By Staff Reporter |
A liberal Democrat is attempting to return to the Arizona State Legislature for the upcoming session to give her party control of the House of Representatives.
Kelli Butler is running for election to the Arizona House of Representatives in Legislative District 4. Butler previously served in the Arizona Legislature from January 2017 to 2023. Currently, she sits on the Maricopa County Community College District Governing Board as a Member At-large.
Though she is running in a centrist district in the Phoenix-metro area, Butler boasts of several endorsements from left-leaning organizations for her campaign, including the Arizona Education Association, Moms Demand Action, Arizona List, Save Our Schools Arizona, National Organization for Women Arizona Political Action Committee, Human Rights Campaign, Emilys List, and Sierra Club Grand Canyon.
The former lawmaker does not have an “issues” page on her campaign website, yet her “about” section makes clear that she would be legislating with an anti-school choice agenda should voters return her to the House of Representatives chamber. She writes, “We know public schools are underfunded, but universal vouchers send tax dollars to private schools with no accountability.” She also mentions abortion being one of her top focuses, highlighting that “attacks on women’s reproductive rights seem to be the priority.” Butler promises that “with a new majority, those priorities will change.”
On May 3, Butler reposted an endorsement from Save Our Schools, adding, “So proud to earn this endorsement! I’m looking forward to working to strengthen our neighborhood public schools.” Save Our Schools and the Arizona Education Association have been two of the top organizations opposed to school choice and educational freedom opportunities, working against efforts to give Arizona parents and guardians more choices when it comes to their children’s’ education and future development.
During her last term in legislative office, Butler voted against HB 2853, which expanded the state’s empowerment scholarship accounts program, giving tens of thousands more Arizona families enhanced opportunities to maximize the potential of their children’s education.
Butler also took a stand against Republican attempts to help the state secure the border and give law enforcement officers additional resources and authority they require to better protect communities and unsuspecting families. When the state legislature debated whether to pass HCR 2060 and send it to the ballot for the consideration of Arizonans, she posted, “I agree federal immigration reform is needed, but HCR 2060 is not the answer. It will divert local law enforcement resources, result in taxpayer funded lawsuits, give AZ another black eye nationally and further strain our state budget.”
The three-term legislator has also been a champion of gun control measures and would be a vote to dismantle Arizonans Second Amendment rights at the state capitol.
In 2022, Butler decried the lack of action on gun control bills introduced by her fellow Democrat legislators.
Back in January 2022, Butler slammed then-Republican Governor Doug Ducey’s commitment to keep Arizona schools open for in-person learning – more than a year after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Butler said, “Gov. Ducey is again punishing schools that take action to shut down to protect the health of students and staff. He’s using this pandemic to defund our already stressed-to-the-brink public schools. Instead, he should provide PPE, paid sick days, substitutes, ventilation.”
She also attacked Governor Ducey’s assertion that “there [was] no mask mandate in Arizona” in December 2021 – again, more than a year after COVID-19 pandemic pinnacle swept the nation, framing Ducey’s statement as bragging about “ignoring public health guidelines.”
Additionally, in September 2021, Butler pounced on a lawsuit from then-Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich over one of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine orders, calling it a “PR campaign” and accusing the state’s top prosecutor of “want[ing] Arizonans to get sick and stay sick.”
Butler ran as a team for the state House with fellow Democrat Karen Gresham, who serves on the Madison Elementary School District’s governing board as its president. In the just-completed primary election, Butler finished first, receiving 20,918 votes, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office. Gresham obtained 18,930 votes. They will face off against incumbent state Representative Matt Gress and his running mate, Pamela Carter, for the Republicans. Gress received 24,329 votes in the July 30 primary election, compared to 19,432 for Carter.
According to the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, Legislative District 4 is one of the most competitive in the state, with a 3.4% vote spread between Republicans and Democrats in the past nine statewide elections. In those elections, Republicans have won five of the contests, compared to four for the Democrats.
Currently, there is only one legislator representing Legislative 4 (Gress) due to a Democrat’s resignation this summer. Butler was one of three Democrats nominated to fill the seat (with Gresham and Eric Meyer) to be considered by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. One of those individuals will be selected by the Board to serve for the duration of the term (until early January 2025).
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