A public servant and school choice warrior of the Arizona Legislature is key to Republicans’ control of the Senate chamber in the next two sessions.
State Senator Shawnna Bolick is hoping her constituents give her the green light to come back for her first full term in the Arizona Legislature after returning from a brief hiatus. Bolick was appointed by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in July 2023, when then-State Senator Steve Kaiser surprisingly resigned from his office. The Phoenix-area mother of two had previously served for two terms in the Arizona House of Representatives (2019-2023).
After leaving the legislature in January 2023, Bolick turned her eyes to other priorities. In an exclusive interview with AZ Free News, Senator Bolick revealed that she and her husband were preparing to sell their house in order to downsize, being that their two children are on the cusp of setting out on their own. Additionally, Bolick and her husband Clint (an Arizona Supreme Court Justice) had started the process of setting a heavy travel schedule over the next two years at the time of her exit from politics.
In fact, the Bolicks were abroad when the call came for Shawnna’s return to the Arizona Legislature, and unsurprising to most around her, she couldn’t resist the chance to return to public service. She told AZ Free News that she was in London when the opportunity first arose for a possible appointment to the state senate, which was created by Kaiser’s vacancy. Then, she was in Prague when the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors selected her for the position. That’s when Bolick’s travel wings were temporarily clipped thanks to her commitment to the challenging schedule of legislating and campaigning for re-election.
Senator Bolick told AZ Free News that she desired to return to the frontlines of this toxic political climate because “we are facing challenging times fighting Biden’s inflationary policies at the national level and Hobbs’ woke policies are driving a stake between families and a growing nanny government.” She added, “When I was recruited back, it was to help maintain our majority and save educational freedom.”
The Republican legislator shared that she has been most influenced by William Bennett as she grew up and started down her path of public service. At age nineteen, Bolick read Bennett’s book, “The Devaluing of America: The Fight for Our Culture and Children.” She said that the book “truly called out to me and shifted my interests from wanting to be a writer to restoring hope in our education system,” and that Bennett’s words “also challenged me to want to go to D.C. and work.”
Later, Bolick studied education policy in college and graduate school. She worked in a New York City public school in 1997. It was there she realized the necessity of more school choice opportunities for everyone – especially for low-income families.
Few people are more passionate about school choice and educational freedom in Arizona than Shawnna Bolick. She noted that “When families realize they have more than one educational option available, not only does it give them hope for a better future for their kids, but families feel empowered to try to make the right decision.”
She recounted a time in New York City, when she and some colleagues went to all five boroughs to recruit families trapped in their nearby public schools to their magnet institution. The public-school employees went to fast food restaurants and street corners to inform New Yorkers about the school’s existence. Thinking back about this experience, Bolick marvels at her coalition’s willingness to “spend their free time recruiting families to a public school because it was an option other than their locally zoned neighborhood public school.”
Bolick pointed out that many of the parents they met on these incursions could not afford to send their children to private school – even though they might have been working multiple jobs. These lessons and meetings spurred Bolick on to her life in public service out west, advancing the principles of educational opportunities for all.
Back in the Arizona Legislature this time around, Senator Bolick serves as the Vice Chairman of the Senate Finance and Commerce Committee and a member of the Education Committee.
When thinking back over her time in the legislature over the past two years, Bolick highlighted a ballot referral as her proudest achievement, saying, “I sponsored Proposition 313 to put child sex traffickers in prison for natural life. If the voters pass this proposition in November, it will send a powerful message that Arizona’s children are not for sale. With a wide open border, I hope voters agree it is time to protect our children from sexual exploitation through trafficking.”
If Bolick is given the honor of representing her district again in the state senate, she is already planning the next policies she would prioritize in office. She said she has “an expandable folder sitting on my desk at the Capitol [where she] started to keep newspaper articles, policy papers, but more importantly, constituents who contacted me to research and draft future legislation.” One of the legislation ideas she is working through is “to deal with the bullying in our schools.” Bolick acknowledged that “we need to get to the root of the problem because bullying continues to get worse, leading to kids missing weeks of school.”
