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.
Everyone knows that political pundits, social media influencers, and the corporate media love a good narrative. And one of their favorites for years has been the claim that Arizona is trending blue—that a demographic shift toward Democrats is inevitable.
This ‘conventional wisdom’ is repeated so often that much of the Republican political class in the state has accepted it as fact. Some are even advising candidates that the only path forward for Republicans is to abandon their conservative principles, embrace center-left policy solutions, and settle for a future of divided government.
But a funny thing about narratives and conventional wisdom: numbers don’t lie, especially those showing party preference when people are registering to vote.
Last month, the Secretary of State updated the statewide voter registration data prior to the Presidential Preference Election. The latest figures show that Republicans are once again the largest voting bloc in Arizona, surpassing Independents by nearly 40,000. This is certainly an important development—especially given all the attention it received on social media when Independent registrations surpassed Republicans last year.
But that’s not the most significant voter registration trend…
Arizona’s Republican Legislative leaders are continuing to defend the integrity of women’s sports in federal court.
On Tuesday, Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma filed an emergency motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after a federal district judge blocked the ‘Save Women’s Sports Act’ from going into effect.
In their motion, the legislators wrote, “Under the district court’s preliminary injunction order, ‘the [Save Women’s Sports] Act shall not prevent Plaintiffs from participating in girls’ sports’ and ‘Plaintiffs shall be allowed to play girls’ sports at their respective schools.’ Any success by Plaintiffs in try-outs and meets will displace biological girls from making a team, getting playing time, and succeeding in final results. Biological girls will be irreparably harmed if they are displaced by, forced to compete against, or risk injury from Plaintiffs.”
Petersen released the following statement to accompany the announcement of his latest action in court over this issue: “Not only science, but common sense clearly supports the fact that in general, boys are bigger and stronger than girls at all stages of life. Expecting them to compete against each other in athletic competition is reckless, irresponsible and will subject girls to increased risk for injury. It’s unfortunate young girls in our public schools will face these heightened dangers while participating in sports competition against boys and lose out on athletic opportunities because this law is on hold. What’s even more disheartening is our Attorney General has no desire to protect our female athletes, prompting myself and Speaker Toma to do her job for her. I’m confident our judicial system will agree with the protections we’re fighting for so that all young women and girls in Arizona will have the opportunity to compete on an even playing field.”
Speaker Ben Toma issued a short comment on Twitter, posting, “We filed an emergency motion asking the 9th Circuit to allow Arizona’s Save Women’s Sports Act to remain in effect pending appeal & the Court set an expedited schedule. The district court’s ruling is wrong; it has harmful, real-world consequences for female athletes.”
We filed an emergency motion asking the 9th Circuit to allow Arizona‘s Save Women’s Sports Act to remain in effect pending appeal & the Court set an expedited schedule. The district court’s ruling is wrong; it has harmful, real-world consequences for female athletes. @AZHouseGOPpic.twitter.com/NtT6YFje5K
Last month, Judge Jennifer Zipps granted a preliminary injunction against SB 1165, the Save Women’s Sports Act, which blocked the law from going into effect. Arizona’s Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, the defendant in the case, promised to appeal the ruling, saying, “This will ultimately be decided by the United States Supreme Court, and they will rule in our favor. The Plaintiffs in this case claimed that this only involves pre-pubescent boys, but we presented peer-reviewed studies that show pre-pubescent boys have an advantage over girls in sports. The only expert presented by the Plaintiffs was a medical doctor who makes his money doing sex transition treatments on children and who has exactly zero peer-reviewed studies to support his opinion.”
One of the representatives of the plaintiffs, Justin R. Rassi from Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, lauded the judge’s ruling, writing, “The Court’s well-reasoned decision exposes the lack of any legitimate justification for this discriminatory law, which inflicts severe and irreparable harm on transgender girls like Megan and Jane. We are very happy that, as a result of this ruling, Jane and Megan will be immediately able to resume playing sports with their friends.”
