Lisa Everett, a Dysart Unified School District Governing Board candidate who describes herself as a Republican activist, has recently drawn attention for criticizing conservative candidates, including Arizona Corporation Commission nominee Ralph Heap, and the conservative groups that supported his campaign.
Everett has filed two campaign-finance complaints against Heap, one with the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission and one with the Secretary of State’s Office while publicly defending his primary rivals, Kevin Thompson and Nick Myers. She has also repeatedly called on Heap to withdraw from the race, even after he advanced to the general election over Myers.
Everett’s public support for the two Republican incumbents Heap challenged predates the complaints. In her June 1 “Patriotnheels” newsletter, Everett published a section titled “Truth vs. Lies: The Record of Arizona Corporation Commissioners Kevin Thompson and Nick Myers.” The newsletter summarized Thompson and Myers’ defenses of their records on renewable-energy mandates, President Donald Trump’s energy agenda, utility rate mechanisms, and grid reliability.
Heap challenged Thompson and Myers for one of two Republican nominations to the Corporation Commission. In the July 21 primary, Thompson finished first with 35.8% of the vote, Heap finished second with 33%, and Myers finished third with 31.2%. Thompson and Heap advanced to the November general election.
After the primary, Everett escalated her public opposition to Heap. She announced her Secretary of State complaint, publicly thanked Clean Elections when commissioners denied Heap’s request to leave the public-financing program, and subsequently urged Republicans to call for Heap’s withdrawal. She has continued publishing updates about the campaign-finance proceedings through her Patriotnheels account.
Heap entered the Corporation Commission race with support from the Arizona Free Enterprise Club and Turning Point Action. Everett has previously criticized Turning Point’s influence in Arizona Republican primaries. In May, she told the Arizona Capitol Times that Turning Point “puts their money behind people, and that machine rolls, but it turns off the independent voters.”
Everett has also directly criticized the Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s involvement in Corporation Commission races. In a post to X on August 4 she wrote, “Some have asked me why I am pursuing this. – Accountability. Some are concerned a Democrat could get elected. My prayer is Heap removes himself from the ballot and the Party appoints a great candidate. If we lose this seat the blame lays at the feet of Arizona Free Enterprise Club and their partners. They ran candidates against two great incumbents simply because the incumbents could not be controlled. The blame also lies at the feet of Heap for violating campaign finance laws. This is truly a case of don’t blame the messenger.”
Some have asked me why I am pursuing this. – Accountability. Some are concerned a Democrat could get elected. My prayer is Heap removes himself from the ballot and the Party appoints a great candidate. If we lose this seat the blame lays at the feet of Arizona Free Enterprise… pic.twitter.com/VbzS6qRbhH
In an August 7 reply on X, she added, “Arizona Free Enterprise Club continues to recruit candidates that know nothing about utilities. They do this because they want a puppet at the ACC. Nick and Kevin follow statutes and understand the issues.”
Everett describes herself as a conservative Republican. Her Patriotnheels website identifies her as a longtime Republican organizer and describes the outlet as a West Valley platform that promotes conservative viewpoints and candidates. The same site also features an essay written by Everett titled, “The Republican Party Is Still A Big Tent — Let’s Start Acting Like It.” In that piece, she criticized Republican “purists” and “RINO” labeling and argued against isolating “McCain Republicans” and “moderate Republicans.” She also urged Republicans to engage with political opponents rather than limit their political activity to people who already agree with them.
Everett has applied that argument to disputes over Republican political figures as well. During an August 7 discussion on X over whether former Mesa Mayor John Giles (now the running mate for Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs) should be described as a leftist, Everett wrote, “The far right does not understand that concept. If you fail their purity test – you are a leftist.”
The far right does not understand that concept. If you fail their purity test – you are a leftist.
Everett drew attention for that approach in 2025 while serving as chair of the Legislative District 29 Republican Committee. In April of that year, Everett organized Republican counter-protests against Northwest Valley Indivisible demonstrations targeting President Donald Trump and Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ-08). Everett told AZ Free News at the time that she organized supporters after seeing the anti-Hamadeh demonstrations and said the Republican participants supported the Trump administration’s agenda.