Arizona Legislative District 2 is one of the most competitive in the state, with a 3.8% vote spread in the past nine statewide elections. It is very winnable for Republicans, however, as the party has emerged victorious in six out of those nine elections.
Bolick is competing against Josh Barnett in the Republican primary. The winner of that contest will earn the right to face off against Judy Schwiebert, who is running unopposed in the Democrat primary election.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
The global IT outage that occurred Thursday night impacted Arizona’s early voting operations well into Friday.
Arizona’s three largest counties — Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal — were impacted by the outage. Together, they account for over 80 percent of the state’s population.
In Maricopa County some vote centers’ check-in systems weren’t functioning, explained an elections department spokesperson.
“The vote center equipment is connected via a network to facilitate voter check in and cast their ballots,” said the spokesperson.
Maricopa County started the day with a few vote centers open. That number grew to 14 by the afternoon.
— Maricopa County Elections (@MaricopaVote) July 19, 2024
The outage impacted Pima County’s online system to request a mail-in ballot. As a result, early voting has been limited, with election workers providing provisional ballots instead.
Important Update: Due to global internet outage, voting services are limited. Please note, provisional ballots will be issued until further notice. pic.twitter.com/F2cKC1LePM
— Pima County Recorder's Office (@PimaRecorder) July 19, 2024
Pinal County early voting was restored hours after the outage.
Early Voting in Pinal County is OPEN today, July 19, 2024
Last night, our Endpoint Detection and Response Software, Crowdstrike, caused a global outage affecting Windows systems worldwide, including those at Pinal County.
A majority of employee computer and server technologies unrelated to election operations were also impacted across Arizona’s counties.
The outage occurred through Microsoft’s partner CrowdStrike. The Austin, Texas-based software company said in a statement that the outage wasn’t caused by a cyber attack or security incident, but rather a defect in a single content update to its “Falcon Sensor” software for Windows hosts intended to protect against hackers. Mac and Linux hosts weren’t impacted.
CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We…
CrowdStrike provides antivirus software to Microsoft for Windows devices. After 16 hours, Microsoft reported that all impacted apps and services had recovered.
We're investigating an issue impacting users ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services. More info posted in the admin center under MO821132 and on https://t.co/W5Y8dAkjMk
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 18, 2024
The secretary of state’s office clarified that voter rolls weren’t affected by the outage.
In a press release, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes reassured voters that the registration system was secure and operational. Fontes noted that the closed, air-gapped tabulation networks were unaffected, and that access has been restored fully to agency computers used for verifying petition signatures.
“The current global outage is affecting systems worldwide and is not specific to elections or Arizona,” said Fontes.
Fontes clarified that the closed, air-gapped nature of the tabulation networks means that election-support infrastructure, such as email and web servers, are on separate systems.
“[It] is important to note that vote counting was not impacted at all by this event,” said Fontes. “No significant operational delays have been identified at this time.”
From the office of the Secretary of State: Addressing the global issue connected to Crowdstrike pic.twitter.com/jpzFbM9Q3V
— Arizona Secretary of State (@AZSecretary) July 19, 2024
Arizona’s voting operations weren’t the only ones impacted. Both government agencies and private industries were affected: airports, airlines, banks, broadcasters, emergency 911 call centers, and hospitals were all affected. Among CrowdStrike users are over half of the nation’s Fortune 500 companies.
United, American, Delta, and Allegiant airlines were grounded overnight at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. Southwest Airlines was unaffected because they operate on Windows 3.1: a version over 30 years old.
