David Schweikert | Arizona Capitol Times
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Wed, 24 Jun 2026 22:22:07 +0000
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David Schweikert | Arizona Capitol Times
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Policy analysis: Biggs and Schweikert talk GOP primary platforms
/news/2026/06/24/policy-analysis-biggs-and-schweikert-talk-gop-primary-platforms/
Wed, 24 Jun 2026 22:22:07 +0000
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Key Points: Two Republican congressmen with near-identical records will go head-to-head in the July 21 gubernatorial primary Biggs wants to eliminate income taxes, Schweikert prefers business recruitment Schweikert breaks with […]
The post Policy analysis: Biggs and Schweikert talk GOP primary platforms first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times.]]>
Key Points:
Two Republican congressmen with near-identical records will go head-to-head in the July 21 gubernatorial primary
Biggs wants to eliminate income taxes, Schweikert prefers business recruitment
Schweikert breaks with Biggs on water resources, mail-in voting and DACA deportations
With early ballots already making their way to mailboxes ahead of the July 21 primary, Republicans and independents will soon have a choice to make between two GOP candidates aiming to be Arizona’s next governor.
Congressman Andy Biggs, the frontrunner, and Congressman David Schweikert, the underdog, have nearly identical voting records from their overlapping time in the U.S. House of Representatives. Yet while the two boast similar conservative bona fides, they have begun to show some differences in their plans for their would-be administrations and their paths to victory.
Biggs seems to have almost unanimous backing from the state’s conservative flank, but Schweikert maintains that he will be more palatable to the independent voters who truly decide the outcome of elections in Arizona. While Biggs attempted to demonstrate his ability to work across the aisle during a Republican gubernatorial debate, he continues to tout his close relationships with President Donald Trump and Turning Point USA — something Schweikert argues is a liability.
The differences become slightly sharper when comparing the two candidates’ plans to address the issues most pressing to Arizona voters.
Affordability and the economy
Republicans and Democrats alike agree that Arizonans are struggling to make ends meet. But Biggs and Schweikert have diverging opinions about how to ease those cost of living pains.
Biggs has proposed eliminating Arizona’s income tax, a 2.5% flat tax that already ranks as one of the lowest in the nation. In fiscal year 2026, income tax revenue made up 31% of the state’s $17.6 billion budget.
Biggs said he plans to incrementally lower the tax until it is eliminated, arguing that it will attract more businesses to Arizona.
“If you don’t do that, those businesses don’t get incentivized to come here,” Biggs said during a June 17 primary debate. “If you don’t deal with the tax structure that we have in Arizona … they’re going to Texas, they’re going to Tennessee, they’re going to Florida, they’re going to places that don’t have that income tax.”
In interviews with reporters, Biggs has also pledged to find new fuel sources for the state to offset the skyrocketing costs for gasoline and electricity. He has suggested building new natural gas pipelines or constructing new oil refineries since Arizona currently relies on fuel from nearby states.
“We will get this economy rolling and rocking,” Biggs said during the primary debate
Schweikert is not on board with eliminating the state’s income tax. Instead, he argues that Gov. Katie Hobbs’ administration has not been aggressive enough in its efforts to woo business owners who could move their operations to Arizona.
“Recruit every great business you can so there’s competition for your willingness to work,” Schweikert said. “That competition raises wages.”
He also proposed using state trust land to build more housing, which he argues will lower home prices by increasing their supply. Schweikert said state trust land in urban areas is being overlooked for housing developments, though that land is required by law to generate the highest amount of revenue possible for the state land trust’s beneficiaries.
Balancing the state budget
Biggs is a former state Senate president who has crafted state budgets alongside a Republican governor. Schweikert is a self-proclaimed math nerd who delivered 11 hours worth of floor speeches on the national debt in 2025 alone. The two have diverging plans for keeping the state budget balanced.
Biggs wants to allow for more mining and mineral extraction on state trust land to generate new revenue streams from the state. He also pledged to root out the “fraud, waste and abuse” that he argues is plaguing Arizona’s Medicaid system, which he claims could amount to about $8 to $10 billion in lost funding.
And Biggs took a page out of Hobbs’ book, promising to eliminate tax incentives for data centers, which cost the state around $38 million per year in revenue. It’s unclear whether legislative Republicans will back that proposal.
