The race to become the next House Representative from Arizona’s battleground Congressional District One has generated a lot of interest from prospective Democratic and Green Candidates, who see a golden opportunity, with Donald Trump’s Arizona approval numbers currently at minus 14 and David Schweikert leaving the position to run for Governor, to win the vital seat.
Teacher and writer David Redkey is one of them.
If elected to the House of Representatives, Redkey would work to expand TriCare, the healthcare program for military servicemembers, to all Americans.
He also wants everyone to be protected by an Economic Bill of Rights, first proposed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, that includes:
- A living wage.
- Small farmers and businessmen’s stability and prosperity.
- Affordable and quality housing.
- Affordable and quality healthcare.
- Retirement security.
- Quality public education.
Mr. Redkey graciously took the time to discuss his candidacy for the Arizona CD One House Seat.
The questions and her responses are below.
Please tell the readers at least two reasons you would like to run for the Arizona House seat in CD1.
“I’m running in this race because it’s the ethical thing to do. Even though I was not born here, I’ve lived the majority of my life in this area, specifically the Arizona Congressional District One. I lived in the Sunnyslope area. Basically, I went to Sunnyslope High School and went to Sunnyslope Elementary. I went to Desert View. I moved around a lot. But the real reason I want to is with money corrupting this race, corrupting politics, because of Citizens United, the 2010 Supreme Court decision, as well as Buckley v. Vallejo, the 1976 decision, which gave rise to Citizens United. With money being considered speech and businesses being considered people, the current status quo has been less than ideal for the people.”
“As a person who knows struggle. As a person who’s lived out of hotels when I was a child, from fourth grade to sixth grade. As a person who didn’t have hot water. Basically, I know the feeling of an empty stomach. I think Arizona’s First Congressional District One, needs people who know how to be fighters, know how to fight against adversity, especially with an administration right now and a Republican majority potentially. If we flip it, we’ll topple over Trump’s house of cards. But with a Republican opposition, especially at the top, we need fighters in there. We need people who actually know how to fight, who know adversity. That’s the first reason why.”
“A second reason why is that I want to help as many people as I can. As a person who basically had the support of multiple medical professionals due to what happened on January 25, 2007. I was T-boned by a commercial tow truck and suffered very extensive injuries (left frontal lobe hemorrhagic contusion, a subarachnoid hemorrhage, a diffuse axonal injury with deep white matter sheer injury in the corpus callosum, respiratory failure, and others, including a MRSA infection contracted in the hospital). I had the care of my family, and I had the care of the community that allowed me to become a productive member of society. And I went on to GCC, did speech and debate, went to ASU, got my Bachelor’s of Arts in English, Bachelor’s of Arts in Communication in 2016 and then I went on to get my teaching certificate in 2019, and then my rhetoric writing and digital media studies graduate certificate in 2023 from NAU. I see a community that helped me become more than what I was. And I want to give back to them, and I want to help fight for the people and instill what I call foundation economics, which is focusing on the working class and the middle class, because when we focus on that, that allows the economy to just turn. That allows the economy to prosper, and it allows people to have a quality of life that is beneficial to them. It allows productive members of society to be able to produce.”
“Because of the current economy, we have people working eight jobs to make ends meet, and we don’t want to have the elderly working as greeters in Walmart well into their 90s. That is something I don’t think is what I would consider a good measure of our society. That is what I mean, that’s why I am striving to get elected so my economic philosophy and my conscious can help AZ01.”
“Also, I strongly believe in what is considered a, looking at the tax rates that we’ve had under FDR, specifically under General Eisenhower, where he had 92%, FDR had 94%, over incomes over $200,000. I saw that it has a deflationary effect, actually. Well, let me rephrase that. Income over $200,000 for single filers, $400,000 for married filers jointly. With only 12 percent of families in the United States making $200,000 a year, and only two percent of families making over $400,000 a year, I think with the push from the Democratic Party, as well as basically the Democratic Socialists, is that we need to have a more fair economy that allows the workers to be able to have a comfortable life and be able to produce and be able not to worry about having to, again, lose their jobs, being able to keep working and working, working until they die. We need a society that rewards hard work and doesn’t penalize people for not being born in the right zip code, having the right parents, or being born in the right community. We have to have the opportunity for people to work up and be able to provide for themselves and their families.”
