by Matthew Holloway | Jun 7, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
In the wake of what Turning Point PAC has declared “the largest launch event in Arizona gubernatorial primary history,” the political action committee has announced a massive initial media buy supporting Andy Biggs in his primary challenge against fellow-Republican Karrin Taylor Robson.
The upcoming media-buy is set to total over $500,000 without accounting for the Saturday “Biggs for Governor” Rally hosted by Turning Point Action and Turning Point PAC, which itself amounted to “an additional $780,000 in earned media value (EMV),” according to a press release.
Per the PAC, the $500k media buy will include “impactful ad placements that go live on strategic cable, over-the-top, radio and direct-to-voter placements most watched and listened to by local Arizonans.”
The $780k earned media value of the launch event includes clips, speeches, and promotional materials which were widely shared online during the weekend and reportedly generated 52.1 million impressions on social media according to Turning Point PAC.
“Taken as a whole with Turning Point PAC’s $500,000 media buy announcement, the organization’s independent expenditures and organizing to support Biggs’s primary launch already amounts to over $1,400,000,” the committee said in a statement.
“To see a room packed with thousands of Biggs supporters this far out from the primary was truly historic, and it’s proof of the grassroots energy that is already gathering behind his campaign. There isn’t a world in which voters will not be aware of Andy Biggs being on the ballot, and the more who find out, the more his double-digit lead over all other competitors will grow,” said Charlie Kirk, founder and president of Turning Point USA & Turning Point Action. “Andy Biggs is ready to bring a President Trump and Ron DeSantis level of leadership and competency to governing Arizona, and Turning Point is proud to get behind his campaign.”
Tyler Bowyer, COO of Turning Point Action and Turning Point PAC added, “Andy Biggs was the best Senate President Arizona has had in decades and he has been President Trump’s most reliable friend in Congress. He is Trump-endorsed, Charlie Kirk endorsed, and Turning Point Action endorsed. His campaign momentum is already building at an incredible clip and we’ve barely just begun. The media buy combined with Biggs’s impressive earned media exposure shows how enthusiastic the grassroots is to make Andy Biggs the next governor of Arizona.”
The media spending blitz comes alongside more good news for Biggs. A recent poll from American Commitment shows Biggs with a commanding lead over Taylor Robson in the 2026 Republican primary election for governor. Conducted by Kreate Strategies, the poll shows Biggs (57% support) leads Taylor Robson (25% support) by 32 points.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Staff Reporter | May 28, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Mesa Councilwoman Julie Spilsbury may face a special election within the first year of her second term.
Organizers with Turning Point Action (TPA), the activist arm of the conservative organization Turning Point USA, provided the manpower for the signature gathering effort to initiate Spilsbury’s recall. A resident, JoAnne Robbins, launched the recall effort.
Robbins submitted over 5,200 signatures to remove Spilsbury, according to TPA COO Tyler Bowyer. The recall effort needed about 3,100 signatures by Friday in order to launch a special election.
Bowyer said Spilsbury was to blame for the declining quality of living and rising cost of living in the area.
“Julie Spilsbury let Mesa down,” said Bowyer. “She has politicized her office and has voted for terrible things that make Mesa a worse place and more expensive.”
A now-defunct TPA webpage notified Arizonans of “Super Chase Events” to gather signatures for the recall effort.
Residents blame Spilsbury — a self-identified Republican who endorsed two Democratic candidates last year, Kamala Harris for president and Ruben Gallego for U.S. Senate — for the homelessness crisis plaguing the city.
Robbins launched the recall based on three specific “yes” votes taken by Spilsbury between 2023 and 2024: approval of a permit to convert a hotel into a homeless housing program, increasing city council salaries, and increasing Mesa utility rates.
Spilsbury’s main defense of these votes is that two of the three were unanimous.
Violent crimes have increased over the past five years, with an increase of nearly eight percent in violent crimes in 2024 compared to 2023, per Arizona Department of Public Safety data. Overall crime increased by over two percent from 2023 to 2024. Still, Mesa Police say the city remains one of the safest among large municipalities; Assistant Chief Lee Rankin told the city council during a study session last month that Mesa remains a family-friendly community.
“While the city has seen a slight 2.5% uptick in crime compared to similarly sized cities, those who live, work, and play in Mesa enjoy a safe and vibrant community,” said Rankin. “With a strong focus on safety measures and community engagement the city continues to be a place where people can thrive and enjoy all the city has to offer.”
Estimates place Mesa’s cost of living at about seven percent higher than the national average, and housing expenses around nine percent higher than the national average.
In response to the recall, Spilsbury issued a rebuttal of the charges against her on her campaign website.
The councilwoman accused her opponents of being “angry” she defeated their “handpicked candidate” last year and belonging to “an outside special interest group” funded with out-of-state dark money.
Spilsbury laid claim to several changes that occurred since first being elected to the council in 2020: lowered police and fire response times, high quality development, and job creation by the thousands.
