'I'm truly sorry': Katie Hobbs issues new apology in Talonya Adams firing

Democratic candidate for governor Katie Hobbs has issued an apology and acknowledged discrimination took place in the firing of a Senate staffer years ago as her campaign faces continued criticism for its scattershot response.

“I recognize that my initial response fell short of taking accountability, and I know that it was for the most part unnecessarily defensive,” Hobbs said in an exclusive phone interview with The Arizona Republic on Wednesday, hours after releasing a public apology video on her campaign Twitter.

In the video, Hobbs, who now serves as secretary of state, acknowledges the "discrimination that Talonya Adams faced as an employee in the Legislature."

"Please allow me to say this clearly and unequivocally: I apologize to Ms. Adams," Hobbs said. "I’m truly sorry for the real harm that I caused Ms. Adams and her family. My response to the jury verdict was short-sighted, unnecessarily defensive and failed to meet the moment."

Adams was fired from her job as a Democratic Senate aide in 2015, when Hobbs was the Senate Democratic leader. Adams filed a discrimination lawsuit, winning jury verdicts that found she was discriminated against on the job and was retaliated against when she was fired.

The most recent verdict, handed down by a federal jury Nov. 10, has damaged Hobbs' campaign for governor, with Black community leaders and others criticizing Hobbs' initial response, which shifted blame to Republicans who control the Legislature and did not acknowledge discrimination took place.

Adams was among those critics, saying Hobbs' refusal to acknowledge discrimination made Hobbs unfit to serve as governor. Adams declined to comment Wednesday on Hobbs' newest statement.

The three-minute video apology seeks to remedy the concerns, and follows a meeting between Hobbs and Black community leaders, as well as a change in Hobbs' campaign staff. Hobbs' campaign manager Andrew Markoff "chose to step down from our campaign" last week, spokesperson Jennah Rivera wrote in an email, saying the campaign was "continuing to grow a diverse team."

Deputy Campaign Manager Alaina Pemberton will take over day-to-day management of Hobbs' campaign, according to Rivera. Markoff will help with "a smooth transition" through the end of the year, Rivera said.

In an interview, Hobbs didn't answer directly whether she had asked Markoff to step down.

'I need to do better'

Hobbs spoke to The Republic about her response for the first time on Wednesday, almost a month to the day after the most recent verdict in the case. She declined to talk about the case and her reasons for firing Adams, which during trial testimony she said was because Adams went outside the chain of command in raising issues.

Hobbs declined to say whether she agreed with the jury’s verdict.

“The jury verdict is the jury verdict and that's really what matters right now,” Hobbs said.

Hobbs portrayed herself as a changed candidate, one who is redoubling efforts to better represent communities of color and taking responsibility for a poor response to the biggest challenge thus far in her campaign for governor. Hobbs is considered the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, thanks in part to frequent national television appearances decrying false claims of election fraud.

“Arizonans deserve a leader that's going to own up to their mistakes, and I clearly made one here,” Hobbs said about her response to the November jury verdict.

Though she apologized to Adams in 2019, following a first trial in the discrimination case, Hobbs’ campaign sent a statement blaming Republican leaders following a second trial in November. Then, in public statements, Hobbs said she took responsibility for her role, but did not acknowledge discrimination occurred.

Hobbs said the campaign’s response was not the only mistake.

“I don't want to get into the details of the termination and the case,” Hobbs said. “Looking back there are probably a lot of things that I would have done differently. I know that in proceeding in her termination, I participated in furthering systemic racism."

Knowing that, Hobbs said, is “very difficult. And I think that is probably a lot of the reason why I was really defensive and that my response fell short.”

She said that her understanding of racism was too narrow, and she has “missed opportunities” to fight for equity.

“It is really easy to see overt racism, white supremacists showing up at a rally with Confederate flags,” she said. “And sometimes the absence of that overt racism makes it easy to think that racism isn't there, even though it is .... . It's a convenient place for white people to be, because it means not having to think about or acknowledge the difficulties that people face, especially Black people, in some way navigating through the world every day.”