The latest Motion from Petersen and Toma follows a series of actions they have taken in this legal matter occurring in federal court. Earlier this year, they filed a Motion to Intervene, highlighting that because “Attorney General Kris Mayes is not defending the constitutionality of the law,” they were taking this step. Petersen said at the time, “We’re looking forward to fighting for the rights of female athletes across Arizona, as well as for the Court making it clear Arizona’s law protecting women and girls should be enforced.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Two Arizona Republican legislators are raising concerns over a draft of the new Elections Procedures Manual (EPM) from Secretary of State Adrian Fontes.
On July 18, Representatives Jacqueline Parker, the Chairwoman of the Arizona House Committee on Municipal Oversight & Elections, and Alexander Kolodin, the Committee’s Vice Chair, transmitted a letter to Secretary Fontes, highlighting certain issues with the initial copy of the EPM that they had seen from his office.
MOE Committee is also pouring through the EPM with a fine toothed comb. There are many violations of statute so far. pic.twitter.com/ktD9F9mSNe
— Rep. Jacqueline Parker (@electjacqparker) July 19, 2023
The lawmakers were grateful that Fontes allowed them to see his draft, and they expressed optimism that “with legislative guidance, the 2023 EPM will not meet the same fate as the 2021 EPM, and that Arizonans will be assured that all drafts, including the final draft presented to the Governor and Attorney General, are legally consistent with Arizona election law.” They called the 2021 saga “both unprecedented and unacceptable,” writing, “Your predecessor’s failure to issue a lawful EPM ultimately led a court to decide that the 2019 EPM was in effect for Arizona’s 2022 elections, rather than an updated, legally compliant 2021 EPM.”
— Rep. Alexander Kolodin (@realAlexKolodin) July 19, 2023
In their letter to Secretary Fontes, Parker and Kolodin identified eight possible violations of Arizona statutes in four chapters of the draft EPM:
– Chapter 1: Early Voting
o “Part I, page 5 moves ‘date of birth’ from required information to additional information that may be provided by a voter to receive an early ballot.”
o “Part I, page 3 allows the County Recorder to send a requested early ballot ‘after 5:00pm the 11th day preceding the election if the County Recorder has sufficient time to do so.”
o “Part I, page 16 requires the County Recorder or officer in charge of elections to supply printed instructions that ‘provide the voter instructions on how to make their intent clear if they inadvertently mark the target area for a candidate or ballot measure.’”
o “Part I, page 18 includes the exclusion of an established Ballot Replacement Center.”
– Chapter 2: Ballot-by-Mail Elections
o “Part I, page 31 refers to ‘precinct with 300 or less registered voters.’”
– Chapter 7: Pre-Election Procedures
o “Part II, page 34 allows the officer in charge of elections to allocate specified duties to any board member as deemed appropriate, including ‘taking appropriate measures to preserve order, prevent voter intimidation, and manage voter lines.’”
– Chapter 8: Election Day Operations
o “Part III, page 8 adds additional examples ‘potentially intimidating conduct’ that supersedes statutory law.”
o “Part III, page 19 adds language that prohibits a challenger from speaking to a challenged voter to ‘prevent harassment and intimidation of the challenger voter.’”
The two Representatives also requested that “future drafts of the EPM contain statutory references for each provision to provide county officials with the statutory source of each EPM provision.” Parker and Kolodin pointed out two sections in the draft EPM where there were no statutory references – as examples to illustrate their issue.
As they concluded their letter to the state’s elections chief, the legislators commented that they “are looking forward to seeing these provisions addressed prior to the EPM’s submittal to the Governor and the Attorney General on October 1, 2023.” They promised to communicate in a timely manner with the Secretary’s Office “about any other concerns that might arise,” and they asked for a written response to their letter by July 25.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Arizonans who were under the impression that a Democrat governor in office would tip the scale in favor of more progressive policies are readjusting their expectations after the new state budget was signed into law.
On Friday, Governor Katie Hobbs signed the budget sent to her earlier in the week by the Republican-led Arizona Legislature. The $17.8 billion budget was approved in both the House and Senate with broad bipartisan support, though several Democrats refused to back the compromise.