Cochise County didn’t mention elections-related outages, but did report that their 911 dispatch center and sheriff’s department were impacted and required their IT team’s work. The Phoenix Police Department also experienced issues with its computerized 911 dispatch center.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
The Dysart Unified School District Governing Board voted unanimously to reject a recent Executive Order from President Joe Biden imposing new Title IX rules on schools via the US Department of Education. The new rules would, among other impacts, redefine “sex” to include “gender identity,” therefore requiring schools to reject biological sex in favor of how a student chooses to present themselves. The new rules released on April 19, 2024, are currently enjoined by federal court orders in 15 states, preventing enforcement, but as of this report are still applicable in Arizona.
Dysart Unified School District Governing Board President Dawn Densmore told reporters from the Arizona Daily Independent on Sunday, “The resolution I created in response to President Biden’s Executive Order and the United States Department of Education was adopted by unanimous vote at our meeting on July 11th.”
She added, “It’s an honor to lead the way in efforts to protect children and our faith communities from this government overreach.”
Dysart School District in Arizona passed a resolution NOT to comply with the unlawful Title IX rewrite that endangers girls at school.
— Nicole Solas, Sued by the Teachers Union (@Nicoletta0602) July 12, 2024
A Louisiana Federal District court in June found that the new Title IX rules constitute a significant federal overreach with Ogletree Deakins noting from the ruling:
“The Department exceeded its statutory authority under Title IX by redefining ‘sex’ to include ‘gender identity.’ The court found that based on the plain text and legislative history of Title IX, ‘sex’ was intended to refer to biological sex, not gender identity.
The new rules raise First Amendment concerns by potentially compelling speech, such as requiring teachers to use students’ preferred pronouns, even if doing so conflicts with their religious beliefs, and engaging in viewpoint discrimination.
The Department’s rulemaking was arbitrary and capricious. The Department failed to provide a reasoned explanation for departing from long-standing interpretations of ‘sex,’ left regulations in place that conflict with the new ‘gender identity’ mandate, and failed to adequately address safety concerns raised in public comments.”
In response Densmore told the Independent that the Dysart Unified School District Governing Board:
“Will not demand that parents or guardians compel the speech of their minor children, or the First Amendment rights of our staff in a way that contradicts their family values or religious freedoms
Already has current discrimination policies in place which protect every student, staff member and job applicants
Is committed — while not adopting the Title IX expansion — to honoring the original intent of Title IX, our U.S. Constitution, and the Constitution of the State of Arizona
Is committed to empowering parental involvement in education and minimizing public monies to be used to promulgate obtuse overreach into our schools.”
Arizona Women of Action shared the resolution via X on July 11 commenting, “This model conservative school board needs support.”
🗣 TODAY AT 3PM! Your peaceful & prayerful support is needed at the Dysart Unified school board meeting.
Dysart board will be presenting & voting on a resolution 👇 that is in response to the Biden Title IX overreach. This model conservative school board needs support.
— Arizona Women of Action (@azwomenofaction) July 11, 2024
The board resolved in part: “WHEREAS, the Dysart Governing Board is committed to empowering parental involvement in education and minimizing public monies to be used to promulgate obtuse overreach into our local school district and criminalizing innocent children, or the people of the varying faiths that commonly and firmly believe in truth, such as a Creator of two distinct and wonderfully made sexes, and;
BE IT RESOLVED that the Dysart Unified School Governing Board has determined:
1. The United States Department of Education has created a Final Regulation which is contrary to the plain language of Title IX
2. The Governing Board, deriving authority from the Arizona Constitution, Arizona statutes and the regulations of the Arizona Administrative Code, strongly urge the Arizona State Legislature to further codify our state statutes to ensure our children are protected from the political weaponization of government, which would infringe on both federal and state constitutional rights.”
According to the Arizona Republic, the board of the Dysart Unified School District was also to receive legal guidance on the “legal process for challenging” the regulatory change.
AZ Free News has contacted Densmore and asked for the next steps the board is preparing to take and will provide an update when received.