Four months later, Everett joined Brent Peak, co-chair of Northwest Valley Indivisible, in advocating for Peoria-area restaurant owner Lai Kuen “Kelly” Yu after Yu was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. AZ Free News reported in August 2025 that Everett and Peak were working on Yu’s behalf even as Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, along with Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ-04), also supported Yu. Everett told The Center Square that Yu came to the United States while pregnant, sought asylum, and became active in the Peoria community. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Yu had entered the country illegally in 2004 and had exhausted her legal avenues to remain. Court records cited by AZ Free News showed the Ninth Circuit denied Yu’s asylum appeal in 2016.
The Maricopa County Republican Committee subsequently censured Everett by a 23-6 vote over her advocacy for Yu and her work with Peak. It also called for her resignation from her district leadership position. Everett defended her actions and later wrote on X that the county party was increasingly controlled by people she considered extremists, describing them as “so far right they are turning left.”
MCRC Censures LD29 Chairwoman Lisa Everett
Last night, the Maricopa County Republican Committee voted to censure me, Lisa Everett, Chairwoman of LD29. With that vote, my name is now listed alongside an ever-growing roster of Republicans who have been censured by MCRC: County… pic.twitter.com/5hvdhA5iTZ
Everett is now campaigning for the Dysart Unified School District Governing Board, where her campaign lists protecting the district’s A rating, supporting teachers and staff, and maintaining facilities among her priorities.
Heap and Thompson will appear on the Nov. 3 Corporation Commission ballot alongside Democrats Clara Pratte and Jonathon Hill and Green Party candidate Mike Cease.
Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ-08) recently blasted the Arizona Republic as a “dying newspaper. The congressman accused the outlet of “covering for” Democratic congressional candidate JoAnna Mendoza through its framing of a report about property-tax benefits she received on two homes.
“The Arizona Republic, a dying newspaper, is at it again!” Hamadeh wrote. “This time they’re covering for Democrat candidate JoAnna Mendoza, Congressman Juan Ciscomani’s opponent.”
The Arizona Republic, a dying newspaper is at it again!
This time they’re covering for Democrat candidate JoAnna Mendoza, Congressman Juan Ciscomani’s opponent.
They use these words and framing in the headline to cover for her.
Hamadeh criticized the newspaper’s use of the terms “mistake” and “acknowledged the error” in its coverage of Mendoza’s receipt of Arizona’s State Aid to Education property-tax reduction on two residences categorized as her primary home.
“If I sneezed the wrong way 20 years ago, these propagandists would write a nasty story about me,” Hamadeh wrote. “But all they do is cover for DEMOCRATS. Because they are an unofficial arm of the Democrat Party.”
Hamadeh said the article should have been presented under the headline: “Democrat candidate JoAnna Mendoza unlawfully takes tax benefit and claims primary residency in two counties, drawing scrutiny.”
“These people aren’t journalists, they’re activists and propagandists — and have zero credibility,” Hamadeh wrote.
The criticism followed an Aug. 13 Arizona Republic report by Laura Gersony. The version republished by the Arizona Daily Star carried the headline, “House candidate Mendoza wrongfully took home tax credit.” The report described the dual property classifications as an error and quoted Mendoza’s campaign calling it an honest mistake.
A tax filing mistake is drawing attention in a Southern Arizona House race after a candidate acknowledged the error. https://t.co/Lpb6fFZ4EB
According to the report, Mendoza purchased a central Tucson home for approximately $330,000 in 2021 and received the State Aid to Education reduction on that property. She purchased another home in Red Rock for approximately $337,000 in 2023 and later began renting the Tucson residence.
Both properties remained categorized as primary residences, leading Pima and Pinal County officials to apply the reduction to each property. The Tucson classification saved Mendoza $404.29 in 2024 and $415.87 in 2025, a combined $820.16. Her 2026 property-tax bill was not yet publicly available.
Arizona’s State Aid to Education program reduces qualifying school-district property taxes on owner-occupied residential property. The reduction is calculated through a parcel’s property classification and is generally capped at $600 under.
Arizona law classifies residential property occupied by its owner as a primary residence as Class Three property. Residential property used solely as a rental is classified as Class Four property.
County assessors are required to review residential property classifications and investigate parcels that may be rented while classified as primary residences. If an owner fails to respond to the notices prescribed by law, the assessor must reclassify the property and could impose a civil penalty equal to the additional state aid paid on the parcel during the preceding tax year.
