Arizona Legislative District (LD) 17, because of the MAGA extremism of the two members of its delegation — State Senator Justine Wadsack, and Representative Rachel Jones — will be a watched district in the 2024 elections as Democrats look to take both chambers of the State Legislature that both currently hold a one-vote Republican majority.
To take on Jones, Kevin Volk –
Kevin Volk has declared his candidacy for one of the LD 17 State House seats.
An owner of a small business that specializes in providing affordable housing for people, Mr. Volk has also served as an intern for former Representative Gabby Giffords.
With victory dependent on support from a mix of Democrats, Independents, and like-minded Republicans, Mr. Volk’s campaign will emphasize the district’s shared values and solving the state’s most pressing challenges like housing affordability, funding public education, and the water crisis.
He will also stress to the residents of the district that their current representatives, specifically Jones and Wadsack, only care about their fellow MAGA supporters in their governing agenda and are not unifying figures.
Mr. Volk graciously took the time to respond to questions about his candidacy for the Arizona State House.
The questions and his responses are below.
- Please tell the readers at least two reasons you have decided to run for the State Legislature in LD 17 in 2024.
“The main two reasons are that the current incumbent Republicans are so extreme and unserious in their approach to being Representatives and that the stakes for our state are so high.”
“The current representatives who are incumbents in LD 17 do not represent the district. This is a district that does lean Republican and Independent, but it voted for reasonable, commonsense, pragmatic candidates like Mark Kelly, Adrian Fontes, and Katie Hobbs over extreme ideologues like Blake Masters, Mark Finchem, and Kari Lake. That’s this district. This district has broad swaths of individuals with different ideologies but it’s being represented by some of the most extreme far-right ideologues, and most importantly, they’re unserious about the business of governing. They stoke division and they fearmonger and they posture and they fundraise, but they are not focused on solving problems that Arizonans are being confronted with in the district and across the state.”
“They’ve also made it explicitly clear that they do not feel they represent the whole district. They only represent those who voted for them, in Senator Wadsack’s own words.”
“The other reason I’m in this race is that the stakes are so high. We are swinging from a massive budget surplus to a huge and growing deficit. The Republicans in the State Legislature only have a one-seat majority in each chamber, but they are completely ignoring the Democratic legislators who make up almost half of each chamber. The current leadership is steamrolling them and coming up with policies that in some cases, are dangerous for our fiscal health and our residents. For example, the voucher program was crafted in a way that is not only completely uncapped and unaccountable in terms of taxpayer spending, but also does not include basic safety parameters that are needed to protect Arizona children.”
“The Republicans have shown that when they control the State Legislature, they do not work with Democrats. Again, it is keeping with a disturbing and anti-democratic theme of representing only the sliver of folks that they’re appealing to politically. More importantly, they are not serious about focusing on solutions on the largest issues we face, like the economy, education, and water.”
2) Please tell us what are at least three issues you will be running on in 2024.
“I want to find long-term solutions for the high costs of living that Arizonans are confronting. I want our state to invest in education and ensure that our system is the best in the country in terms of giving opportunities for our children to succeed and be safe. Finally, my focus is on securing our water future for future generations so we can keep our Arizona way of life.”
On the high cost of living and affordability, are we talking about rising prices in housing and groceries for example?
“Exactly. To me, housing is number one. That’s the largest cost component of the cost of living category. I’m a small business owner focused on housing affordability. That’s an issue near and dear to my heart. I’ve been concerned about the lack of affordable housing choices for Arizonans for the last seven years, and have been disappointed but unsurprised to see us reach an all-out crisis point. The good news is that there are so many things we can do, from streamlining regulations and providing incentives for more affordable housing, to investing in new technologies for construction and prefabrication of housing. That’s one category. There are things we can do on the food front that actually overlap with what we have to do with water in terms of investing in technology for the way we grow our food. There are things we can do on the energy front in terms of incentivizing those energies that are now the least expensive available sources of energy, especially renewables such as solar. My focus is on tackling long-term solutions. I’m not interested in throwing out slogans or spending taxpayer money on temporary benefits that don’t benefit Arizonan individuals and families in the long term. I want to tackle all of our living costs, starting with housing, but also including energy and food.”
Do you support funding law enforcement?