Schweikert argues that the state of the economy necessitates a dip into Arizona’s budget stabilization fund, more commonly known as the rainy day fund, as wages remain stagnant and inflation rises. He said lawmakers could have pulled around $300 million to $400 million from the over $1 billion fund to reinvest in government services.
Schweikert has also pledged to cut funding for pet projects from the state budget, specifically highlighting funding for “flying cars,” an innovation pushed by Sen. David Farnsworth, R-Mesa. And he wants to fight “fraud, waste and abuse” in Medicaid with data and artificial intelligence systems that he promises will catch fraudulent payments before they are sent out by state agencies.
Education
Both congressmen fully support Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program, a school voucher system that allows any student in the state to receive funding to attend the private or parochial school of their choice.
Biggs has argued the already-universal program should be expanded. He later told reporters that ESAs could be used to support alternative education programs like trade schools and apprenticeships, though it’s unclear whether there is any barrier to doing so currently.
Schweikert, in turn, has pledged to provide more resources and a new data system to the state Department of Education to reduce the improper payments and spending that have plagued the $1 billion program.
The two have different ideas about how to fund public schools in the state.
Biggs wants to use revenue generated state trust land to provide money to schools, but stopped short of pledging to renew Proposition 123, an expired funding measure that withdrew 6.9% annually from the state land trust for public schools. Schweikert argues the state needs to rebuild its school financing structure after a Superior Court judge found the Legislature has been chronically underfunding school facilities.
Water resources
Biggs and Schweikert agree on one thing when it comes to water: Arizona is not running out anytime soon. The state just needs to better manage its resources.
And to do that, Biggs wants to reinvigorate a dormant desalination plant in Yuma that was abandoned after it became too costly and impractical. He also proposed building more dams and reservoirs to better manage Arizona’s portion of the Colorado River’s dwindling flows.
Schweikert argues that desalination would make water too costly for Arizonans and said the issue is more about how the state allocates water. He noted in the debate that most of the state’s water supply goes to feeding cattle rather than supporting home development.
Elections
Biggs has already pledged to sign a piece of legislation dubbed the “Florida-style elections” bill introduced by Republicans in the state Legislature, designed to speed up the ballot counting process to get results quicker. But Schweikert is far more cautious when it comes to mail-in voting.
“We have to deal with the reality (that) voters like the mail-in voting system,” Schweikert said.
Under the “Florida-style” proposal, early voting would end the Friday before an election, though many Arizona voters prefer to cast “late earlies” and drop their mail-in ballots off on Election Day. Schweikert says he isn’t sure voters are ready for that change.
Immigration and border security
Though it was a bellwether issue for voters in 2024, immigration has largely fallen by the wayside in Arizona’s gubernatorial race, in part due to record low border crossing numbers under the second Trump administration.
Both congressmen have been largely supportive of Trump’s immigration agenda, but Schweikert drew the line on mass deportations of recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — an idea pitched by Senate President Warren Petersen, a Republican candidate for attorney general.
Biggs quibbled with the definition of DACA recipients when speaking to reporters on the issue, but Schweikert said those mass deportations do not work mathematically or economically.The post Policy analysis: Biggs and Schweikert talk GOP primary platforms first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times.]]>
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Biggs, Schweikert skip the fireworks in tame GOP governor debate
/news/2026/06/18/biggs-schweikert-skip-the-fireworks-in-tame-gop-governor-debate/
Thu, 18 Jun 2026 16:23:56 +0000
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Key Points: Two Republican frontrunners largely avoided attacking each other on the debate stage Congressman Andy Biggs is the clear GOP favorite and emerged unscathed Congressman David Schweikert maintains he’s […]
The post Biggs, Schweikert skip the fireworks in tame GOP governor debate first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times.]]>
Key Points:
Two Republican frontrunners largely avoided attacking each other on the debate stage
Congressman Andy Biggs is the clear GOP favorite and emerged unscathed
Congressman David Schweikert maintains he’s the stronger general election candidate
Those tuning in to the Republican gubernatorial primary debate on June 17 expecting to see two frontrunners at each other’s throats likely left disappointed.
Instead, Congressmen Andy Biggs and David Schweikert shared their allotted time courting independent voters, “geeking out” on state budget math and taking shots at incumbent Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.
Biggs, who entered the race in early 2025, is expected by many to handily defeat Schweikert in the July 21 Republican primary. Polling numbers, political donations and local endorsements have all leaned in Biggs’ favor, and he also nabbed the coveted blessing from President Donald Trump.
