Opinion: Moderate voters who feel the Arizona House and Senate have gone too extreme can send a strong message in these key races during the July 30 primary election.
Editorial board| Arizona Republic
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Disaffected voters might not have heard this loudly and clearly enough, but we need you.
Arizona needs you.
If the polls are right, most Arizona voters think our elected leaders are addressing the wrong issues. You’ve said you want to see more compromise. More work across party lines.
But look at the Arizona Legislature. Though both the House and Senate are closely split, there isn’t much compromise or bipartisanship.
What does the Arizona Legislature do?
The budget — which funds everything from roads to schools to residents’ health care — was negotiated in secret among a select few, with no real vetting or time for public comment. Lawmakers were essentially pressured to pass the $16 billion plan to find out what was in it.
This is no way to govern.
And while there were efforts earlier this year to address water and affordable housing — two issues that voters say matter to them most — the bills that passed either nipped at the edges or addressed just parts of the problem.
Want more than this?
Then this election is your chance to make a difference. To send a clear message that we expect more than the smash-mouth, take-no-prisoners, you’re-either-with-us-or-against-us style of politics that has infected the Capitol.
Which races could change its direction?
The Arizona Legislature has 30 districts with 30 members in the Senate and 60 in the House of Representatives. Republicans have a one-seat majority in each chamber.
Most races aren’t competitive in the July 30 primary election — or competitive at all because the legislative map was drawn with 13 safe Republican and 12 safe Democratic districts. That leaves only five competitive ones.
That’s a shame.
Even worse, petty ideologues have forced out most of the serious candidates in the middle, further narrowing the number of truly competitive races.
Voters are forced to wrestle with politics that are mostly about professing fealty to a tribe or getting even with those who aren’t, instead of debating serious issues that affect our daily lives, such as housing, water and education.
This problem is most pronounced on the right, where MAGA loyalists now dominate the Republican-controlled House and Senate.
The good news is you have the power to change the Legislature’s tone and direction — yes, even now, with the candidate lineups we have.
Here are five contested primary races that could send a strong message about the kind of government we want — and help clear the room for more moderate candidates to emerge in future elections.
Legislative District 1, Senate
This is a ruby-red district centered in Prescott.
Its contested Senate primary is shaping up to be a fierce battle between establishment incumbent Ken Bennett and his MAGA rivals — former state lawmaker Mark Finchem, who moved to the district to run, and Steve Zipperman, who lost a close race to Bennett in 2022.
All three are busy campaigning on their conservative bona fides.
What makes Bennett unique is that he is one of few Republicans willing to vote “no” on GOP legislation if it contains poison pills or withhold his vote to continue negotiating — a point that, in part, is why he has two far-right challengers in the primary.
It would be a shame to lose that critical voice because it forces discussion and concessions.
Legislative District 7, Senate
Similar dynamics are playing out in this sprawling, solidly red district that runs from Flagstaff to Pinal County.
Though there also are two Democrats running for its Senate seat, the most consequential primary matchup is between Sen. Wendy Rogers — who is about as MAGA as they come — and Rep. David Cook, an establishment Republican who is running for Senate because he is term-limited in the House.
Cook is another one of the few odd GOP voices out, who also has been known to vote no on poison-pill legislation and occasionally work with Democrats.
If he wins, the Senate will have a key voice for compromise. If Rogers wins, she’ll be another voice for unwavering MAGA fealty.
She has spread more conspiracies and disparaged more groups than we have room to list. Even Republicans have censured Rogers over things she said, but not before she threatened to “personally destroy” anyone who voted to punish her.
Legislative District 10, House
The two MAGA incumbents — Reps. Justin Heap and Barbara Parker — aren’t running again in this MAGA-friendly east Mesa district.
And, as you’d expect, two populist replacements are running for two House seats in the contested GOP primary.
Ralph Heap is the outgoing incumbent’s dad and aligned with him politically, and Justin Olson is a former lawmaker and corporation commissioner who is now an executive with Turning Point USA, a MAGA youth organization.
But there is a third conservative candidate on the ballot — Matt Greer — who has been endorsed by establishment organizations, including the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce and police unions.
Greer, a real estate agent and Army veteran, is a newcomer to politics but has made housing and the economy his central issues — both of which could use more gravitas at the Capitol.
Legislative District 17, Senate
The suburbs north of Tucson also are solidly red.
But voters in this bitterly fought GOP Senate primary race have a choice between the MAGA incumbent, Justine Wadsack, and Vince Leach, who before Trump took over the Republican Party was one of the state’s most conservative lawmakers.
Wadsack edged out Leach in 2022 and now he’s back and swinging, aided by a campaign to highlight the wackier things Wadsack has said and done in her two years in office.
Leach may not edge the Legislature back toward the middle, but he might help dilute the power of the Freedom Caucus to which Wadsack belongs — a caucus that calls most of the shots now in the Legislature.
Legislative District 22, Senate
Unlike all the other races we’ve highlighted, this Avondale district is solidly blue.
But while there aren’t major policy differences between the two Democratic Senate candidates in the primary, the issue here is whether a former lawmaker who was accused of repeatedly intimidating others should have a second chance at elected office.
The House was set to punish Rep. Leezah Sun earlier this year over her behavior, but she resigned before they could.
She faces incumbent Sen. Eva Diaz, who was elected in 2022 as a write-in candidate after the then-incumbent, Diego Espinosa, resigned to take another job.
How do I vote in these races?
You don’t have to be a card-carrying Republican or Democrat to vote in the July 30 primary election.
But if you are registered independent or party not designated and want to vote by mail — which most voters do — you’ll need to take an extra step.
Yes, it’s annoying. But those are the rules. And it’s an easy step. We promise.
Go to request.maricopa.vote by July 19 to choose whether you want a Republican or Democratic ballot.
It’ll be mailed to your door.
When you vote, make the choice for serious candidates who listen to Arizonans and make decisions based on what’s good for the state, instead of what’s best for them or their party.
This is an opinion ofThe Arizona Republic's editorial board.
