Earlier this year, I introduced a bill in the legislature to designate one of our state’s busiest freeways, Loop 202, as the Charlie Kirk Loop 202, in honor of the life, work, and legacy of an Arizonan whose voice, energy, and commitment to civic engagement resonated across this state and throughout the nation. Charlie stood unapologetically for free speech, open debate, and civic participation. For future generations to understand and celebrate those ideals, this bill must become law.
Charlie Kirk devoted his life to public discourse and political participation. He traveled the country—and even the world—engaging Americans, especially young people, in robust discussion on the issues that shape our future. Even as opinions diverged, he believed Americans could—and must—engage one another civilly and respectfully, anchored in the principles of free speech and civic responsibility. This belief has been under serious assault, with a growing number of Americans looking to silence their opponents and disagreeable viewpoints, rather than looking for common bonds that should unite us. Charlie rejected this dangerous mindset, and he relentlessly searched for avenues and platforms to reverse this dangerous trend.
On September 10, 2025, Charlie was speaking at an event in Utah when he was fatally and tragically shot—assassinated for exercising free speech in the heart of a college campus, which he had done hundreds of times during his shortened life. His death was an act of political violence and terror that shocked our nation and renewed discussions on the importance of preserving civil discourse. Millions across the country mourned his passing and sought to understand more about his thinking and prolific writings about countless issues of moral, societal, and political importance.
Charlie understood better than most the beauty and necessity of the First Amendment—even acknowledging that he might have to pay the ultimate price for his willingness to engage the masses. He believed disagreement should be met with dialogue, not division. He believed vigorous debate strengthens our republic rather than weakens it, and that Americans can still find common ground even when deep divisions exist. His dedication to these ideals inspired millions and encouraged countless individuals to participate actively in civic life. Few public figures reached young Americans the way Charlie did, and his influence was only growing as he worked tirelessly to re-elect President Donald J. Trump to the White House in 2024.
Arizona was not only Charlie’s home. It was where he built an organizational empire with international reach as a teenager, where he raised a family, and developed a national following among young Americans. Charlie’s tremendous impact on America was evident as two large stadiums of people showed up to pay their respects at his memorial. In fact, Charlie posthumously received the honor of the largest memorial service our state had ever seen in its history. Never has an Arizona citizen received so much respect and adoration from its citizens. And all of the bestowed honors were richly and rightly earned by a man who had done so much to restore our nation to the spirit of our Founding Fathers when they fought to give us a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Designating Loop 202—the roadway that carries hundreds of thousands of drivers each day—as the Charlie Kirk Loop 202 ensures that his contribution to civic engagement, free speech, and the public square will not be forgotten. This highway winds through the Valley of the Sun, which encompasses the fifth-largest city in the United States, serving not only Arizonans but visitors from across the nation and abroad. It would be a great tragedy if this legislation failed because of partisan obstinance. Instead, let us unite across party affiliations to resolve that this name will stand as a daily reminder of the principles he lived for and the importance of peaceful civic participation. It’s only right that the state Charlie called his home gives back to a patriot who sacrificed his life to promote and defend our God-given right to free speech.
It feels like just about everywhere you turn, politicians are inventing new ways to yank more money out of your wallet. There are property taxes, gas taxes, grocery taxes, and more. We’ve even seen cities and towns push their own tax, utility rate, and “fee” increases. (How are those water bills treating you, Gilbert?) And now, some states—like California and Massachusetts—are pursuing a tax that would charge you a fee for every single mile you travel in your vehicle.
So much for affordability.
Earlier this month, California’s legislature advanced AB 1421. If passed and signed by Governor Newsom, this bill would create a “road user charge” pay-per-mile system for our neighbors to the west. It also includes studying how to capture out-of-state vehicles as well in case you thought your trip to Disneyland couldn’t get any more expensive.
If you don’t think such a tax is possible, think again…
Emerson famously noted that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” Opponents of Arizona’s school choice program seem determined to field legions of such monsters.