Political consultants told the Arizona Capitol Times in a post-debate briefing that Schweikert did not do much to shift those tailwinds in his direction.
“Schweikert seems to be content with second place,” said GOP public relations consultant Barrett Marson.
Schweikert continues to run a campaign that vexes political consultants and dedicated GOP voters. Despite polls suggesting otherwise, the congressman maintains that he is the only Republican in the race who can defeat Hobbs in the Nov. 3 general election, even when pressed on the issue by reporters after the debate.
“I do pretty darn well with independents in one of the toughest congressional districts in America, and have election after election after election,” Schweikert said, referring to the 1st Congressional District in northeast Phoenix and Scottsdale.
Schweikert has lobbed an occasional attack against Biggs, criticizing his relationships with far-right groups and personalities. But he did not come out swinging on the debate the way many expected he might.
“He didn’t swing at all,” Marson said. “Going in, I thought it was going to be a heavyweight bout, I thought it was going to be a little scrappy MMA fight between Schweikert and Biggs, and it wasn’t.”
Schweikert saved his criticism for the end of the debate, instead focusing more on the negative impact of Turning Point USA on Republican politics in Arizona. In contrast, Biggs frequently touts the endorsement of late TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, and the group’s political action committee has already spent nearly $500,000 to bolster his campaign.
“When you’re wholly owned by Turning Point, and you’ve lost election and lost election and lost election, it puts everything in our future at risk,” Schweikert said in his closing remarks.
After the debate, Biggs told reporters that “TPUSA and I are not what I would call bedfellows,” but acknowledged that they are significant backers of his bid for the Ninth Floor.
Biggs has largely avoided going on the attack against Schweikert, with the exception of the occasional quip teasing his fellow congressman for not having a direct line to the president. During the June 17 debate, Biggs spent more time name-dropping Democrats he has worked alongside in Congress than he did his Republican opponent.
“The fact that Biggs is trying to present himself as a bipartisan moderate means he’s that confident he’s getting out of the primary,” said Democratic consultant Stacy Pearson. “He name-checked (U.S. Rep.) Greg Stanton, (former U.S. Sen.) Kyrsten Sinema, (U.S. Rep.) Hakeem Jeffries. I mean, he went through the who’s who of Democrats.”
Biggs also shed more light on his policy goals, some of which were slightly surprising. He pledged to eliminate tax incentives for data centers, expand Arizona’s already-universal school voucher program and use the state land trust to fund education.
Hobbs secured a three-year moratorium on new data center tax incentives, a compromise that Biggs attributed to legislative Republicans. However, GOP members of the Legislature fought back against repealing the data center tax incentive entirely, arguing it would send the wrong message to investors eyeing the state for development.
All of the candidates on the debate stage, including long-shot contenders Scott Neely and Ken Miceli, expressed uncertainty about the security and efficacy of Arizona’s mail-in voting system. Biggs pledged to sign the “Florida-style” election reform bill introduced by GOP state lawmakers, while Schweikert claimed his deceased mother received ballots in the mail for several years after her death.
Marson and Pearson criticized Citizens Clean Elections’ debate moderators for not asking the candidates about the results of the 2020 elections. In 2021, Biggs voted against certifying Arizona’s election results, which helped elect former President Joe Biden, while Schweikert voted against certifying Pennsylvania’s election results.
Hobbs has not yet committed to debating her eventual Republican opponent after skipping the 2022 debate with then-GOP nominee Kari Lake, citing Lake’s promotion of conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 election. Pearson said Hobbs should skip a debate with Biggs unless he can acknowledge that Biden won in 2020.
“She owes the voters (an) appearance in front of the voters, she doesn’t owe (participation in) a format that allows for him to sidestep questions,” Pearson said. “They weren’t even asked about the (January 6th) insurrection, which I thought was slightly terrifying.”
Marson argued Hobbs would only stand to lose from participating in a debate with Biggs because he would “destroy” her, which is why she likely won’t agree to face off against him.