A federal court ruled on Thursday that those registering with the state of Arizona to vote must provide proof of citizenship. Otherwise, their application will be rejected.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its brief ruling in Mi Familia Vota v. Fontes. In it, the court granted a stay pending appeal for the injunction barring enforcement of A.R.S. § 16-121.01(C), the provision in statute requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration applications not produced by the U.S. election assistance commission — in other words, state-issued forms.
“The district court’s May 2, 2024 judgment is therefore stayed to the extent that it bars forcement of [the statute],” wrote the court.
However, two other provisions remain blocked under this most recent ruling and the one cited from the district court.
The previous ruling declared that the National Voter Registration Act preempts registration restrictions for presidential elections and voting by mail; the LULAC Consent Decree prohibits rejections of state registration forms on the basis of lack of documentary proof of citizenship as well as residence; the Materiality Provision of the Civil Rights Act prohibits the state from implementing a checkbox asking a voter to affirm their citizenship status as well as the requirement to disclose place of birth; and the Civil Rights Act’s Different Standards, Practices, or Procedures Provision prohibits requiring county recorders to conduct citizenship checks using the USCIS SAVE system.
Senate President Warren Petersen said the ruling represented an election integrity victory.
“Only U.S. citizens should be allowed to vote in our elections. It sounds like common sense, but the radical left elected officials in our state continue to reject this notion, disrespecting the voices of our lawful Arizona voters,” said Warren. “We are grateful the court is upholding this provision in our law, and it’s time for Congress to take action to ensure only lawful U.S. citizens are voting in federal races.”
🚨BREAKING: Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of election integrity! Voters in Arizona who register with the state and do not provide proof of citizenship will be rejected.
"This is a victory for election integrity in Arizona. Only U.S. citizens should be… pic.twitter.com/IjNCv9lSmz
Lawyer Marc Elias for the activists challenging Arizona’s proof of citizenship requirements, however, argued that the ruling was a win for them since it denied key portions of the Republican motion. Elias dubbed proof of citizenship measures as “voter suppression.”
“9th Circuit (with 3 Trump appointees) denies key portions of Republican motion to stay trial court victory in Arizona voter suppression lawsuit,” said Elias.
🚨BREAKING: 9th Circuit (with 3 Trump appointees) DENIES key portions of Republican motion to stay trial court victory in Arizona voter suppression lawsuit. Congratulations to my firm's clients @MiFamiliaVota and @votolatino and the voters of Arizona.https://t.co/nsXzORvttq
In addition to progressive activist group Mi Familia Vota, other parties to the case include Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (appellee), Petersen (appellant), Kris Mayes (appellant), Promise Arizona and Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (appellant).
The courts are determining whether the Arizona Republican Party may enter the case as an intervenor.
The appeal for the case was scheduled for this September.
Earlier this week, election integrity groups coordinating under America First Legal issued letters to all of Arizona’s county recorders reminding them to purge the voter rolls of non-citizen voters.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
Dr. Owen Anderson, a professor at Arizona State University’s Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, offered an analysis of the philosophy of early communist thinker Friedrich Engels in a video posted to his Substack on July 8. He described it as “a sustained attack on the Christian family.” What resulted from this academic critique of Engels, which directly quotes his widely acknowledged public work, were a series of attacks on the professor and defenses of the communist thinker from what Anderson dubbed “anonymous (usually brand new) accounts,” and “trolls.” One of these commenters, under the screenname “RD,” replied to Dr. Anderson’s initial post claiming, in part, that Engels, “discusses in the same section of the book, that arrangement describes Greek and Roman pagan marriages as well as later Christian ones. Since these predate and do not depend on Christian ideas, he’s not attacking Christianity per se.”
The commenter continued, “As for ‘radical leftists at state universities’ — the vast majority of university professors are in monogamous relationships roughly of the kind Engels describes, with the important caveat that in our time there are far greater legal protections for wives (a fantastic improvement since Engels’ writing). It’s not at all clear that they ‘hate’ this form of the family or ‘teach’ this hatred regularly. In other words, as usual, either you don’t know what you’re talking about or you have disingenuously ripped a statement out of context in order to increase your own sense of victimhood.”