Mendoza acknowledged to the Republic that she did not submit the necessary paperwork after she began renting the Tucson property and moved to Red Rock. Records cited by the Republic showed that she contacted Pima County officials on Aug. 10 to have the Tucson home reclassified.
“JoAnna is already in touch with the county assessor to correct the filing mistake,” campaign spokesman Kyle McCarthy told the Republic. The campaign said Mendoza would pay the amount county officials determine she owes.
The Republic also reported that Mendoza disclosed approximately $20,000 in rental income when filing her congressional financial disclosure.
Mendoza is challenging incumbent Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ-06) in the general election. Federal Election Commission records showed Mendoza had raised approximately $7.35 million through July 1, compared with approximately $6.17 million raised by Ciscomani.
The Protect Education Act is projected to fall more than 10,000 valid signatures short of the number required to qualify for Arizona’s November ballot after a court challenge removed thousands of petition signatures and county recorders completed their validity reviews.
The Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AFEC) announced Monday that applying the trial court’s rulings and county signature-validity rates leaves the initiative with approximately 245,000 valid signatures. Arizona law required the campaign to produce 255,949 valid signatures.
The calculation follows an expedited ruling Thursday from Maricopa County Superior Court Judge David McDowell in Clark v. Fontes, the lawsuit challenging the petitions submitted by Protect Education, Accountability Now, the political committee behind the initiative.
At the time of McDowell’s ruling, the final outcome remained unresolved because Maricopa and Apache counties had not yet completed their reviews. The Arizona Capitol Timesreported that the Secretary of State’s initial review had reduced the campaign’s submitted total to 389,376 signatures before the court considered challenges to individual circulators, petition sheets, and duplicate signatures.
🚨 BREAKING: “PROTECT EDUCATION ACT” FALLS SHORT
Based on the trial court’s ruling in Clark (@ClarkRimsza) v Fontes and county signature validity rates, the union-backed anti-ESA initiative does not have enough valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot.
McDowell’s ruling left 348,269 signatures presumptively valid before application of the counties’ random-sample validity rates. The court also addressed 24,369 duplicate signatures and challenges involving more than 110 petition circulators.
“The court agrees that it is conceivable that a double count could occur, but the court cannot make a decision based upon a hypothetical double counting of duplicate signatures,” McDowell wrote.
The initiative’s supporters submitted 421,451 signatures on July 2. Save Our Schools Arizona and the Arizona Education Association were among the organizations backing the campaign.
The Goldwater Institute filed its challenge July 20, alleging that tens of thousands of the submitted signatures should be rejected because of duplicate entries, defects in circulator registrations, and petitions collected by people who were legally ineligible to circulate them.
The amended complaint raised more than 73,300 objections. Those included allegations involving unregistered paid circulators, signatures collected before circulator registration, inaccurate addresses or contact information, identification problems, and circulators whose felony convictions or other legal circumstances allegedly made them ineligible.
McDowell ultimately invalidated signatures collected by several circulators. Four circulators were disqualified because of criminal histories. The judge also invalidated several thousand signatures collected by circulator Tyrone Crispell after finding his denial that he misrepresented the initiative to prospective signers was not credible.
AFEC said Monday that nearly 70,000 signatures were disqualified through the challenge, including duplicates and signatures gathered by legally ineligible circulators.
“This is a major victory for Arizona parents, students, and the integrity of our elections,” AFEC President Scot Mussi said. “This anti-school choice initiative and its union backers spent more than $7 million dollars trying to dismantle school choice in our state, but they still could not collect enough lawful, valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.”
Campaign-finance figures compiled by Transparency USA from Arizona disclosure records show the Protect Education, Accountability Now committee had reported more than $7.5 million in total expenditures through July 30. The National Education Association accounted for approximately $6.57 million in cash and in-kind contributions, while the Arizona Education Association contributed another $810,000.
The Protect Education Act, designated Proposition 212 during the ballot-review process, would make several changes to Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program. The measure would generally limit eligibility to families earning $150,000 or less, with exceptions including students with disabilities, certain military families, and students assigned to poorly performing public schools.
The proposal would also establish additional requirements for participating private schools and tutors, restrict certain ESA expenditures, and generally require unused annual ESA funds to be returned to the state.