Mail-in ballots for the July 21 primary election are set to go out to voters on June 24. The post Biggs, Schweikert skip the fireworks in tame GOP governor debate first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times.]]>
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Say hello to the ‘New’ guy: Comedian aims to shake up Arizona governor’s race
/news/2026/06/01/say-hello-to-the-new-guy-comedian-aims-to-shake-up-arizona-governors-race/
Mon, 01 Jun 2026 17:40:50 +0000
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Key Points: Fictional character New Amato enters Arizona governor’s race Amato takes aim at real politicians like Gov. Katie Hobbs and Congressman Andy Biggs Votes for Amato likely won’t count, […]
The post Say hello to the ‘New’ guy: Comedian aims to shake up Arizona governor’s race first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times.]]>
Key Points:
Fictional character New Amato enters Arizona governor’s race
Amato takes aim at real politicians like Gov. Katie Hobbs and Congressman Andy Biggs
Votes for Amato likely won’t count, but real third-party candidates could sway results
In case anyone was worried about a lack of candidates in Arizona’s gubernatorial race, a “New” satirical contender has joined the pack with an offbeat platform and the backing of a “New” party.
New Amato, a businessman based in Lake Havasu City, will join Republican Congressmen Andy Biggs, David Schweikert and No Labels Party candidate Hugh Lytle in challenging Gov. Katie Hobbs this November. Amato has three simple priorities: ending taxes for families and companies, bringing the Seven Wonders of the World to Arizona and shutting down the state’s last Sizzler steakhouse.
“I’ve just grown to love it here. I love the people, I love the climate, and the general energy here,” Amato told the Arizona Capitol Times. “I looked at sort of the problems that the state has been having and realized that some of the great qualities of Lake Havasu that I see every day, we could expand on a statewide level and I’d want to be at the center of that, making that happen.”
Amato said his day one goal will be shutting down the final Sizzler in Flagstaff. He also envisions bringing the Eiffel Tower to Phoenix and the Great Wall of China to the border between Arizona and Mexico. While Biggs supports eliminating the state’s income tax, Amato described it as a “half measure,” saying he wants to get rid of all taxes.
“The two steps we’re going to do as soon as I become governor would be to eliminate nearly all regulations, and then eliminate all taxes on businesses and homes, families, and so that’s going to spur an economic explosion within the state,” he said.
Amato is, of course, not a real candidate, which one might realize after he urges voters to cast their ballot for him in October. He is the fictional creation of comedian Tim Heidecker, known widely for producing the Adult Swim comedy sketch series Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, who launched the Amato campaign with a stuttering YouTube video and a typo-laden website on May 27.
Heidecker’s character is part of a web series called “On Cinema,” hosted on the comedian’s own streaming platform, HEI Network.
Amato might be fictional, but that did not stop him from taking shots at his opponents — two real Arizona politicians. In his campaign launch video, Amato calls Hobbs “a joke” before accusing her of being “competent, inpo- incompetent and corrupt.”
In an interview with the Arizona Capitol Times on May 29, Amato went even further by comparing Hobbs and Biggs to barnyard animals while stuttering over or even completely butchering their names.
“I like to say, you’ve got Pigs versus Hogs,” Amato said. “In other words, Andy Piggs versus Deborah-Katie Hobbs, Katie Hoggs, I say. So you have basically the same beast, the same animal, pigs and hogs are very similar, and I am a different breed.”
Hobbs has frequently told reporters that she would welcome any candidate into the race to challenge her in November, though it’s likely that Amato was not the kind of candidate she had in mind.
In his campaign launch video, Amato notes he supports the policies of the “current Republican government candidate Andy Piggs and the woman that’s running,” though it’s unclear whether he’s referring to withdrawn Republican candidate Karrin Taylor Robson or the governor. Nevertheless, Amato argues neither have what it takes to “turn things around and take this state to the next level.”
The campaign video makes no mention of Schweikert, Biggs’ current primary opponent. That exclusion, intentional or otherwise, sums up the impact many Arizona politicos predict Schweikert will have on the governor’s race this year.
Amato also plans to create his own party, the “New Party,” which might inspire a feeling of déjà vu in anyone who has been following the Arizona Independent Party saga.
“I think it’s time for a new voice, a new party, the New Party,” Amato said in his campaign video. “As head of the New Party, I will be running for governor as a third party candidate under the New Party banner.”
Amato seemed uninterested in discussing other third party candidates in the race, like Lytle, who will appear on the No Labels Party ballot line following a lengthy court case over the party’s name earlier this spring. He told the Arizona Capitol Times that he’s been too focused on his own write-in campaign.
