Scantlebury Looks To Bring His Experience In Law Enforcement To The Arizona Senate
By Staff Reporter |
The balance of Arizona’s Legislature may hinge on Republicans being able to pick up seats in districts under Democrats’ control in the upcoming election. Robert Scantlebury, who is running for state senate in Legislative District 9 in Mesa, may be one of those candidates for the Republicans in November 2024.
Robert has lived in Mesa since 1992, when he joined the City of Mesa Police Department as an officer after graduating from California State University with his Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice. He started his career with Mesa in its holding facility before serving as a police officer, special investigations detective, patrol sergeant, school intelligence detective, and a detective sergeant. After this distinguished body of work for the Department, Scantlebury retired in 2018, completing 25 years with the city.
Retirement couldn’t keep Robert from the persistent itch of public service. He served as a volunteer Reserve Police Officer until 2020, when the Mesa Police Department ended the program. In this role, he worked as a School Resource Officer and School Intelligence Detective. As Scantlebury reflected on this period of his life, he said that “I loved my job and have always felt I had a calling to protect and stand up for others.”
When his tenure at the Department came to an end after the sunset of the reserve program, Scantlebury followed in the footsteps of his parents, creating his own small business, Little American Tractor Service. He also serves as a school board member for Step-up School, which is a nonprofit school in his community.
The Mesa law enforcement officer veteran entered the political realm in 2018, when he unsuccessfully ran for Mesa City Council in District 4, finishing third. However, Scantlebury just barely missed the bar to move on to the November 6 election, falling 39 votes short of second place. He then challenged incumbent State Senator Tyler Pace in the August 2022 Primary Election, garnering more than double the votes for a shocking victory. Robert couldn’t defeat his Democrat opponent, though, losing to incumbent Eva Burch by five percent (just over three thousand votes).
Scantlebury decided to run again for Legislative District 9 in the 2024 cycle. In August 2023, he wrote that “people have asked why I’m going to run for office again when it is so hard to do,” answering that he has “always done hard things to do my part to make things better and stop bad people from hurting others.”
On March 29 of this year, Scantlebury turned in 920 signatures of qualified voters to make the ballot for the primary election. That number was almost three times the minimum he was required to submit to the Arizona Secretary of State. In a Facebook post, he thanked “all the people who talked with me at their front door and all the supporters who visited their neighbors and advocated for me.”
His three top priorities for public office at the state legislature are public safety, lower cost of living, and supporting parents and students. On his campaign website, Robert writes that his “thirty years in law enforcement have made it clear to me that we need our state government to do more. I will be a voice to empower local law enforcement, address serious mental illness appropriately, and work to stop human trafficking and the flow of drugs coming across our border.”
Scantlebury goes on to address his economic priority, stating that “we should be able to afford groceries, gas, electricity, and rent or buy a home in a safe neighborhood. But today, we’re paying more to buy less and our kids can’t envision ever affording a house. That’s the opposite of the American dream.” He promises to “defend our flat tax, oppose new taxes, stand up to radical environmental policies that raise the cost of our gas and electricity, and balance community needs with individual property rights.”
In addressing his priority of supporting parents and students in Arizona schools, Robert asserts that “one size doesn’t fit all and families should be able to access what works for their child, regardless of where they live or how much money they make.” He assures voters that “I am going to protect this for any family that needs it.” He adds that he “want[s] schools to focus first on the basics of education like reading, writing and math” and “schools that are responsive to students’ and parents’ needs.”
The Republican lists endorsements from the Mesa Police Association, the Arizona Republican Assemply, LUCA-Latino United, East Valley Young Republicans, and Arizona State Representative Barbara Parker on his website.
Robert has been married to his wife, Heather, for 23 years, and they have two daughters, Ryley and Robyn.
In July’s Primary Election, Scantlebury faces off against fellow Republican Christopher Stapley. The winner of the contest will be pitted against the entrenched Democrat incumbent, Eva Burch, for the November General Election.
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