The signature dispute is separate from litigation over how Proposition 212 would be described to voters. Last week, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Julie Ann Mata ordered Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to rewrite portions of the proposition’s descriptive title and “yes” and “no” statements after finding that the existing language omitted significant provisions of the measure. Judge Daniel Martin separately ordered revisions to the Arizona Legislative Council’s publicity-pamphlet analysis.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is targeting Democratic congressional nominee Amish Shah over his documented support for admitting Washington, D.C., as the 51st state. The criticism comes as Arizona’s competitive First Congressional District race moves into the general election.
The NRCC said Thursday that Shah supported the proposal on multiple occasions while serving in the Arizona House of Representatives and characterized statehood as an effort to expand Democratic power in Congress. The committee cited a 2021 letter signed by Shah and a 2023 concurrent resolution listing him among its sponsors.
The D.C. Statehood Compact, an organization supporting admission, lists Shah among 33 Democratic Arizona lawmakers who signed the 2021 letter. The lawmakers wrote that “the State of Arizona supports admitting Washington, D.C. into the Union” and urged the state’s congressional delegation to support federal statehood legislation.
Two years later, Shah joined more than two dozen Arizona House members and eight state senators sponsoring House Concurrent Resolution 2034. The measure, which died in committee without receiving a floor vote, would have proclaimed support for admitting Washington, D.C., as a state and enacting federal legislation granting statehood to its residents.
The resolution argued that District residents pay federal taxes, serve in the military, and remain without full voting representation in Congress. It also cited the 2016 districtwide referendum in which approximately 86 percent of voters supported statehood.
Federal statehood legislation would preserve a smaller federal district containing the White House, Capitol, Supreme Court and other federal buildings while admitting the residential and commercial portions of Washington as the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth. The proposed state would elect two senators and initially one voting member of the House. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Sen. Chris Van Hollen reintroduced companion measures in January 2025.
Republicans have argued that admission would produce two reliably Democratic Senate seats and an additional Democratic vote in the House. District voters have supported the Democratic presidential nominee in every election since they first participated in 1964. Former Vice President Kamala Harris received 90.28 percent of the District’s vote in 2024, while President Donald Trump received 6.47 percent.
NRCC spokesman Ben Petersen linked Shah’s statehood position to the committee’s broader criticism of his policy record.
ALERT: Arizona Democrat Socialist @DrAmishShah pushed for making Washington D.C. 🟦 the 51st state — a Democrat power grab
Uncovered docs revealed Socialist Shah wanted to create two new Democrat-held U.S. Senate seats and a Democrat U.S. House seat 🟦🟦🟦
In a post to X, Petersen wrote, “Arizona Democrat Socialist @DrAmishShah pushed for making Washington D.C. the 51st state — a Democrat power grab. Uncovered docs revealed Socialist Shah wanted to create two new Democrat-held U.S. Senate seats and a Democrat U.S. House seat.”
“Socialist Amish Shah demonstrated he’s a partisan Democrat obsessed with seizing power to force unpopular far-left tax hikes on Arizonans,” Petersen said, adding, “Arizona families can’t afford Socialist Shah rubber-stamping a radical left agenda in Congress.”
Shah’s campaign describes him as an independent voice who worked across party lines during his five years in the state Legislature. His campaign says his congressional priorities include lowering costs, protecting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and defending abortion rights.
The new attack follows a contentious Democratic primary in which Shah openly criticized national party leaders. In May, Shah accused the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee of interfering in the race after it endorsed former television journalist Marlene Galán-Woods. Shah said the committee had previously assured candidates that it would remain out of the primary and described its intervention as “hubris.”
Shah defeated Galán-Woods and two other candidates in July and will face Republican nominee Jay Feely in November. Feely, a former Arizona Cardinals kicker, received Trump’s endorsement during the Republican primary. The open district includes Scottsdale, northeast Phoenix, Fountain Hills, and Paradise Valley and is expected to help determine control of the U.S. House.
The NRCC has also focused on remarks Shah made about taxes and the Democratic Party’s progressive wing. During a Democratic forum this year, Shah called Trump’s tax cuts “abominable” and said he would use his platform to “prosecute” Trump and congressional Republicans “as vigorously as I can.”