“That will also help, that will also solve one major issue, which caused the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which was that having families is too freaking expensive. Having children is too expensive. And they got rid of Roe v. Wade, in my opinion, force more…to reduce the possibility of people being able to have an abortion and forcing mothers to bear children that they may not be able to afford so those people can become potential workers and help have a much larger, low-income workforce that can potentially help offset the graying population.”
Please tell the readers why they should choose you over any general election opponent in the 2026 cycle.
“The first one is the aforementioned foundation economics, which I already mentioned. That’s the first part.”
“The second part would be, especially in CD1, we have a lot of elderly people that can potentially be exploited by financial predators, or what I call probate cartels. One example is the Theut Cartel. These cartels utilize conservatorships and guardianships laws to basically rob people of life, liberty, and property, and basically, they have the court rubber-stamp all their excessive, unwarranted fees. For example, I have seen multiples filings across multiple cases where people like Rick Kilfoy, Daniel J. Mazza, William A. Clarke, Lawrence F. Scaringelli, Stephanie F. McCollum, Mark J. Theut, Paul J. Theut, James Xavier Theut (all of the Theuts are brothers, sons, and nephews and they coordinate to the detriment of their victims) with Judges like Hon. Lisa Ann VandenBerg and Kerstin LeMaire rubbing stamping the needless charges. They’ve actually made a Netflix movie about this. It’s called “I Care A Lot.” You basically see a professional guardian just basically doing this kind of thing and stealing people’s livelihood, abducting them from their homes and placing them into facilities, and using them, selling all of their property and draining their savings, and then once they are done, they cast them aside.”
“And that’s basically what I’m trying to fight against, because that will affect so many of the elderly in this area, regardless of party. This would be Democrat, Independent, Republican, Green Party, and Libertarian Party. These are people who could potentially become victims, and that’s why I’m trying to fight for them to make sure that we’re in a position where they do not get exploited, and they do not lose what they worked so hard to build up. I will fight to groups like Theut Cartel to justice.”
“Why would they choose me? Because the other candidates are not really focused on that. They just bring up affordability. It’s not being precise. It’s being very general. And also, like, the basic policies regarding that, there haven’t been any really potential arguments about affordability or how they’re going to get there. It’s very imprecise. That’s why I’m trying to be precise and say, analytically looking at the history and looking at how taxation functions, what I can actually do as a congressional candidate. As a member of Congress, as a member of the federal government, how can I use the codes, tax codes, to actually help bring costs down? That would be one of the things, you can’t just give tax rebates or things along those lines, because those only benefit the wealthy or benefit the people that actually have the money, because as a person who bought a Chevrolet Bolt in 2017, that’s a non-refundable tax credit. I paid for that car, bought it, but I didn’t get the tax credit because my tax bill was not high enough to qualify. So, I didn’t see any money from that. But I don’t think it should be just tax rebates. I think we should force the system to allow people to be able to afford things and be able to be in a position where they can get an honest day’s work and be able to afford a life that they want. And they don’t have to struggle their entire lives and not see anything.”
What are these two issues that you’ll be running on in this cycle?
