PHOENIX – Arizona Treasurer Kimberly Yee announced Wednesday she is running for superintendent of public instruction in 2026. Yee officially launched her campaign to unseat Superintendent Tom Horne, a fellow Republican, during a press conference in Phoenix after filing a
statement of interest on Tuesday night. Yee is a longtime advocate of school choice and a proponent of the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) voucher program.
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“We’re proud of the school choice opportunities we’ve had,” she told
KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show after announcing her candidacy. “We have a growing home school population in Arizona. More and more children are also going to those types of schools that fit their unique and individual needs — whether it’s a private school, a tribal school, a home school — and the ESA program in Arizona has allowed for that to happen.” However, she isn’t happy with how Horne is administering the ESA program, which is now available universally after starting out only for students who met certain criteria. “I was there in the state Legislature when the ESA program began, and back then we always put measures in place for accountability,” Yee said. “But that’s the job of the Legislature, and that’s the job of those who determine the laws. It is not arbitrary policies that are made out of the superintendent’s office, as we see today.” Horne rebutted Yee’s claims, noting that his office hasn’t lost any appeals against its ESA repayment decisions. “It’s well established by judges that I do have the authority to do that, I have the duty to do it,” he told
KTAR News . “Anyone handling taxpayer funds has a duty to make sure that it’s done honestly and reasonably, and you’d think the state treasurer would know that, but she obviously doesn’t.
Kimberly Yee can’t run for treasurer again
Yee was first elected as state treasurer in 2018 and
won reelection in 2022 after
considering a run for governor . She can’t run for treasurer again because of term limits. Before becoming Arizona’s chief banking and investment officer, Yee served in both chambers of the state Legislature. “I have had a long-standing record in education policy for 30 years,” she said. Yee’s candidacy sets up an intriguing primary against Horne, who
won his second stint as Arizona’s top elected education official in 2022 and filed his statement of interest in December 2024. Candidates must file
statements of interest with the Secretary of State’s Office before they can start collecting nominating petition signatures. The
primary is scheduled for Aug. 4, 2026.
KTAR News 92.3 FM Education Solutions Reporter Shira Tanzer contributed to this report. We want to hear from you.
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