In all seriousness, third party candidates could play an outsized role in this year’s gubernatorial contest, a fact that both major party candidates acknowledge. In a memo sent to reporters, Hobbs’ campaign manager Nicole DeMont wrote that the campaign is not resting on its laurels despite polling showing the governor slightly ahead of both Republican contenders.
“While most polling tests Hobbs versus Biggs, they will be joined on the November ballot by No Labels and Green Party candidates,” DeMont wrote. “Arizona statewide races often come down to just a few hundred or few thousand votes, so even a small percentage of votes for a third party cannot be ignored and injects a degree of uncertainty into polling.”
An early May survey conducted by Noble Predictive Insights shows third party candidates could pull up to 6 or 7% of the vote from the Republican and Democratic candidates. Lytle supporters make up most of those numbers, with only around 1% of voters saying they would vote for another third party candidate.
Political consultants agree that third party candidates are more likely to pull votes from a Democratic candidate like Hobbs, given that Republicans still have a slight voter registration advantage over both Democrats and independents in the state. Hobbs’ campaign seems acutely aware of that fact, given that attorneys with ties to the governor aided legal challenges to the candidacies of Lytle and Green Party contender Risa Lombardo.
Election officials seem to agree that it is unlikely that Amato’s fictional campaign will have a real impact on Arizona’s gubernatorial race. Amato is encouraging voters to write him in on their ballots, but according to the Secretary of State’s Office, those votes can only be counted if Amato is registered as a write-in candidate.
After seeing Amato’s video, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes took to social media to encourage voters seeking accurate information about the elections to visit arizona.vote.
“I enjoy a good joke as much as the next guy does, but elections in all reality are not a laughing matter,” Fontes said.
The filing period for write-in candidates who hope to appear on the general election ballot opens June 6 and ends Sept. 4, so it’s unclear whether Amato will make a bid for an official appearance. If he does, it’s likely that any write-in votes would be disqualified considering Amato said he has only lived in “Lake Hasafoo” since January and gubernatorial candidates are required to have been Arizona residents for at least five years.
And, at the end of the day, it’s unlikely that Arizona election officials will be able to count votes cast for a fictional character.The post Say hello to the ‘New’ guy: Comedian aims to shake up Arizona governor’s race first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times.]]>
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Contentious GOP primary reveals Republicans’ latest party lines
/news/2026/05/15/contentious-gop-primary-reveals-republicans-latest-party-lines/
Fri, 15 May 2026 15:39:24 +0000
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Key Points: Republicans face divisive primaries amid shifting political dynamics, voter makeup Turning Point influence tested against independent voters’ growing electoral hold Conservative incumbents battle fellow Republicans across multiple statewide […]
The post Contentious GOP primary reveals Republicans’ latest party lines first appeared on Arizona Capitol Times.]]>
Key Points:
Republicans face divisive primaries amid shifting political dynamics, voter makeup
Turning Point influence tested against independent voters’ growing electoral hold
Conservative incumbents battle fellow Republicans across multiple statewide races
Thirteen Republicans are vying for statewide office this year, but before they can take on their Democratic opponents, they’ll have to navigate increasingly contentious and fragmented primary challenges.
There isn’t a single Republican running unopposed in a statewide primary this year, while most of the Democrats hoping to keep or flip those same seats will not face any meaningful competition within their own party. Even Republican incumbents have not been spared; three officeholders with proven conservative chops are facing challenges from the right.
“That’s a Turning Point thing,” said Chuck Coughlin, a Republican-turned-independent consultant. “Are they going to be able to marshal Republican voters in opposition to fairly conservative candidates?”
Hanging over it all is diminished public support for President Donald Trump, his policies and the Republican Party as a whole. Each candidate is walking a delicate tight rope between supporting the president enough to win over an engaged GOP primary voter and keeping enough distance so as to not alienate Arizona’s growing bloc of independent voters.
Some Republicans argue even Turning Point, the conservative youth organization founded in Arizona, might be losing its influence in the state after less than resounding results for TP-backed candidates in April’s Salt River Project Board elections.
“Turning Point puts their money behind people, and that machine rolls, but it turns off the independent voters,” said Lisa Everett, the former chair of Legislative District 29 Republicans. “Since they are the ones that decide the elections in Arizona, we need to figure out how to court them.”
With the exception of the Republican primary for governor, GOP voters seem largely undecided about primary candidates in down-ballot statewide contests. Polling suggests that some of those candidates are unknown to the Republican electorate, even though most have held some form of elected office in Arizona.