“[The recall effort petitioners] don’t care about Mesa, its people, or our issues. And, they are resorting to distortions, misrepresentations, and outright lies to win this time,” stated Spilsbury.
Spilsbury was reelected by default last November, having defeated her primary opponent Melody Whetstone by a margin of over 30 percent. Spilsbury’s second term runs until 2029.
Spilsbury chairs the Community and Cultural Development Committee, sits on the Public Safety Committee, and vice chairs the Education and Workforce Development Roundtable.
Spilsbury also sits on the other following boards and committees: Human Resources and Elections Policy Committee for the Arizona League of City and Towns General Administration, Children’s Alliance Board, idea Museum Board of Directors, MesaCAN Board, Mesa United Way Board of Directors, Arizona Talks Advisory Board, and the Education and Families Council as well as the Finance, Administration, and Intergovernmental Relations Federal Advocacy Committee for the National League of Cities.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Feb 21, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Mesa voters are backing an effort to recall their council member, Julie Spilsbury, a self-identified Republican representing district two.
The recall effort focuses on several of Spilsbury’s past votes and her support for Democratic candidates last year.
JoAnne Robbins, a resident, filed the petition to recall Spilsbury. Robbins’ petition cited Spilsbury’s past votes approving a permit changing the use of a hotel into a homeless housing program, as well as increasing both city council salaries and citywide utility rates.
Other residents blame Spilsbury and the rest of council for the homelessness nuisance they endure. Earlier this month, failed Mesa mayoral candidate Scott Neely offered a first-person view of his average experience navigating the homeless while driving around the city.
“My neighborhood is a war zone in Mesa Arizona,” said Neely. “Thank you Julie Spilsbury and Mayor-Elect Mark Freeman for shoving this low income housing down our throats that our neighbors voted against.”
Spearheading the signature gathering effort is Turning Point Action (TPA). The activist arm of Turning Point USA launched a “super chase” initiative: door knocking efforts to gather enough signatures to oust Spilsbury. TPA has four different events scheduled over the coming week and some odd days.
The recall effort needs around 3,100 signatures by May 30 in order to launch a special election.
Spilsbury responded to the recall with a statement on social media pledging her continued commitment to nonpartisanship. She justified her past votes over which the recall participants took offense by citing the wide margin of her reelection victory. Spilsbury also cautioned against supporting a special election due to its costliness.
“You might not agree with every decision or action I’ve made on the City Council but I have put every part of my heart into this job,” posted Spilsbury on Facebook. “I care deeply for the City of Mesa and for this community that is not only where I grew up but where Jeremy and I decided to raise our 6 kids. I love to serve our community! I care deeply about EVERY person in our city, not just the ones who look like me or think like me. I have tried to vote and make decisions on what is best for our entire city and to be true to what I feel is right in my soul.”
Beyond her voting history, it was Spilsbury’s personal political beliefs that spurred the recall effort. Spilsbury endorsed failed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and successful Democratic Senate candidate Ruben Gallego last year, much to the chagrin of mainstream Republican voters. Spilsbury joined groups like “Republicans for Harris” and “Republicans and Independents for Gallego.” Spilsbury and her husband were featured several times in media reports documenting the Mormon split away from Donald Trump and the Republican Party last year.
One signature gatherer, Cynthia, reported most voters she met have expressed an overall disappointment in Spilsbury’s representation.
“They feel betrayed because there was a promise to protect their kids, a promise to protect their community, and a promise to protect their money, and all three of those things she’s turned her back on,” said Cynthia.
Spilsbury won reelection last summer outright in the primary after the general election was canceled.
Fellow council member Jennifer Duff also defended Spilsbury after early reports of the recall emerged.
“Julie Wold Spilsbury is an excellent council member, serving in a non partisan position,” posted Duff on Facebook. “Please don’t bring partisanship to city council. It’s actually where government works. I support Julie! Don’t sign a petition that is destructive to our city council.”
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Jan 15, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The Pima County Democratic Party (PCDP) deleted a post in which it blamed a California fire victim critical of the Democratic governance for their plight.
In a since-deleted post captured by The Arizona Daily Independent, PCDP said that victims were to blame for not paying more into the government. California has consistently ranked the highest in terms of tax burdens in the nation.
“Maybe pay your taxes and maybe local gov[ernment]s wouldn’t be so understaffed,” posted the PCDP.
PCDP was responding to a California resident, Wes Nichols, who posted on X that politicians had failed his home of 26 years in the Pacific Palisades.
“I’m mad at what I saw. Our politicians have failed us. Unprepared, unimaginative, understaffed, now overwhelmed. Heads must roll for this disaster,” said Nichols.
PCDP deleted their post after it sparked a flurry of criticism.
Turning Point Action activist Lacey Nagao recalled that PCDP also held a “f**k the fourth” party held in 2022 to protest Independence Day. The advertisements for the event were deleted and PCDP issued an apology following public outcry.
“A group of degenerative lost souls strikes again,” said Nagao.