“I need to do better,” Hobbs said, “and I am committed to doing better.”

Praise and criticism follows

While Hobbs previously took a step back from the public eye following the verdict, her critics stepped up. Her public apology and work to meet with community leaders appeased some, but not others.

Garrick McFadden co-wrote a 2019 opinion piece for the Arizona Capitol Times following the first trial in the case, saying the verdict was the “living, breathing incarnation of the N-word hurled at the Black community.” He lambasted Hobbs, who was recently sworn in as secretary of state at the time, and other elected leaders who counted on the Black vote for support.

McFadden, a Phoenix attorney who previously served in leadership of the state Democratic party, said Hobbs reached out to him last week to set up a smaller meeting about Hobbs’ response to the verdicts. That led to over 20 members of the Black community gathered Wednesday to hear from Hobbs, McFadden said.

“She gave us an apology,” McFadden said, describing Hobbs’ speech as emotional and vulnerable. “And it was a speech that she needed to make, that she was capable of making. And all of her actions since the 2019 verdict have deemed that this is the person that we know she is. She got a standing ovation.”

McFadden said Hobbs’ apology was instrumental to retaining support of Democratic voters ahead of the primary.

But Cloves Campbell Jr., a former state lawmaker and publisher of The Arizona Informant, a newspaper that focuses on issues in the Black community, said he believed Hobbs’ apology was made for her own political gain. Campbell and five other Black leaders previously sent a letter critical of Hobbs’ response and her failure to acknowledge discrimination took place. Campbell said he was not invited to Wednesday's meeting with Hobbs and others.

“I’ll file it where I’ll file the other statement, and that’s in the trash can,” Campbell said of Hobbs’ apology on Wednesday. “I have no faith in Katie Hobbs, and the fact that she found some people to take some pictures and take some photo opportunities, I guess that's what she wanted to do. But that doesn't change what she's done and the person she is.”

Even with the apology, Hobbs is sure to face criticism for her response during the campaign, and not only from Republican opponents. The Republican National Committee, the fundraising and strategy machinery of the GOP, said in a statement that Hobbs' "campaign is doomed."

Hobbs’ opponents seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in the August primary have kept her under fire, too.

“It shouldn’t take six years, two jury verdicts and four weeks of bad press to take responsibility and do the right thing,” former Obama administration official Marco Lopez said. “I’ll be a governor who is committed to diversity and equal opportunity from day one.”

Former state Rep. Aaron Lieberman, a Paradise Valley Democrat, said it was “deeply concerning” that Hobbs took so long to apologize to Adams and called Hobbs an “irreparably damaged candidate.”

“I’m glad to see Katie Hobbs finally apologize to the public for her wrongful termination of Ms. Adams’ employment, but incredibly she still hasn’t apologized to the one person she hurt the most: Ms. Adams,” Lieberman said in a statement.

Hobbs confirmed Wednesday she did not apologize directly to Adams, other than through her public video and a matching statement that initially misspelled Adams’ first name.

Asked why she hasn’t apologized directly to Adams, Hobbs said that was something she was “willing to do, to have a conversation with her. I'm not going to do that publicly.”

Moving forward

Hobbs announced Wednesday her plan to bring more diversity to state government if she is elected governor. Lieberman and Lopez also have released plans for diversity and inclusion in recent weeks.

Hobbs said she will create a chief equity officer and revamp the Office of Equal Opportunity to ensure clear human resources procedures. The chief equity officer would report directly to the governor, and their duties would include building diversity, ensuring fairness in contract awards and holding accountable state government.

She also plans to create a position in each state agency that will focus on working with marginalized communities and communities of color.

“I am continuing to listen and continue to learn and work to build trust with the people that I hope to serve as governor,” Hobbs said.

Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at [email protected] or 480-416-5669. Follow her on Twitter @sbarchenger.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Katie Hobbs apologizes, acknowledges discrimination in staffer firing