Exhibit A: the reporting of Craig Harris. Harris has over the years repeatedly filed anti-school choice stories which were riddled with errors. His latest salvo against Arizona’s popular Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) program is no exception.
In 2018 and 2019, Harris published articles in the Arizona Republic claiming charter schools underperformed district schools and faced mass closures, but both stories relied on flawed research—including counting schools that only went through 9th grade or had already closed as having 0% graduation rates and relying on “research” by anti-charter school activists that misunderstood basic accounting concepts.
More than six years later, the predicted mass closures have never materialized, and National Assessment of Educational Progress data actually showed Arizona charter students outscoring district peers by roughly two grade levels.
But Harris, unlike the students, doesn’t seem to have learned his lesson. These days he has fixated his efforts against Arizona’s ESA program—and the results are just as edifying.
With an ESA, parents can purchase a wide variety of educational goods and services using 90% of the state money that their child would have received at their local district school. The parent-managed accounts have state oversight to keep transactions focused on allowable education expenses. The program is wildly popular with Arizona families, with over 100,000 students participating.
However, the ESA program is not so popular with special interest groups tied to school districts and their allies in the press.
Now at Channel 12, Harris has produced misleading stories about Arizona’s ESA program, including claims that parents use accounts for “babysitting“—based on a since-corrected error by the Treasurer’s Office—and that families are “subsidizing vacations,” when in reality they’re purchasing tickets to museums, zoos, and aquariums, which are allowable educational expenses also used by public schools. The program uses risk-based auditing to detect fraud, the same widely accepted method used by the IRS and recommended by Arizona’s Auditor General.
In his latest salvo against ESAs, Harris has produced a so-called “analysis” claiming that 20% of ESA purchases constituted a misuse of funds—a huge jump from the less than 1% rate of misuse previously detected by the Arizona Auditor General.
Misuse of funds in publicly funded programs is a serious problem which the Arizona Department of Education has taken great pains to minimize in the ESA program. Harris, however, is once again playing games and tricks with the data.
First, Harris’s claim of that 20% misuse is based upon an examination only of a small portion of total ESA purchases—384,478 of the 1.8 million total ESA transactions since December 2024, or about 20% of the total. This smaller group of purchases had been selected by the Arizona Department of Education for additional scrutiny via risk-based auditing, so it’s not a random sample that one could use to extrapolate about rates of misuse in the ESA program generally.
In other words, among the 20% of ESA purchases flagged for additional scrutiny, 20% were found to be misspending. But 20% of 20% amounts to only 4% of total purchases. Harris’s claim that 20% of ESA purchases were misspending is a gross exaggeration.
In fact, even the supposed 4% misuse rate itself is an exaggeration, as it is 4% of total transactions, not 4% of total spending. The most recent data from the Arizona Department of Education show more than half of ESA funds are spent on private school tuition, so the rate of misspending is likely less than 2% of total spending—a rate of improper payments that is well below a variety of programs found in programs which ESA opponents support, such as Medicaid (7.4%), food stamps (9.3%), and unemployment insurance (14.4%).
Tears for Fears’s hit song “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” includes the line, “One headline—why believe it?” If the headline is followed by a Craig Harris byline, be very careful before you believe it as you are not getting the whole story—maybe even a false story.
Matthew Ladner is a Senior Advisor for education policy implementation and Jason Bedrick is a Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy.
January’s jobs report smashed expectations and signals a turning point in the labor market where job creation catches up with broader economic conditions. The report shows 130,000 jobs created, the unemployment rate falling to 4.3%, and labor force participation rising.
Economic growth last quarter was above 4% and is projected to be 4% again this quarter. The Dow Jones recently reached 50,000, as I predicted last fall. And gas prices and inflation are low.
Now workers are starting to feel the benefit in terms of associated job creation and wage growth. The jobs report shows workers’ real wages continuing to significantly rise, a stark contrast to their declines during the Biden administration.