Governor
U.S. Congressman Andy Biggs speaking with attendees at the April 2026 “Build the Red Wall” rally at Dream City Church in Phoenix. (Gage Skidmore / Flickr)
Congressman Andy Biggs is widely viewed as the frontrunner in the GOP gubernatorial primary. His closest rival — fellow Congressman David Schweikert — is still behind by double-digits according to most polls and by several hundreds of thousands of dollars in fundraising.
“I’m trying to unify the Republican Party right now to win this governor’s race,” Biggs told reporters when asked about Schweikert on May 5. “I don’t talk about my primary opponent, because the reality is, I’m staying focused on Governor (Katie) Hobbs, what she’s not doing and what she is doing, and I’m trying to bring that message out.”
Schweikert has maintained since he entered the race in October 2025 that Biggs cannot defeat Hobbs in the general election.
U.S. Congressman David Schweikert speaking with attendees at the 2022 Legislative Forecast Luncheon hosted by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry at Chase Field in Phoenix. (Gage Skidmore / Flickr)
“The left is so giddy (and) wanting him to be the nominee because you see the polling, he can’t come within 10, 11 points of Katie Hobbs,” Schweikert told KTAR on May 7.
Everett endorsed Schweikert on social media for precisely that reason, though she knows her opinion is not widely shared among the conservative grassroots.
“I attend lots of meetings, LD meetings, club meetings, council board meetings, etc. and what I am seeing is Republicans are coming up to me, and they’re whispering, ‘I’m supporting David Schweikert,’” Everett said. “They’re afraid to say it out loud, because the other candidates that are supported by these larger organizations are taking up all the oxygen in the room.”
One slight wrinkle in Schweikert’s election theory is that polling numbers actually show he’s doing worse than Biggs in the matchup against Hobbs. According to a February survey from local pollster Noble Predictive Insights, Biggs trailed Hobbs by five points among registered voters, while Schweikert trailed the governor by nine points.
Biggs, the only candidate in the race with a Trump endorsement after Karrin Taylor Robson dropped out in February, doesn’t see the president’s support as a deterrent for voters.
“If I had an issue, I would just call (Trump) up and say, ‘Hey, what’s going on here?,’” Biggs told reporters on May 5. “… I think you need to have somebody in office as the governor here who can actually call up the president … I think those relationships are important, and I think they benefit the state.”
Secretary of State
State Rep. Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, speaking with attendees at a campaign rally for Andy Biggs for Governor at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix. (Gage Skidmore / Flickr)
Rep. Alex Kolodin, a state lawmaker and election attorney, was the first candidate to cut into the secretary of state’s race. But, he did so as rumors of a run by Gina Swoboda, chair of the Republican Party of Arizona and the Legislature’s election policy lead, started to swirl around the political sphere.
Swoboda initially launched a campaign for the 1st Congressional District, but, in early February, she filed her statement of interest for the Secretary of State’s Office and pivoted her run.
“I love the office so much, and I love the people in it, and I love the work,” Swoboda said. “And I’m sad by how politicized it’s become, and I’m sad at where I think it will go if this continues for another four years.”
Kolodin, with the endorsement of Turning Point Action, is angling his campaign at some election nerves frayed among his base. Along the campaign trail, Kolodin has focused on alleged noncitizen voting, championed the SAVE Act and pledged to cooperate with the federal government in granting access to state voter rolls.
“When I’m elected the very first thing that we need to do is partner up with our friends in the federal government who have graciously offered to allow us to use their SAVE Act database to ensure that we don’t have noncitizens on our voter rolls,” Kolodin said in an interview with former U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz.
Gina Swoboda speaking with attendees at the Restoring National Confidence Summit at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Gage Skidmore / Flickr)
Swoboda, meanwhile, aims to capture the growing sect of Arizona’s independent voters through a focus on policy and operations.
“What I want to run on is transparency, accountability and competence. That’s all I want. And that’s what I think the voters want. I think that they are exhausted,” Swoboda said. “The last thing (people) need to worry about is what did the secretary of state do today? Why do people have to think about that?”
She expressed some doubt that Kolodin could win over the third of the state’s voters who have no declared party affiliation. And Swoboda stressed the need to work well across the state with officials in every corner on election administration, a skill she claimed her opponent lacked.
Swoboda referenced the ongoing legal dispute between the Maricopa County Recorder and the Board of Supervisors as one example.