Anderson responded to the commenter that he doesn’t engage with “anonymous trolls” and added rather congenially, “If you’d like to be honest about who you are I’d be happy to discuss these points. You’re mistaken about the purpose of Engels and what it means to hate.”
In response, “RD” accused the professor of being “litigious” and “thin skinned” with ASU and his colleagues citing as evidence “your very public statements on this blog, where you constantly whine about mundane matters to agents of the state.”
He added, “Only a fool would risk having you file a frivolous lawsuit over a blog post. It is enough for me that your readers would double-check your ‘work’ against the evidence of Engels’ own text, where they would very quickly see that you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He claimed to disagree with Engels and accused Dr. Anderson of “not reading these texts honestly and accurately, the duty of any intellectual.”
In a subsequent paid post, Dr. Anderson stated in part,
“One of the surprising not surprising things I’ve experienced since calling out bias against Christians at state universities is that those who want to attack me hide behind anonymous (usually brand new) accounts. I know the internet is full of such trolls. That isn’t what surprises me. What surprises me is that these cowards claim to be either professors or know how to defend professors. They want your tax money to teach your children, but they won’t be honest about what they believe.”
He added, “If they can’t be honest about who they are then I don’t engage with them. They need to own their arguments. If they want to engage in the public square and they believe their cause is just and true, then they should be eager to attach their name to it. But they won’t. This one went on to tell me I’m thin skinned! Imagine insulting any other religion and then telling that person they are thin skinned if they call you out.” He then bid the commenter “Bye, bye.”
Anderson’s determined commenter still wasn’t finished though and launched into a criticism of the professor for his work at ASU combating academic cancel culture referring to the pervasive anti-Christian bias the professor has striven against as “free of speech,” and accusing him of “a very public campaign with Arizona legislators trying to get your colleagues fired.” He further alleged that Anderson, “constantly snitch-tag(s) politicians and media influencers on twitter, including actors like Charlie Kirk whose purpose is to intimidate and harass college professors.“
The pseudonymous “RD” concluded, “You suggested that ASU should discipline your colleague for a social media post that you claim mocks (your understanding of) Christianity, and you think politicians should concern themselves with the (non-required) recommended reading list of a program at your institution. In short, you have no respect either for free speech or for academic freedom, and so you shouldn’t be surprised when no one wants to talk to you. That’s all from me.”
In what appears to be the final exchange between the two, Dr. Anderson incisively cut to the core of the commenter’s argument and eviscerated it noting: “This post is a present. Thank you. You’ve admitted that academics don’t have to keep their own standards about sensitivity and not insulting other religions (in the name of free speech and academic freedom). I’m looking forward to seeing you apply this. No wonder you want to stay anonymous.”
“Dr. A,” to use his sobriquet from his Substack, concluded by highlighting the aforementioned exchange with a few key notes:
1. “RD didn’t respect my boundary. I said I won’t engage with anonymous trolls. RD didn’t dispute that title, but insisted I must listen to more insults. That is called stalking. It is a behavior ASU prohibits.
2. RD calls me a snitch. Is this the third grade playground? What RD doesn’t like is that I’m a whistleblower and that those he is defending are guilty of the very thing they preach against. They preach sensitivity but want to ban Christians and conservatives from campus. RD calls this freedom. He calls me defending the right for Christians and conservatives to speak on campus ‘snitching.’ The truth is I am a whistleblower and have protected rights under federal and state law as well as the ASU faculty manual. RD knows that coming at a whistleblower will result in trouble and so wants to be anonymous.
3. RD insults me for ‘snitching’ on a colleague who insulted Christians on social media. Imagine if this was any other group than Christians. RD would help fill out the disciplinary form and hand it in to ASU.