An added bonus: Parasitical federal government jobs continue to decline, falling 34,000 last month and more than 10% since Donald Trump took office. Government jobs too often padded previous employment reports when the relevant metric should be productive private-sector job creation.
Strong labor-market, economic, and financial-market growth doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s the result of good public policy that empowers Main Street over big government.
Exhibit A is last year’s Republican tax cuts. These tax cuts prevented the largest middle-class tax hike in history from occurring. They empowered small businesses by restoring and making permanent 100% immediate expensing and locking in a 20% deduction on earnings. These tax cuts are game changers for job creators, incentivizing them to expand, hire, and raise wages.
Despite delivering one of the most consequential tax cuts in modern American history, however, Republicans are somehow trailing Democrats on the issue of taxes, according to new Fox News polling. Even though every single Democrat voted against them.
This isn’t just backwards. It’s political malpractice fueled by a media ecosystem that has abandoned facts in favor of Democratic talking points. Voters have been told again and again — by headlines, by cable news panels, by progressive activists masquerading as journalists — that Republicans are the party of “tax breaks for billionaires.”
In reality, these are middle-class tax cuts that actually make the tax code more progressive.
A stronger economy, rising 401(k) balances, and higher living standards will help blunt the impact of this misinformation and convert some independents. But small businesses and conservatives have a responsibility to spread the word to right this polling wrong.
Every small business with a tax-savings story needs to speak up in their communities, with their employees, and on their social media, explaining how these tax cuts have helped them survive and thrive. That’s the least they can do in return for these tax savings.
Meanwhile, conservatives need to start singing from the same page on these uniting economic issues. A strong opportunity, affordability, and standard-of-living message, combined with a focus on deporting violent criminals and sanity on culture issues, is the winning approach Republicans need to boost their polling and hold onto Congress this fall.
The first step is connecting the dots between small-business tax cuts, job creation, and affordability.
Alfredo Ortiz is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation, CEO of Job Creators Network, author of “The Real Race Revolutionaries,” and co-host of the Main Street Matters podcast.
On March 10, Pima County residents will decide whether to fund another 20-year, $2+ billion transportation plan after the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) failed to deliver on the last one. Two propositions will appear on their ballot this month related to this plan.
Proposition 418 would approve the new “RTA Next” transportation plan. Proposition 419 would extend the existing ½-cent sales tax to fund it. Both propositions must be passed for the plan to move forward. If approved, the new tax would begin April 1, 2026, just a few months before the original RTA plan officially expires in June.
The RTA is an independent taxing district specifically for Pima County. Its board is comprised of elected officials from local, tribal, and state governments that approve and oversee transportation projects. Back in 2006, voters were promised countywide improvements to roads, transit, and other infrastructure, funded by a 20-year timeline and a dedicated ½-cent sales tax increase. Fast forward to 2026, and several projects are unfinished, or never even started at all. Now, voters are being asked to extend the tax for another 20 years to finish what should have already been completed. That’s not a plan; it’s a bailout.
The project list for the RTA Next consists of multiple road improvements, bicycle infrastructure upgrades, transit improvements, and more. Many of these are the projects left unfinished during the first 20 years. They continue to blame their failures on Covid, the great recession of 2008, population growth not matching projections. The reality is that the actual problem is staring themselves in the mirror…
Over the past couple of months, the nation’s eyes have (rightfully) been turned to the State of Minnesota, as concerned citizens have unearthed what appears to be significant abuses of taxpayer dollars going to seemingly fraudulent daycare and healthcare centers run by Somali immigrants. These discoveries have exposed Minnesota Democrat officials, who have (at the least) looked the other way as this fraud was ongoing and escalating.
Minnesota isn’t the only state where we are seeing this rampant misuse of hard-earned taxpayer dollars.
Over the past three years, Arizona has been governed by a Democrat Governor and Attorney General, Katie Hobbs and Kris Mayes. These two have combined to cultivate a culture of corruption in the Grand Canyon State that rivals the illegal shenanigans from Minnesota. There have been several instances of this abuse and chicanery from the Governor’s Office that the Attorney General’s Office has clearly provided cover for during this term in office.