According to LinkedIn, PCDP’s X account was managed by Shelly Burgoyne-Goode, the organization’s social media and digital strategist and (until last week) their executive director.
Burgoyne-Goode had been with PCDP since 2019; prior to that, Burgoyne-Goode was a digital strategist for Veteran Marijuana Majority, writer and contributor for the left-leaning political site “Blog for Arizona.” Burgoyne-Goode identifies herself as an Army veteran who served during the early years of the Iraq War.
PCDP’s new executive director is Alex Kack, a political consultant launched to significance as the “green shirt guy” who laughed at Trump supporters protesting his sanctuary city legislation at a Tucson City Council meeting. Kack was present that day as a field organizer with the People’s Defense Initiative (PDI), the Tucson-based advocacy organization behind the legislation to make Tucson a sanctuary city from immigration laws.
The Pima County Republican Party (PCRP) criticized PCDP’s post as an “extraordinary lack of compassion combined with a childish understanding of a devastating situation,” which the GOP group ascribed as a common trait of “the far left.”
PCDP has a track record of deleting controversial posts in recent years.
In 2023, PCDP deleted a post in which it advocated for Arizonans to “kill” school choice in its entirety — not just the universal pathway, but all school choice funding.
In 2022, PCDP deleted a post mocking a group of young conservative college men for not having any women present in pictures depicting their showing of the Daily Wire mockumentary, “What is a Woman?” The organization promptly deleted its post after Daily Wire host and mockumentary star Matt Walsh questioned how PCDP recognized there were no women present in the pictures observed, an allusion to the driving question on determining gender in the mockumentary.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Matthew Holloway | Nov 14, 2024 | Education, News
By Matthew Holloway |
A post-election letter obtained by AZ Free News from Arizona Education Association (AEA) President Marisol Garcia to union members, saw the labor leader address AEA members as if reacting to a great catastrophe. Rather than remarking on a largely peaceful and uncommonly decisive national election that provided an unambiguous mandate to the incoming government, she spoke of families and students being “directly in danger,” and that “no one is coming to save us.”
In the text of the letter, Garcia speaks in disturbingly combative terms, suggesting that there are individuals, either teachers or students, they will need to “protect,” because they “are being targeted.”
She also told Arizona educators, “We are going to be the union thugs that we were meant to be…” and added instructions that they “Drink some water, get some rest, get off social media and surround yourself with joy and get ready. Because, it’s on y’all.”
AZ Free News independently confirmed the letter was sent to Arizona educators and the language is consistent with Garcia’s post to X on November 6th when she wrote, “Join your union—Unbreakable Solidarity, and “OK take a deep breath, find some space the rest, and know the way through this is through it TOGETHER. Elections are one tactic. Organizing for solidarity and power is another. ✊🏾”
In the full letter Garcia wrote:
AEA,
First, how proud we must be for all the efforts that everyone put into this year’s election work. We all have to be proud of the new leaders that we saw step up. The goals that brave locals made and worked hard to reach, many of which they broke, too much shock to themselves. Ballots continue to be counted in every county and so many of our focus races are yet to be called—so as usual the work continues.
In that vein, our labor work, our power building work must continue as planned, with more clarity on the importance of unbreakable solidarity. The talk, the words, now more than ever become the walk and the work.
I won’t sugar coat this, many of us, our families and our students are directly in danger. You might recall, last year I reminded the delegates that no one is coming to save us — we have to save ourselves. The mechanism to which we can save ourselves is through good old fashion local organizing work.
Building our smaller circles into bigger circles. Embracing the things we have in common to find solution for the things that threaten all of us. Small group meetings, engaging in difficult conversations and above all listening. Our union knows how to do this, we have the ability to not just work through this, but lead through this, together.
On a personal note, as a product of ancestors who survived hundreds of years of institutional impacts, including genocides, starvation, and military attacks. I’m still here. My great great grandmothers did not give up. They fought back and organized collectively to survive, sharing food, housing, powerful stories and safety. This resilience was passed to their next generations and will continue with my son.
We will not comply in advance, we will not shirk, we will not forget the fights we have survived nor will we not prepare to protect those who are being targeted.
We are going to be the union thugs we were meant to be… we will fight, because together we are always stronger and whether we like it or not, it is our destiny to be in the fight.
Drink some water, get some rest, get off social media, and surround yourself with joy and get ready.
Because, it’s on y’all.
Unbreakable solidarity.
Marisol Garcia, President.
Arizona Education Association
Turning Point Action Field Representative and VP of Greater PHX Republican Women, Alyssa Goncales shared an image of the letter in a post to X, writing, “The AZ teachers union is an obvious branch of the Democratic Party. @MarisolGarciaAZ doesn’t care about the rights of all teachers and students. She’s just spreading fear and pushing the lefts agenda. It speaks volumes to what public school is trying to do to our children. Great push for AZ parents to homeschool.”
Notably in the union’s recommendations for the 2024 ballot, all of the recommended candidates in partisan races were Democrats.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