Many observers thought that with Arizona’s divided government and with the political animosity between state Republicans and Democrats, this budget wouldn’t become a reality until June or later. Veteran communicator Barrett Marson tweeted, “A lot of people said it couldn’t be done. A lot of pundits (me included) said there’d be no budget deal until June/July. We were wrong. Governor Hobbs, President Petersen and Speaker Toma came together to craft a budget with broad bipartisan support. There’s a lot to like. Let’s celebrate.”
A lot of people said it couldn't be done. A lot of pundits (me included) said there'd be no budget deal until June/July. We were wrong. @GovernorHobbs@votewarren@RepBenToma came together to craft a budget with broad bipartisan support. There's a lot to like. Let's celebrate!
Though both sides received concessions in the budget, it appears that Republicans were the significant winners in the deal thanks to the shrewd negotiations employed by Petersen, Toma, and members of their staff. Both chiefs of staff, Josh Kredit (Senate) and Michael Hunter (House), have dealt with the state budget for a number of years and gave their bosses an extreme advantage when coming to terms with Arizona’s chief executive.
Petersen took a victory lap after the governor’s signature ended the budget saga for this fiscal year, stating, “We’re able to do this for our citizens, while also reducing government spending by $300 million. In fact, this is the first budget since 2017 where we have not added any new ongoing spending above formula increases. Additionally, Senate Republicans prevented the Governor and Democrat Legislators from advancing their extremist agenda. State-funded abortions and tuition-free college education for undocumented immigrants will not happen in Arizona. We are not getting rid of state-funded border security resources to keep our communities safe, especially as the Biden Administration foolishly lifts Title 42. We’re also not capping, cutting or eliminating the historic universal school choice program that now has more than 50,000 participants. Needless to say, your Republican Majority at the Legislature will continue to fight to protect Arizona from turning into California at the hands of the radical left.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Senate Republicans Reduce Spending, Provide Historic Tax Rebates to Families, Protect School Choice and Stop Democrats' Extremist Agenda with 2023-2024 Budget pic.twitter.com/1nJvW6hehc
After the House cleared the budget on Wednesday, Speaker Toma also championed this major achievement for his chamber and caucus: “From day one, our Majority has been focused on getting the job done for our constituents: putting Arizona families first, protecting the vulnerable, and growing opportunity and freedom. We’re conservatives. We believe you should keep more of your money and the government should spend less. That’s why we believe this is Arizona’s Budget — a budget that reflects our needs, gives back, spends smart, and addresses real issues. We needed a budget that the Governor would sign that accomplishes our goal of putting Arizona families first. This budget accomplishes both.”
🚨BREAKING NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE🚨
‘Arizona’s Budget’ Approved by House of Representatives Puts Families First, Gives Back, Spends Smart, and Addresses Real Issues
House Republican Leaders hailed the budget’s passage as a huge win for Arizona families and the state:
— Arizona House Republicans (@AZHouseGOP) May 10, 2023
Cathi Herrod, President of the Center for Arizona Policy, also praised Republican leaders for protecting the future of family values in the budget. She wrote, “I credit Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma for standing strong against any pro-abortion funding or other measures. The popular universal Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program did not get a cap or any restrictions, which is great news for all Arizona families who want to choose the best educational environment for their children.”
The Senate Republicans shared additional highlights from the Fiscal Year 2023 budget:
Education: $680 million in new education investments, including a $300 million infusion into K-12, an $88 million ongoing increase to per pupil funding, and $183 million for school capital funding
Public Safety: $256 million, including operational investments for the Departments of Corrections, Public Safety, and Emergency and Military Affairs, as well as $36 million in local sheriff and police department support
Transportation: $610 million in state and local transportation projects, including $89 million to expand lanes on the I-10, $76 million to expand lanes on the I-17, as well as $54 million in pavement rehabilitation for roads affected by winter weather
Tax Cuts: $260 million for the Arizona Families Tax Rebate, which will provide up to $750 to taxpayers with children and adult dependents
Health and Welfare: $342 million, including $150 million for the Housing Trust Fund to develop more affordable housing, $60 million for emergency homeless services and temporary shelters, as well as $14 million specifically allocated for veteran housing and employment services
Natural Resources: $174 million in natural resource investments, including $143 million in reallocated funding for targeted water-related projects
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
