The state’s chief law officer is using school resources to influence future elections against President Donald Trump.
Attorney General Kris Mayes is hosting a “community impact hearing” with three other states’ attorneys general regarding the federal firings and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) funding cuts on Wednesday at the Central High School auditorium. State law prohibits the use of school resources — including buildings — to influence the outcomes of elections.
“These reckless firings of Arizonans and arbitrary cuts to critical federal services are outrageous, unacceptable, and deeply infuriating,” said Mayes. “Arizonans deserve to be heard — these firings and funding freezes are disrupting lives, straining workplaces, and harming communities and household budgets across the state.”
Alongside my fellow attorneys general, I have been fighting to protect jobs, safeguard life-saving services, and ensure Arizonans receive the funding they are owed. Join us tomorrow night to have your voices heard. https://t.co/JUkpuflTJC pic.twitter.com/E6Xa8kLrPb
— AZ Attorney General Kris Mayes (@AZAGMayes) March 4, 2025
Per the attorney general’s press release issued last week, these community impact hearings will create a multistate effort to discuss “the real-world impacts” of policies set forth by Trump and Elon Musk.
The state law prohibiting the use of school resources to influence election outcomes does allow for the use of school resources for government-sponsored forums or debates if “the government sponsor remains impartial and the events are purely informational and provide an equal opportunity to all viewpoints.” However, the law defines “government-sponsored forum or debate” to have the distinct purpose of “inform[ing] the public about an issue or proposition that is before the voters.”
The law goes on to define influencing election outcomes as “supporting or opposing a candidate for nomination or election to public office.”
Trump administration about veterans fired by DOGE: "Perhaps they're not fit to have a job at this moment." Unbelievable. https://t.co/v2ZJHTDiUO
— AZ Attorney General Kris Mayes (@AZAGMayes) March 4, 2025
This same section of state law also requires the attorney general to publish and distribute guidelines on this law to all school districts and charter schools.
Joining Mayes will be the attorneys general for Minnesota, New Mexico, and Oregon.
The community impact hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. It will be the first in a series, according to an announcement last week by the attorney general’s office.
Tim La Sota, a Phoenix attorney specializing in election law, said Mayes appeared to be violating the spirit of the statute.
“Our taxpayer-funded public schools should not be at the disposal of politicians to hold partisan political rallies,” said La Sota. “If Kris Mayes’ politicking actions do not already violate the statute, the statute should be amended.”
Since Trump’s inauguration, Mayes has focused her office’s efforts on challenging the Trump administration’s efforts. The attorney general joined lawsuits against the end to birthright citizenship, federal funding reductions and eliminations, and DOGE.
Of the 40 press releases issued by Mayes’ office since Trump took office, 23 were about the Trump administration.
As of Sunday, DOGE reported its estimated savings to be around $105 billion in asset sales, contract or lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions. DOGE further estimated the amount saved per taxpayer to come out to $652 (per 161 million individual federal taxpayers).
DOGE issues updates to its estimated savings calculations once a week.
According to the Office of Personnel Management, about 75,000 federal employees took up the Trump administration’s offer of a deferred resignation earlier this month.
The Trump administration executed mass firings of the 30,000 probationary federal employees beginning Valentine’s Day. Thousands were fired before a federal judge put a stop to that order last week. In light of that ruling, the Office of Personnel Management advised agencies of their final authority on firing employees.