“The first one was the foundation economics, which is basically the belief that, higher tax rates, especially at the higher end, are deflationary, so it will deflate the cost of goods and services because it will reduce the money supply. But also, the people who actually set the price are the higher earners, because they can outbid everyone. If you reduce their money supply by using taxation or forcing them to reinvest in their communities, that will allow prices for goods and services to go down. People will not have to work 10 jobs to afford a house, or they won’t have to get out. Just bring everything down, and things will not be as horrible as they are for a lot of people. Because I read an article a couple of months ago, which was an opinion piece where they were trying to push for the idea that they want to make everyone forever renters, where no one owns any personal property, and everyone has to rent from corporations, businesses, or people with a lot of wealth. And I don’t believe that. I reject that viewpoint. I want people to be able to afford things, I want people to be able to have an honest day’s work, be able to produce something that they can come home to, they can live in, they don’t have to worry about that, and they can afford to send their children off to college, they can afford to be able to have a comfortable life for their hard work.”
“The reason why I set the tax rate for 92 or 94%, or what I argue for, that’s part of my position, is that only 12% of families in the U.S. make $200,000, and only 2% make over $400,000. So, as the whole other 98%, that gave rise to Occupy Wall Street, that’s where that kind of came from, is the other 98%.”
How are you and your team conducting voter and social media outreach to Democrats, Independents, and like-minded Republicans?
“My team is utilizing multiple platforms, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, even LinkedIn, to spread the message and spread the ideas, as well as my specific website, linking back to that, which I do. But the most useful tool I’ve been utilizing outside of social media would be just going door-to-door, just basically the traditional way, knocking on every door that I can and talking to thousands of voters about what I stand for, getting their signature, and talking about how I would be a better benefit to them. I’m also trying to build up their specific life and help make an economy where we don’t have that crash and burn, where they could potentially lose their house because mortgage, like, delinquency, credit card debt, credit card debt is all rising right now. Basically, it’s just showing a fragile economy that needs stabilization. We need a foundation that’s solidified with the working class, that allows it to be better. And that’s what I do by going door-to-door, but also going through Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, you know, even, I think, Red Note, I use that for a little bit.”
How do you feel your message will appeal to Independents and like-minded Republicans?
“For independents, like, what I’ve seen is that a large, like, the overall voter rolls have decreased in CD1, as well as in Arizona. There’s just been a decrease in voters across the board. But when they look, they go to the store and buy groceries, when they see their grocery bills, they will say, ‘things are too fricking expensive.’ And they’ll look at the rent, and then they have to pay with their credit card, and they have to balance it with their credit card payments. And they won’t be able to save, and they will have to skip on trips, skip on luxuries, or skip on the idea of what they used to live upon under a previous administration. And things have just gotten so much worse that they’re like, okay, we need something better, something that will help us provide for the life that we think we should be able to earn by working hard and being just good citizens.”
Is there anything not covered in the first four questions that you’d like the readers to know about your candidacy for the CD One Arizona seat?
“As a person who was born on Labor Day, September 7, 1981, and unfortunately, my mother died on Labor Day, 2011, two days before I turned 30. Also, with my mother-in-law, Miriam Williams, dying yesterday, a lot of that would be due to lack of proper health insurance. And one of the parts of my platform is universal health care. Now that we have Medicare for All, which has been promoted by Bernie Sanders for a long time. I also promoted an alternative, called TriCare Prime for All, that would be more palatable for Republican people who are military-minded, primarily for all,because that is the zero-deductible, no cost, health care plan that is provided by the military for military service. And the way I argue it is that the nation, our strength, comes from the health of the people. And when a lot of people do not have health insurance or health care, we are weak.
Potentially, people can get sick and die. So, it’s a national security risk for us not to be able to provide health care to every citizen of this country. I mean, as a person who has lived in this country for all of my life, I just want to make it run great, and I believe that I am in the best possible position to do that. And as a teacher and as an educator, I am more than willing to talk to people about how we can make the government of the people, by the people, and for the people will be able to serve them and help them have a better life. With that in mind, that is why I made the extremely difficult decision to switch to the Green Party because the currently unfavorable Establishment Democrats and I do not see eye-to-eye regarding what is best for the country. Whereas my opposition wants to stick to platitudes and vagueness, I have the bold vision and the strength of character to make sure we return to prosperity and become the envy of the World once again.”
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