Rachel Hope Mitchell (born 1967) is an American attorney serving as the County Attorney for Maricopa County, Arizona since April 2022. She was appointed to the position following the resignation of Allister Adel and won the 2022 special election. In 2019, she briefly served as the acting County Attorney after the appointment of Bill Montgomery to the Arizona Supreme Court. Previously, she was the Chief Deputy County Attorney, and chief of the Special Victims Division. In 2018, Mitchell rose to national prominence when she was requested by the Senate Judiciary Committee to serve as Nomination Investigative Counsel and question both Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh on September 27, 2018 during Kavanaugh's widely publicized confirmation hearings for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Early life and education Mitchell is a first-generation Arizonan whose father grew up on a farm in Arkansas and whose mother grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania. Mitchell attended Arizona State University in 1985, took a course at Phoenix College in the summer of 1987, and got a Bachelor of Science degree from Grand Canyon College, now known as Grand Canyon University. She earned her J.D. degree in 1992 from the ASU's College of Law. Mitchell worked at the Arizona Capitol Times newspaper in the late 1980s. She interviewed candidates running for elected office and wrote summaries of decisions by the courts. Mitchell later worked as adjunct faculty at Grand Canyon University, where she taught a three-credit course on the court system. Legal career Mitchell has been a current, registered member of the Arizona bar since 1993. In 2003, Mitchell was recognized by Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as "Outstanding Arizona Sexual Assault Prosecutor of the Year." She was promoted to the Maricopa County prosecutor's office sex crimes division chief by newly elected county attorney Andrew Thomas in 2004 to replace previous chief Cindi Nannetti. Mitchell spent 12 years in charge of the sex-crimes bureau, which prosecutes crimes including adult sexual assault and child molestation. In 2014, a commission recommended her as a possible judicial candidate in Arizona. Mitchell has overseen and assisted in prosecuting some high-profile sexual assault cases in Arizona, including ones against churches, youth camps, law enforcement, and members of clergy. Her most prominent case was the 2005 conviction of Rev. Paul LeBrun. In her position in Maricopa County, she has advocated strengthening sex assault laws in the state