful testing ground for these far-right ideals with the help of Democrats.
When pressed on the bill’s alignment with groups such as Project 2025 and, specifically, The Heritage Foundation, Rep. Gail Griffin (R-Hereford) the main sponsor of HB 2679, said she wasn’t affiliated to the groups in any way: “I did not work with any of them on my bill,” she said in an email to LOOKOUT and AZ Mirror, and said denied knowing what the Heritage Foundation or Project 2025 even was.
“This isn’t happening organically,” Woodbury said. “It’s coordinated, and it’s dangerous.”
Political blowback and calculations
Hobbs’ office insisted the bills were “common sense” policies, and emphasized that many of the bills passed with broad bipartisan support. Still, Democrats such as Sen. Analise Ortiz (D-Glendale), and Reps. Sarah Liguori (D-Phoenix) and Mariana Sandoval (D-Goodyear) voted against seven of the 10 bills: “We need to look under the surface of what this bill purports to do,” Ortiz said in relation to HB 2195, the legislation that seeks to limit in-app ad content for youth.
Beyond lawmakers who dissented, progressive organizations and their lobbyists said they had “substantive policy conversations” with the governor’s staff, that they flagged the bills’ potential issues, and were direct in explaining why they thought the governor would be wise to veto them. When Hobbs signed them anyway, many were stunned.
“We’re shocked that the governor signed it,” Reiner said in relation to HB 2112, legislation her group registered against.
The governor’s office has said that her signing the bills shouldn’t be a shock, considering they passed with votes from both parties.
However, critics suggest Hobbs is making compromises on certain topics to appeal to moderates ahead of her re-election campaign.
“People do crazy things when they’re faced with not being in positions of power anymore, or the possibility of that,” Gipson McLean said.
That strategy, though, could backfire:
“All of these bills represent constituencies who worked to get Hobbs in office because of the values she had modeled for years,” said Woodbury. “That is not the result we’re getting from her.”
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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
