After a three-year sabbatical from the State Legislature, which included a run for Arizona Governor, businessman and former State Representative Aaron Lieberman is looking to take the Battleground Legislative District Four Senate Seat for the Democrats in 2026.
If elected, Lieberman vows to work for the priorities eighty percent of Arizonans agree upon, including funding public schools, ESA private school voucher reform, water security, affordability, and governing like a mature adult who would work on solving problems with anyone willing to work with him rather than extremist partisanship backed up by name-calling.
Former Representative Lieberman graciously interviewed with Blog for Arizona to discuss his candidacy for the Arizona State Senate Seat in LD Four.
The questions and his responses are below.
Please tell the readers two reasons that you would like to run for the AZ Senate seat in LD Four.
“For me, it’s really simple. Politically, Arizonans are in the middle, and we have had a far-right legislature. LD Four is the legislative district that is most on the fence. Forty-nine and a half percent are likely to vote for either party. So, I think we should be represented by someone who’s going to be pragmatic and get things done for the state, and not someone who is a name-caller with a MAGA extremist agenda, which is what we have in our current state senator.”
Please tell the readers what two reasons voters should choose you over any general election opponent?
“In terms of the general election, I think I just have a very different view of the state of Arizona than Senator Werner, who’s currently serving. I think we should focus on the things where 80 percent of Arizonans agree. For me, that starts with properly funding our K-12 education system. We’re 49th in K-12 spending. A close second, and especially important right now, is making sure that our voucher program has the same accountability measures and standards as we expect for our Public School funding and our Charter schools. If it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the Gander. If you’re going to take state money, if you’re going to take our taxpayer money, we should know if the kids are learning, and we should know how the money is being spent, just like we do in our Public Schools.”
What are at least two issues you’ll be running on this cycle?
“I’ve already been out knocking on doors. I’ve met several hundred voters in my Legislative District, and the voucher program is top of mind for people. We’re going to spend close to one billion dollars in this coming year on vouchers. We only spend about $15 billion as a state. It’s a huge line item in our budget, and we’re looking like we’re dealing with a likely deficit, and so just bringing some accountability and transparency to that voucher program would be a huge, huge step in the right direction. I think the second thing for me, and I talk about this all the time, is, stop the fighting. Stop the name-calling and work together for the good of the state. That’s what I did when I was in the legislature. I worked with Republicans to help businesses that have been shut down by COVID and get $10,000 grants to stay in business. I helped support our teachers and our child care centers and our small businesses. What I didn’t do is call people names, and what I didn’t do is say, ‘If it’s not my way, I’m not going to do anything.’ I really worked to get things done for the good of the state, and that’s honestly what voters in LD Four really want.
Water security?
“For me, that’s one of my top four issues is making sure that we do enough to ensure we have adequate supplies with groundwater out to the future. Again 80 percent of Arizonans agree with that. The real opportunity there is to start to actively manage all our water in rural Arizona. It’s what many rural Arizonans want, but again, we’ve had a legislature that hasn’t been willing to do what 80 percent of Arizonans agree on. One of the areas I did serve on, the Natural Resources Committee, is one of the areas where I think I can be a voice for, with pragmatic solutions to make sure that we can not only have the water that we need, but get it to the places where we need it to make sure that we can continue the kind of Arizona story of pro growth and welcoming everyone.”
Affordability?
“You hit on number four, particularly, as this relates to housing, where it’s a crisis in Arizona, where regular people just can’t afford either the rent or they can’t afford to buy a house. I think for one of the first times in my life, one of the big trucking companies, Atlas, reported more people are leaving Arizona than coming to Arizona. The reason has to be affordability. We still have the same great weather, the same great business community. What’s different is just how damn expensive everything is, and one easy place to start is the state-funded, low-income housing tax credit, often called LIHTC. Again, I worked in, I think, 2019 to pass the first state LIHTC bill. They haven’t been able to get it reauthorized. Something like a $10 million a year state investment over over five years, will unlock $500 million from the feds and dramatically increase our supply of affordable housing. That’s a 10 to 1 return one of the most critical issues confronting the state, and the legislature did nothing. That’s not the only solution. You need to look at permitting reform. We need to look at anything we could do to let houses and apartments get built faster and without all the interference and costs that we currently have that slows down those projects. I think that’s a huge issue, and one that the legislature can really make an impact.”
How are you and your team going to conduct voter and social media outreach to Democrats, Independents, like-minded Republicans, and people who are normally not engaged in politics?
“It’s already started for me. I’m focused on knocking on the doors of the people in the middle who decide our elections. They’re not always three out of three voters. Sometimes they’re one out of three voters, but when you talk to them, they’re trying to figure out what’s going on. They’re definitely annoyed at the top level with some of the craziness that’s coming out of Washington, DC. But they’re very pragmatic, and I think I’m reaching out to those voters starting at the doors in LD Four. I wouldn’t be surprised if we knock on a hundred thousand doors this time, like we did when I first got elected in 2018. I personally will be a big part of that. That’s one of the only unfiltered ways you can communicate directly with people. We’ll definitely have an active and robust presence on social media. We are already regularly posting on Instagram and on TikTok. There’ll be lots of ways for people to hear what we’re talking about. And ultimately, we’ll have a really well-funded or well-financed campaign that will deliver targeted messages to the voters that need to hear them, that makes the case that this is the kind of real leadership team for LD Four: myself and Karen Gresham. She is running on the State House side. Karen’s been on the Madison School Board. I’ve been in the legislature. We’re the group of people who have been elected to things previously and know what it takes to actually get things done and are willing to do that for our legislative district. I think, ultimately, that’s why we’re going to win.”
So, you and Ms. Gresham are running as a team?
“Absolutely. In LD Four, we sync up and work together because it’s such a narrowly divided district. We got to pool resources where it makes sense, while we are each a candidate in our own right, and can stand on our own two feet, but a lot of the back office side of stuff, and frankly, giving something for the legislative district to come together and do together. That is a big priority. That’s how we won, when most of this District was LD 28. In 2020, we won two House seats and the State Senate seat by working together, and that’s what the people in the district want us to do: work together to accomplish things for the state, not fighting and tearing people down. I think that’s what’s going to ultimately allow us to win.”
Is there anything not covered in the first four questions that you would like the readers to know about you and your candidacy for the State Senate seat in LD Four?
“I was raised in what is now LD4. I’m a local kid. The story of Arizona is the story of Democrats and Republicans working together for the good of the state. Sometimes we’ve lost our way, particularly in the legislature, which can get overwhelmingly partisan. We need people who know how to bring people together, and my whole career has really been in the private sector as an entrepreneur and a business builder. I created a not-for-profit and a for-profit company that have impacted almost a million low-income children and their families. I now run an EV charging company that’s helping renters all across the United States access EV charging right where they live. I know how to bring people together to get things done when you’re going after big goals, and I personally always feel like I’m at my best when I’m doing working on something bigger than myself. For me, from a politics perspective, that’s the state of Arizona. We are playing a winning hand. We need to make sure that we play it where we do the most good, where we can for the most amount of people. I think that’s the opportunity that we have right now, particularly when there’s so much frustration with all of the craziness coming out of Washington, D.C. I don’t think we can fix Washington, DC. I think we can fix Arizona and the Arizona State legislature and get more folks down there or willing to work together, Democrats, Independents, or Republicans, for the good of the state.”
Please click here to find out more information about Aaron Lieberman and his candidacy for the Arizona State Senate Seat in LD Four.
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