“Yes. In order to get the high-quality police officers we want, who are the best trained and the best equipped to work with community members, to deescalate situations, and to deal with those situations that can not be addressed by other social services, we absolutely need healthy funding for police so we can achieve true community policing. We need to hold our police officers to the highest standards. Like with other first responders, that means paying them accordingly and supporting them with other complementary services, like mental health services.”
Are you for a secure border?
“I believe that our federal government must take the lead in ensuring that we have a safe and humane border, but there is always a role for advocacy and collaboration at the state level.
Running in a district in Southern Arizona, I know that keeping our communities safe and functioning well is a top issue. We must be committed to ensuring the security of our southern border, but also one that takes into account all of the issues involved in the border – from the interests of families living in border communities to the cross-border flow of commerce that provides vitally important economic benefits to Arizonans.
I’m in favor of focusing on something I think we can all agree on – more efficient legal immigration. We need a process that works well so that folks can apply to immigrate in an orderly, accountable way and can become contributing taxpaying members of our society as quickly as possible. This reduces the incentive for people to make the often dangerous journey to try to immigrate outside of the legal pathways.”
Protecting Democracy and Voting Rights.
“It’s fundamental. Part of the unseriousness we see from the incumbents in this district is that we are spending valuable legislative session time in 2023 talking about the election in 2020. It is crucial that we support and protect at every turn, democracy – or as I call it, our American system of government. It is part and parcel of our American tradition. Democracy is not a choice for a type of government. Democracy is our type of government in America and it must be preserved.”
3) Why should voters in LD 17 pick you over your opponent? Please explain.
“I think the largest issue with them is not even where they fall in the political spectrum, although we know from the last election’s results in the district that my opponents are way outside of where the district is politically. The real problem is they are not serious about solving the pressing challenges facing Arizonans. In contrast, I’ve actually been in the trenches of the largest challenges that Arizonans face. I was a public school teacher at a Title I school and I saw firsthand not only the challenges we face with public education and what happens when there is insufficient funding and we don’t have enough money to fully staff and get quality teachers, but I also saw the incredible promise of our children and just how powerful it can be if we set them up for success. As a small business owner focused on housing, I have experience delivering affordable housing. My current role is focused on innovating with prefabricated housing as a way to create new housing units that are going to help with affordability.
These aren’t just academic questions for me. I’m interested in problem-solving, not extreme partisanship. I’m not looking to only highlight issues and inflame tensions. I’m looking to tackle issues and solve problems. That’s my whole reason for being in this race, and that will be my focus as a state legislator.”
4) Please explain how your campaign will persuade Democrats, Independents, and Like-Minded Republicans to support your candidacy in 2024.
“I’ve grown up with Democrats, Independents, and Republicans, whether it’s my family or coworkers or my friends, and talked politics in my relationships with folks across the political spectrum. My philosophy on the best way to learn is listening, and that’s how I approach conversations. I start by listening to folks, and instead of highlighting individual policy differences, I focus on our shared values. When we talk about our shared values, we are talking about how we are going to address the problems facing all of us.
I care about making sure every child in Arizona has the opportunity to succeed in a school that is fully staffed and resourced. I care about keeping track of taxpayer dollars and not blowing a hole in our budget. I care about coming up with long-term solutions to high living costs. I care about solving our water crisis in a way that’s not going to jeopardize our way of life here. I think those are values and outcomes that are shared by people across the political spectrum, and they represent our common system of beliefs within this district. That’s what folks want. Frankly, that’s not what they are getting with their current representatives.”
5) Is there anything not covered in the first four questions that you would like the readers to know about you and your candidacy for one of the LD 17 seats in the Arizona House of Representatives? Please explain.
“While the path to victory involves Independents and Republicans, I will absolutely need the maximum turnout from every Democrat in the district who cares about public education, who cares about governing responsibly, who cares about our water future and cares about reproductive freedom. Reproductive freedom will be on the ballot as an initiative, but it is also on the ballot in our state legislative races, because the State Legislature will determine whether those protections will be supported or infringed upon. We have seen how much time the current legislature spends on challenging the will of the people. We’re going to need every Democrat to turn out so that we can reverse the reckless behavior of the current Legislature. We need the support of every Democrat so we can send the message that we have an important voice. Though LD17 is a gerrymandered district that was designed for us not to have that voice, we will not be silent and we will demand representatives who work for all Arizonans.”
Please click on the below social media sites to find out more about Kevin Volk’s candidacy for one of the LD 17 State House seats.
https://www.facebook.com/kevinvolkaz
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