“It’s a disaster. I got into the race because I don’t want that to happen on a statewide level,” Swoboda said. “It will dissolve into dysfunction and infighting, and the voters will not have confidence in the process. Nobody needs that.”
Attorney General
Senate President Warren Petersen and Rodney Glassman framed campaigns for the Attorney General’s Office as a matter of legal experience.
Rodney Glassman speaking with attendees at a campaign rally for Andy Biggs for Governor at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix. (Gage Skidmore / Flickr)
Glassman, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. JAG Corps Reserve, former Tucson City Councilmember and longtime candidate for office — with past runs for the Arizona Corporation Commission, Maricopa County assessor and the U.S. Senate, as a Democrat — claims he is the only candidate who has ever practiced law, taken on a client or prosecuted someone in court.
“My primary opponent is a termed-out career politician, a part time Realtor, and received his law license less than 28 months ago,” Glassman said. “He’s never had a client. He’s never prosecuted a criminal, and he doesn’t even carry professional liability insurance, aka, he doesn’t practice law. He’s never practiced law.”
Petersen was licensed to practice law in 2023, though he passed the bar in 2020. And he corrected Glassman, noting he is not yet termed out from the Senate.
State Senate President Warren Petersen speaking with attendees at a campaign rally for Andy Biggs for Governor at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix. (Gage Skidmore / Flickr)
Petersen claimed he is the most experienced person in the race, pointing to his part in a swell of litigation from the Legislature to defend public laws Attorney General Kris Mayes left by the wayside.
“We basically set up a mini Solicitor General’s Office here at the Senate,” Petersen said.
More significantly, Petersen pointed to Glassman’s past history of switching parties and continuing to pursue election as a downside.
“The people, they’re tired of him running for office. If you run twice and lose twice, normal people quit,” Petersen said. “If you run more than twice and you keep running, I think you’re achieving sociopath level.”
Support and endorsement is currently split among both candidates.
Glassman has courted support from Congressman Paul Gosar, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan, and former Senate President Karen Fann.
Petersen meanwhile has shored up support withCongressman Biggs, a slate of Republican state lawmakers and Idaho and West Virginia’s attorneys general.
During Trump’s recent visit to the state, he declined to dole out any formal endorsement, but he did give Petersen a shoutout from the stage. And when Gosar voiced his support for Glassman, it drew a mixed reaction from the crowd.
Superintendent of Public Instruction
The Arizona Freedom Caucus and Turning Point Action placed veteran incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne in its crosshairs early on, recruiting outgoing Treasurer Kimberly Yee to oust him from office.
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne speaking with attendees at the 2024 Legislative Forecast Luncheon hosted by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry at Chase Field in Phoenix. (Gage Skidmore / Flickr)
Horne is keeping his messaging on improving academics across education and is hoping voters will keep him around for another four years to finish what he set out to do at the start of his term.
He pointed to the department’s Project Momentum, which lifted 80% of schools in the bottom 5% for academic performance to a higher bar.
“That’s an eight-year job, not a four-year job,” Horne said. “I want to finish the job. If the voters were to switch horses after four years, somebody else would start all over again and it would never get done.”
Horne is continuing his crusade against critical race theory, diversity, equity and inclusion and “woke ideology” as well. And in that vein, he did not have much to say about his opponent, other than claiming she had served on a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for the National Association of State Treasurers.
Yee denies serving on any DEI committee and went so far as to send a cease and desist letter.
State Treasurer Kimberly Yee speaking with attendees at the “Rally to Protect Our Elections” hosted by Turning Point Action at Arizona Federal Theatre in Phoenix. (Gage Skidmore / The Star News Network)
In her own campaign, Yee claims academic performance has not improved significantly under Horne.
“He’s had four years, and those numbers have not changed,” Yee said. “I see complete chaos in the Department of Education when it comes to management. I also see a real non-presence of this current superintendent with respect to his role as a statewide official.”
The two must also contend with the Empowerment Scholarship Account program, a live wire for Republicans staunch on supporting school choice, which has formed significant party lines surrounding the issue of ensuring there’s no misspending, fraud or abuse in the program.
Horne maintains the department is continuing to finetune its oversight of the program.
Meanwhile, Yee, in her role as state treasurer, recently put out a request for information to assess the field of financial vendors. She stopped short of wading into any policy questions for the program, though, claiming the specifics are better lef