Whether in Minnesota or Arizona or any other state or jurisdiction across the country, American taxpayers deserve honest, transparent public servants, who are committed to putting the interests of citizens above the political elite. Thankfully, for the people of Arizona, the Republican-led state legislature has worked to hold these lawless Democrats accountable to the rule of law, though Hobbs and Mayes continue to stonewall our efforts and perpetrate new avenues of corruption.
Likely the most egregious action of Hobbs’ administration to-date, the alleged pay-to-play scandal will define the culture of corruption surrounding her administration. Almost two years ago, The Arizona Republic reported that a for-profit, state-contracted group home operator, Sunshine Residential Homes, received a significant rate increase approval from the Hobbs-led Department of Child Services (DCS). Leading up to this rate increase, the group donated to Hobbs’ inaugural fund – after its request for a rate increase had been denied by the outgoing Republican administration. The reporting showed that Hobbs had not approved rate increases to any other group homes, nor were the rate averages for these group homes comparable with Sunshine Residential Homes. Additionally, DCS ended state contracts with 16 group homes, making the arrangement with Sunshine all the more suspicious.
Attorney General Kris Mayes did go through the motions of announcing an investigation into this alleged pay-to-play, but she attempted to order Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell and the Arizona Auditor General off the case – despite those offices being asked to investigate the uncovered scheme by state legislators. Mayes was soundly rebuked by Arizona Treasurer Kimberly Yee, who also requested that the Maricopa County and State Auditor General investigations continue. The Democrat Attorney General was also accused of a conflict of interest in that she was again shielding her same-party official from the full weight of accountability under the law. There have been no updates from Mayes’ office into the status of this investigation in almost two years, leading credence to the idea that this was a cover-up meant to protect Hobbs and her administration. Compounding the shady behavior from her administration, Hobbs vetoed a bill during last year’s legislative session meant to fool-proof future executives from exploiting any perceived loopholes to perpetuate this kind of abuse.
SNAP
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program doles out almost $100 billion annually to Americans to purchase food. However, like many government programs, this one is rife with fraud and theft. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, there were over $320 million in stolen benefits between October 2022 and December 2024. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in 2023 (during the Biden administration) that approximately twelve percent of these benefits were fraudulent. The politics and policies of this bloated program aside, it is undeniable that SNAP needs more oversight and guardrails to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being stewarded appropriately.
Hobbs and Mayes disagree. Mayes sued the Trump administration over its commonsense efforts to request more information from states on SNAP beneficiaries. Hobbs, for her part, refused to acquiesce to the administration’s data requests. These two are politicizing an issue that should enjoy consensus across party lines. No government official should be standing in the way of efforts to root out fraud in any public program, where taxpayer dollars are at risk for abuse. Every taxpayer dollar should be protected to the highest level. Unfortunately, for Arizona, Katie Hobbs and Kris Mayes don’t want the federal government – and the taxpayer – to find out exactly how much fraud is in our state; and that’s a shame.
Late last year, a top official in Mayes’ State Government Division was arrested for “controlling and trafficking stolen property.” Mayes’ office had been warned by the City of Peoria nearly two years earlier about serious allegations against this official – including fraud, conversion, and breach of fiduciary duty – yet Mayes kept her in a position of authority leading up to her arrest.
Arizona has long been known for its rugged independence and spirit of doing the right thing. Unfortunately for our state and its proud history, that reputation is being shattered by the culture of corruption from Hobbs and Mayes. Democrats across the country – from Arizona to Minnesota – have proven themselves incapable of governing our states – the laboratories of democracy – as the people rightly expect and deserve. It will be up to the voters to course correct this November and usher in legislators and executives who can – and will – steward the peoples’ money as it was intended.
Warren Petersen is the President of the Arizona State Senate and represents Legislative District 14.
