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Jan Brewer served as Arizona's secretary of state until she was elevated to the governor's post in January 2009. She succeeded former Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat who resigned to become Obama's homeland security chief.

Brewer for months after becoming governor regularly took shots at Napolitano, saying that post-Napolitano Arizona faced an "overdue obligation" to live within its fiscal means. She said Napolitano and other state officials who approved generous spending increases in recent years engaged in wishful thinking in accepting unrealistic revenue projections.

Brewer is regarded as a Republican Party stalwart with strong ties to the business-oriented faction of the party. She also won favor with gun-rights advocates, abortion opponents and other conservatives by signing bills they favored. Those decisions tracked her earlier record as a legislator.

Brewer irritated many GOP lawmakers and other Republicans soon after taking office by proposing a temporary sales-tax increase to help close the state's big budget deficits. Brewer and lawmakers battled throughout 2009 on budget-balancing plans, at one point causing the state to miss the constitutional July 1 deadline to start the new fiscal year with an approved, balanced budget. The 2009-2010 budget omitted the tax increase and instead relied on spending cuts, borrowing and other maneuvers.

In contrast to 2009's disagreements, the majority of Republicans in early 2010 went along with most of Brewer's new budget proposal for the 2010-2011 fiscal year, including putting the sales-tax proposal on a May 18 special election ballot.

Voters overwhelming approved the three-year, one-cent increase, averting scheduled spending cuts for schools, prisons and other state programs.

But even before the special election's outcome, Brewer had cemented her prospects in the Republican primary for governor by signing a popular but controversial law targeting illegal immigration. Several challengers dropped out and one suspended his campaign after spending more than $3 million of his own money. Brewer won the primary with more than 80 percent of the vote.

Immigration hardliners had championed the get-tough law, but Brewer participated in end-stage negotiations on the legislation's provisions and she defended it publicly. Brewer denied it but said that the measure would lead to racial profiling by law enforcement officers. The resulting national controversy sparked boycotts of the state, but it also increased Brewer's national profile as she railed against the Obama administration on border security.

The law drew multiple legal challenges, and a federal judge ruled on one filed by the U.S. Department of Justice by blocking key provisions of the law, largely on grounds that some provisions intruded on the federal government's constitutional authority over immigration matters. Brewer has appealed the ruling and vowed to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. Donations from across the country are paying for private lawyers hired to defend the law.