Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes participates in a Martin Luther King Day celebration on Jan. 16, 2023. || Twitter Photo/@AZAGMayes
By Kevin Stone || KTAR
Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has withdrawn a student debt lawsuit filed by her Republican predecessor as she changes the direction of the state’s top legal office.
Mayes on Thursday called a number of former Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s lawsuits, including the one challenging President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive a portion of student loans for millions of borrowers, “highly political in nature.”
“We’re not going to be engaging in political lawsuits at the Attorney General’s Office anymore,” she told KTAR News.
Democrat Kris Mayes plans to investigate fake GOP electors as Arizona attorney general
Mayes took office earlier this month after winning the closest statewide election in Arizona history. Her margin over Republican Abe Hamadeh was confirmed at just 280 votes through an automatic recount of more than 2.5 million ballots in December.
“This is an office that needs to get back to the core mission of fighting crime, prosecuting crime, prosecuting consumer fraud, going after and prosecuting elder abuse, protecting our water rights in Arizona,” she said.
“Suing the federal government over everything is not the answer, and it’s not what the people of Arizona want.”
Among her first moves were to withdraw the student debt lawsuit and pull Arizona out of a multistate investigation into companies engaging in environmental, social and governance investing, a practice known as ESG that has been vilified as “woke” by some on the right.