During a 2018 appearance that resurfaced in the 2024 campaign, Shah said the country’s economic system was unfair, blamed Reagan-era tax reductions for contributing to inequality and welcomed what he called a “huge progressive movement” within the Democratic Party. Shah also said during the 2024 campaign that he opposed extending the Trump tax cuts because many of their beneficiaries were wealthy.
Shah previously won the district’s Democratic nomination in 2024 and lost to Republican Rep. David Schweikert by approximately four percentage points Schweikert left the seat open after forgoing reelection to run unsuccessfully for governor.
The Arizona Corporation Commission unanimously approved a new review process Wednesday designed to prevent existing electric cooperative customers from paying for transmission and infrastructure required by data centers, manufacturers, and other large electricity users.
The framework was jointly proposed by Arizona Electric Power Cooperative, which provides wholesale electricity, and five distribution cooperatives: Duncan Valley Electric Cooperative, Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative, Mohave Electric Cooperative, Graham County Electric Cooperative, and Trico Electric Cooperative.
The cooperatives sought the process as they hold discussions with several prospective large-load businesses considering facilities within their service territories. Commission Chairman Nick Myers said those customers are showing increasing interest in rural Arizona.
“Large load customers are becoming increasingly interested in rural areas of Arizona,” Myers said in the Commission’s announcement. “This new process allows rural Arizona to capture the economic growth responsibly without being subsidized by other customers of the utilities.”
The ACC held its August Open Meeting on August 12, 2026. The Commission voted on 29 agenda items. pic.twitter.com/HC3QtTQMvj
— Arizona Corporation Commission (@CorpCommAZ) August 12, 2026
Prospective projects would negotiate electric service agreements involving Arizona Electric Power Cooperative as the wholesale electricity provider, a distribution cooperative serving the project site and the large-load business as the retail customer.
Each proposed agreement would follow a common set of guidelines and application requirements before undergoing review by the Commission’s Utilities Division staff. Commissioners would retain authority to approve, deny, or amend each agreement, according to the approved framework (Docket No. E-01773A-26-0123).
Staff reviews must consider whether an agreement serves the public interest, whether its rates are reasonable, and whether it prevents other customer classes from subsidizing the large-load customer’s commercial operations. The Commission said large-load customers will be responsible for costs associated with serving their projects, including new transmission and infrastructure construction.
“This further protects ratepayers from potentially subsidizing costs attributed to serving ‘cost causers’ such as manufacturing facilities and data centers,” Commissioner Kevin Thompson said.
Commissioner Lea Márquez Peterson said the process accounts for differences among the cooperatives and the communities they serve.
Márquez Peterson said the cooperatives are structured differently and represent diverse communities across the state.
“It’s important that the process for onboarding large loads reflects this difference,” she said. “I was proud to support their effort to streamline their processes and to protect their members and ratepayers.”
The decision advances the Commission’s “Growth Pays for Growth” approach, under which the costs of infrastructure needed to serve new industrial-scale electricity demand are assigned to the customers creating that demand.
The Commission has been studying the effect of data centers and other large-load businesses on Arizona’s electric system since Thompson opened a statewide docket in 2025. The inquiry has examined utility tariffs, new customer classifications, energy service agreements, independent generation, and other mechanisms intended to protect residential and small business customers from cost shifts.
At an April workshop, the Commission reported that approximately 1,300 megawatts of data center development was under construction in Arizona and more than 4,000 megawatts was in the planning stages. Commissioners and utility representatives discussed the generation, transmission, and distribution investments that would be needed to serve that demand.
Commission officials said Arizona’s existing utility rates and regulatory mechanisms have required data center developers to pay their share of power-generation and infrastructure expansion. The Commission opened the broader proceeding to determine whether additional policies would be needed as the number and size of proposed facilities increase.
Participants in the April large-load workshop discussed combining utility-specific rates with individual energy service agreements. Those agreements can include longer contract terms, minimum billing requirements, collateral and credit requirements, termination provisions, and the direct assignment of generation, transmission, and distribution costs to the large customer.
The newly approved cooperative framework uses project-specific service agreements while establishing a common process for Commission review. It also allows individual cooperatives to negotiate terms reflecting their systems and service territories.
“This new large load process gives Arizona cooperative utilities a clear standardized framework for bringing data centers and large load users online while protecting existing ratepayers from bearing the costs,” Myers said.
