In Phoenix mayoral race, Evans attacks Gallego while she ignores him

Sitting Mayor Kate Gallego and Matt Evans, a political newcomer and software engineer, are facing off to become mayor of Phoenix on Nov. 5.

Gallego, 43, and Evans, 36, have expressed very different priorities this election cycle. Both said they want better futures but differed in how to get there.

Gallego's campaign focused on making Phoenix "future-proofed." Evans' message focused on solving crime and homelessness.

Evans frequently attacked Gallego, while Gallego ignored Evans. He painted her as failed leader and career politician who only cares about her own career aspirations. Some of his attacks were denounced by Jewish organizations as antisemitic.

"I'm running for for mayor of Phoenix because Kate Gallego is ruining our city," Evans told a group of voters in October.

The election winner will help shape Phoenix's $7 billion budget that serves 1.6 million residents. They will guide the city through budget deficits projected the next two years.

Phoenix's next mayor will play a formative role in how the city manages some of the most complex problems faced by cities across the country. Those include police reform, housing and homelessness, climate change and water resources.

The position has no more voting power than the other eight members of City Council, but the title carries an outsized level of influence on the national and even international stage.

Phoenix mayors are the face of the city. They can set the tone, help attract large employers and use the office as a bully pulpit to advance societal issues they care about.

What is Kate Gallego's vision for Phoenix?

Gallego's campaign platform focused on making Phoenix more "future-proofed" by shoring up water supplies, diversifying the economy to safeguard against recession, attracting high-paying technology and health care jobs and combatting climate change with innovative infrastructure.

The mayor said her philosophy was about long-term planning and running the city so well the public doesn't think about things like the sewer system.

"So many of the investments I'm most proud of won't happen 'till after my term is over," Gallego said. "But that doesn't hold me back when they're important."

She touted her work championing Phoenix's advanced water purification plant , which will help replace water the city is losing from the Colorado River due to drought.

She also highlighted her role drawing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co . to north Phoenix. The company is spending $65 billion building chip-making factories. It's expected to bring 6,000 direct jobs with a median salary above $88,000 .

Gallego also said she tries to focus on "what is important and not what is urgent."

"But in the world of 24-hour news cycles, urgent can be pretty loud," Gallego said.

She has been criticized by the right and far-left, particularly for the city's handling of "The Zone."

Hundreds of unhoused people crammed into tattered tents and sleeping bags that lined the sidewalks around 12th Avenue and Jackson Street, just a few blocks west of City Hall.

The area grew to 1,000 people at its height. Drug needles and human feces littered the streets, employees were assaulted, car windows were smashed and front yards were lit on fire. A man was bludgeoned to death, then set on fire and left in a dumpster.

Property owners called it a "humanitarian crisis" and had to sue the city to get it cleaned up .

Gallego was mostly quiet throughout the controversies. She declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation. Occasionally, she spoke about the challenges Phoenix faced straddling different court orders . She often emphasized the investments Phoenix was making in shelters and affordable housing.

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Gallego was first elected to City Council in 2013 to represent District 8. She was the first white person elected to represent the area, a majority-minority district that, while mostly Latino, elected the council's only Black councilmember for decades.

She won reelection in 2017 but vacated the seat to run for mayor in 2018, after Greg Stanton resigned from the post to run for Congress. She and Daniel Valenzuela were the top vote-getters in November 2018. Gallego defeated him in the March 2019 runoff, then ran again in November 2020 and won her first full term.

Before joining the City Council, Gallego worked in economic development for Salt River Project, one of the state's largest utility providers, and for Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat. She graduated from Harvard University and received an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania. She was born in New Mexico.

What is Matt Evans' vision for Phoenix?

Evans campaigned on taking the city back from Democrats. He built a following for himself among Phoenix Republicans by attending GOP meetings, speaking at public county meetings and befriending active members of GOP legislative district groups.

The Saturday before the election, Evans announced he was scheduled to speak at a Turning Point Action ballot chasing event with MAGA bigwig Charlie Kirk.

Evans argued in favor of implementing Republican policies that he said would favor freedom and clean up Phoenix's streets.

He blamed the city's homelessness and crime on Gallego's lack of leadership. To crack down on the problems, he promised to enforce the city's laws, clean up the streets and support police officers. He wants to see services provided to unhoused people before housing, he said.

He also wants to work with Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Michell to set higher bails to keep arrested individuals arrested in jail longer, he said.

"Our current mayor continues to push this narrative that homelessness is not a crime, but it's just not true," Evans said.

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"The reality is most of these homeless individuals are addicted to drugs. They're passed out at our bus stops. They're pushing shopping carts around half naked, urinating, defecating in our streets, leaving needles on our ground, or even worse, smoking drugs in plain sight," Evans said.

He argued his background in engineering would help him create more efficient government. If elected, Evans said he would push for more data collection related to homelessness and publish metrics online to show transparency and progress.

Pitching himself to a group of voters in October, Evans talked about opposing vaccine and mask mandates.

Evans lodged repeated attacks against Gallego throughout the campaign and criticized her for refusing to debate him.

He was denounced by Jewish organizations after he posted a video casting Gallego, who is Jewish, as demonic. He rejected claims of antisemitism, then doubled down on his stance that he believes Gallego is evil.

Taylor Seely covers Phoenix for The Arizona Republic / azcentral.com. Reach her at or by phone at 480-476-6116.