Katie Hobbs' insurance regulator Barbara Richardson doomed by DEI fears (2025)

Another Arizona state agency director's hopes of Senate confirmation were likely dashed, this time in part because of concerns that she participated in a study group that supported diversity and inclusion ideas.

The Senate's Committee on Director Nominations recommended on April 10 that the Senate reject the nomination of Barbara Richardson to lead the state Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions, or DIFI. The vote followed Richardson's second appearance before the committee, during which she tried to address a trio of concerns previously aired by Republican committee members.

“I do not believe it is a regulator's role to engage in social engineering in any of the industries that they regulate," Richardson told the committee. "I have neither initiated DEI practices within DIFI, nor advocated for the adoption of DEI practices within the insurance or financial services industries."

Yet her efforts to appease the Republican-majority committee were to no avail.

While Richardson is unlikely to be confirmed, the director nominations committee has been steadily working through Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs' nominees to lead state agencies — and mostly recommending confirmation.

Of 18 people nominated by Hobbs earlier this year, the Senate has confirmed six. Two more have been recommended for confirmation but are awaiting that vote, and another nominee was rejected by the Senate earlier this year.

It amounts to slow but marked progress in a process that was often contentious and ultimately ground to a halt during Hobbs' first year in office. Without Senate confirmation, nominees only can serve for a year, though Hobbs tried to get around that deadline with a hiring maneuver a court said did not follow state law.

This year's hearings have been less prosecutorial or combative when compared with those held in 2023, though not entirely without political spats that highlight the divided government at the Arizona Capitol.

Republican senators object to ties to industry group panels

Richardson joined DIFI in March 2023. The state agency regulates the insurance industry, banks, credit unions, collection agencies, mortgage brokers, and other financial institutions. Richardson worked as a regulator for decades prior, as the insurance commissioner in Nevada and for the New Hampshire Insurance Department.

She faced questions from Republican members of the director nominations committee because of her ties to panels convened by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, or NAIC. Richardson sent a designee to the group's climate resiliency task force and participated in a special committee on race and insurance.

Republican committee members Sen. John Kavanagh of Fountain Hills and Sen. Jake Hoffman of Queen Creek objected to those roles. Sen. TJ Shope, a Coolidge Republican, ultimately joined his GOP colleagues in recommending Richardson be rejected by the Senate, which would mean she would be removed from the job.

Multiple people with GOP party leadership roles, including former Republican Party of Arizona treasurer Elijah Norton, testified in opposition to Richardson's nomination, citing objections to the NAIC panels and fearing she would bring liberal, California-style policies to Arizona.

Norton owns an insurance brokerage and other related companies, though several others who spoke seemed to have no connection to the department or insurance industry.

A 'hit job' on a public servant, governor's spokesperson says

Sen. Analise Ortiz, D-Phoenix, noted as much, calling the hearing "a political hit job with political party operatives who are here answering a call from a tweet that went out." She noted multiple people who testified in favor of Richardson's work leading the agency.

In a statement, Hobbs' spokesman Christian Slater echoed those concerns, calling the testimony a "hit job on a career nonpartisan public servant." Slater said Hoffman was an "unserious and radical politician engaged in a partisan witchhunt."

Hoffman responded that Hobbs' "increasingly outlandish personal attacks" against him were meaningless and "clearly demonstrate that she isn't qualified or mature enough for her current position." He recommitted to vetting her nominees to lead state agencies.

Hoffman said during the committee hearing he was concerned about Richardson's connections to diversity, equity and inclusion and climate resiliency work, because they did not reflect a neutral approach but an activist one.

He said Richardson used a system to distribute announcements to regulated entities that deviated from the process required in state law, and that the agency under her watch saw unacceptable delays in communicating with businesses and considering license applications.

"This directly harms businesses in our community, people who are trying to build something to create opportunity and prosperity for the people of Arizona," Hoffman said.

2 agency nominees await Senate confirmation votes

She isn't the only Hobbs nominee whose turn before the committee included political undertones.

The committee previously recommended confirmation of Paul Brierley to lead the Arizona Department of Agriculture, but not before Hoffman and Kavanagh aired concern about anti-Trump posts Brierley made before joining the Hobbs administration. Brierley was a Republican who wrote on social media in 2020 that Trump was "a serious threat to our constitutional republic, and making sure he is not re-elected is critical to its survival."

Brierley is awaiting confirmation by the Senate. As is John Scott, who the five-member committee unanimously recommended to lead the Department of Veterans Services on April 10.

Scott has been with the department since 2015 and is a Marine Corps veteran. He was named director of the agency last year after Hobbs withdrew her prior pick, Dana Allmond. Allmond instead got a newly created job at the Department of Economic Security — a hire that Hoffman criticized as potential cronyism.

The Senate has confirmed:

• Michael Wisehart, Department of Economic Security, confirmed Feb. 25.
• Alec Thomson, Arizona State Lottery Commission, confirmed March 13.
• Cynthia Zwick, Residential Utility Consumer Office, confirmed March 13.
• Jaclyn Johnson, Department of Gaming, confirmed March 18.
• Thomas Cole, Registrar of Contractors, confirmed April 2.
• Gaetano Testini, Industrial Commission of Arizona, confirmed April 10.

The Senate voted in February to reject Hobbs' pick to lead the Department of Housing, Joan Serviss, over concerns about plagiarism and a state audit that said the housing departmentwired $2 million to fraudsters under her watchand did not realize it until six months later. Hobbs has not yet nominated someone else to lead that agency.

Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger atstacey.barchenger@arizonarepublic.comor 480-416-5669.