4. What hasn’t happened. I have had a handful of ASU professors come at me to insult me since I began speaking publicly about abusive behavior towards Christians. I haven’t heard them say, ‘we should examine our behavior.’ They very clearly teach that it is wrong to insult a person’s religion. However, they want to get away with doing so toward Christians. They want freedom of speech protected for their radical leftist beliefs, but they deny that same thing to conservatives.”
The professor signed off the post with a promise that he would continue to call out his critics on their hypocrisy adding, “If that means they call me names then I’m looking forward to it.” And left his readers with a quote from Socrates writing, “When one of his disciples asked Socrates, ‘aren’t you worried what people will think of you?’ he replied, ‘I only care what thoughtful people who take time to investigate the situation will think.’”
When reached for comment by AZ Free News, Dr. Anderson confirmed that the commenter “RD” has made no further effort to contact him, and they have not revealed their identity. You can subscribe to Dr. Anderson’s Substack here, to read about his ongoing work to expose academia’s hostility toward Christianity.
Research uncovered by AZ Free News’ investigative team has followed a trail of money that leads from major Arizona labor unions to a Democrat-funding SuperPAC and then via several smaller PACs to a supposedly ‘Conservative’ PAC. The money finally arrives at a political consultant employed by State Rep. David Cook to be used against his 2024 opponent Arizona Sen. Wendy Rogers.
It started in February with a $400,000 donation, from Arizona Pipe Trades 469 to Residents for Accountability a SuperPAC, which has dumped over $1.36 billion into the Democrat funding machine ‘ActBlue’ in 2024, which donated $261,617.02 precisely to ‘Revitalize Arizona,’ a well-known Democratic Political Action Committee (PAC). And in the end, led to a $261,617.02 payment from Arizona First to McShane, LLC: high-end political consultants who represent Rep. David Cook, earmarked to be used in opposition to Wendy Rogers For AZ Senate per election filings.
The money metaphorically went into the laundry blue and came out red on the other side.
The story unfolding today bears more than a little similarity to another funding scheme uncovered by AZ Free News in 2022 involving the Democratic Revitalize Arizona and Rep. David Cook after he sided against his party on a key bill to prohibit cities and counties from requiring prevailing wages or union labor as a condition of receiving a bid or contract. Cook’s vote was decisive. The bill failed by a single vote in a victory for the unions and a defeat for local governments and small contractors.
“Revitalize Arizona, a Tempe-based PAC, is chaired by Israel Torres, a partner in the Torres Consulting and Law Group, which chairs the same address as the PAC. The PAC funneled $48,000 to the group in 2020, totaling over $122,100 over the past decade. It also paid Torres Multicultural Communications, previously known as Torres Marquez Communications, over $681,200 over the past decade, with the majority paid out to the firm in 2019: nearly $646,000.
All of their funds come from another PAC run by Torres: Residents for Accountability. That PAC receives its funds largely from unions. Among its funders from the past two years are the Arizona Pipe Trades 469 PAC, affiliated with a union, and Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC) Action Fund PAC, affiliated with a social justice nonprofit. Over the past decade, a number of other union-affiliated PACs have funded Residents for Accountability.
The PAC has a history of investing in Democratic polling companies such as the D.C.-based Lake Research Partners, whose past clientele have included President Joe Biden, former President Bill Clinton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Janet Napolitano, Sheila Jackson Lee, AFL-CIO, and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Arizona.
They’ve also invested in Democratic polling company SKD Knickerbocker, from which Anita Dunn hailed — Biden’s senior advisor and former President Barack Obama’s communications director.”
A key difference in the 2024 scenario is the route the money took, and it’s final purpose and destination. From Revitalize Arizona, the exact same amount, $261,617.02, was moved to Arizona Voters, yet another PAC, this time managed by the American Campaign Finance Foundation. From Arizona Voters, the very same $261,617.02 went to Arizona First, which OpenSecrets.com identifies as a Conservative SuperPAC. And from there, the money in the precise amount of $261,617.02 finally arrives at McShane, LLC on June 25, 2024, five months after it left the union’s hands, in five easy steps.
