Lieutenant Governor of Arizona

Arizona's original state constitution did not create an office of lieutenant governor. From statehood, the secretary of state was instead placed first in the line of succession to the governorship, provided that the secretary had been elected to the office; if not, succession passed to other elected statewide officers.^[1][2] The absence of a lieutenant governor became significant on several occasions. In 1977, Governor Raúl Héctor Castro resigned to become United States ambassador to Argentina and was succeeded by Secretary of State Wesley Bolin. Bolin died the next year; because his successor as secretary of state, Rose Mofford, had been appointed rather than elected, Attorney General Bruce Babbitt became governor. Mofford later succeeded Governor Evan Mecham after his impeachment and removal in 1988, while later secretaries of state Jane Dee Hull and Jan Brewer became governor after the resignations of Fife Symington in 1997 and Janet Napolitano in 2009, respectively.^[3] Voters rejected proposals to create a lieutenant governorship in 1994 and 2010; the 2010 proposal would have redesignated the secretary of state as lieutenant governor rather than creating a separate office.^[4][5] In 2022, the Arizona Legislature referred Senate Concurrent Resolution 1024 to the ballot as Proposition 131, which amended the Arizona Constitution to add a lieutenant governor to the executive department, require each gubernatorial nominee beginning with the 2026 election to name a lieutenant governor nominee to run on a joint ticket in the general election, and provide that a single vote for a gubernatorial nominee would also count as a vote for the nominee's running mate.^[1] The measure also provided that the lieutenant governor would succeed to the governorship in the event of a vacancy and that, if both the governorship and lieutenant governorship were vacant, the line of succession would proceed to the secretary of state, attorney general, state treasurer, and superintendent of public instruction.^[2] Proposition 131 was approved by voters in the 2022 general election, with about 55 percent voting in favor, and applies beginning with the term of office starting in 2027, making the 2026 gubernatorial election the first scheduled election for the office.^[4][1]

The power of the lieutenant governor of Arizona derives from Article V, Section 1, of the Arizona Constitution, which provides that the lieutenant governor will be the first in line to succeed the governor when the governor dies, resigns, or is removed from office by impeachment, a role presently filled by the elected secretary of state. Section 9 provides that the state legislature may prescribe further duties for the lieutenant governor. The proposition—through a law pre-passed by the Legislature^[6]—will also task the governor with assigning a job to their running mate, such as chief of staff, the director of the state Department of Administration, or "any position" to which the governor can appoint someone by law.^[7] In the event the office of lieutenant governor becomes vacant, the governor appoints a new person to serve in the position subject to majority approval of both houses of the state legislature.^[8]

• List of governors of Arizona