ADLCC Chair and State Senator Priya Sundareshan: This is the Year Democrats Finally Flip the Arizona State Legislature!

Restricting Reproductive Freedom and Access to Women’s Health Care.

Supporting a budget-busting Universal Private School Voucher Welfare Program for the Wealthy

A Flat Tax, again benefitting the state’s richest, has helped reduce the amount of revenues filling state coffers.

Restricting the opportunities to vote, especially by mail. 

Catering to the whims of MAGA extremists. 

These are all positions of the great majority of Arizona Legislative Republicans. 

While their narrow plutocratic and extreme Christian Nationalist base may enjoy these positions, they do not find favor with the majority of mainstream Arizonans, grounded in inclusivity and reality, who feel these legislative Republicans are on the wrong side of history. 

With the majority of Arizonans opposing these extremist positions and tendencies, will this finally be the year Democrats, after coming two seat shorts in the last two election cycles, finally wrestle control of the Arizona State Legislature from Republicans? 

Arizona Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee Chair (ADLCC) and Legislative District (LD) 18 State Senator Priya Sundareshan thinks so and she took the time to discuss the prospects for her party finally taking control of all sides of the State Capitol this November. 

The questions and her responses are below.

• Senator, please list the battleground districts the ADLCC will now be focusing on this year to flip the State Legislature. 

“I think that the districts that we are focused on are not much different than when we last chatted. I think we want to really focus on and highlight our best opportunities for Democratic pickup seats, and I think those, especially because I’m in the Senate, I like to always start with our best chances for Senate pickups.”

“In LD17, we have John McLean who is a proven and ethical business leader. He’s running against Vince Leach who, I suppose could be called a failed politician in some ways because he lost his seat last cycle. He’s got a record of pretty extreme policies:  He’s voted against protecting access to abortions. He voted for the flat tax. He’s voted for universal vouchers for schools. So, all these policies that we know are not what our voters and constituents in LD17 want lawmakers to focus on. LD17 represents a really good pickup opportunity for Democrats. In the House for District 17, we’ve got Kevin Volk who is also a businessman who understands the need for common-sense approaches that voters are looking for, something that the extreme incumbents have failed to do.”

“In LD 2, we’ve got candidates like Judy Schwiebert who’s well known in the House and is a former teacher, and is now running for the Senate. Stephanie Simacek, also a former teacher, is running for her House seat.”

“LD 16 is a really important seat where Rep. Keith Seaman won his seat last cycle in a pretty red district. He is a former teacher and is willing to work across the aisle. He’s been providing solutions for his district and is running against folks like Teresa Martinez who has some extreme stances as well as being anti-abortion and supporting the vouchers and the flat tax programs. We have a fantastic father-daughter team here with his daughter, Stacey Seaman, running for the Senate.” 

“LD 9,  we have our incumbent slate (Senator Eva Burch and Representatives Lorena Austin and Seth Blattman) running for reelection. We have full confidence in them to be able to beat their extreme opponents.”

In LD 4, Sen. Christine Marsh is up for re-election and then in the House, we are supporting two candidates this time where we previously had only run one: Kelli Butler and Karen Gresham. Kelli Butler has served in the legislature before. Karen Gresham is a school board member who previously beat incumbent Matt Gress in a school board race. So, we are very excited to be able to beat Matt Gress again, now especially that voters have seen that he’s acting like a politician in his attempt to walk back his previous anti-abortion stances.”

In LD 13, we’ve got two House candidates there; Brandy Reese and Nicholas Gonzales. Reese is a former peace officer and Gonzales is a local businessman and entrepreneur. I think they’re doing a great job, knocking on hundreds of doors and breaking fundraising records. In the Senate, we have Sharon Winters running. Winters is a former small business owner and published author.” 

“We’re running candidates in all 30 legislative districts and our battleground districts run from Pima County to Pinal County to Yuma County. Our pathway to the majority this cycle is in better shape than ever.” 

• Please describe at least two reasons why Democratic public policy goals at the State Legislative level will move Arizona forward and lift Arizonans up. 

“I think there are several salient issues on which we’ve seen Democrats stand in opposition to Republicans. The one that’s been clearest over the last few months is on reproductive freedom where Democrats led the way this year in repealing the state’s 1864 abortion ban. It’s very clear that Democrats support people’s ability to have reproductive freedom and to be able to make decisions over their bodies without interference from politicians. That issue is on the ballot. So that’s a very important one for our legislative candidates to be speaking to.”

“I know we are much stronger on public education and providing funding for public education in contrast to Republicans crowning achievement over these last few years, which has been universal school vouchers which as we’ve seen over the last few years has really drained resources from our public education and has been wasteful in providing those resources to the wealthiest Arizonans who don’t have need of it.”

• Please explain how the Republican legislative goals pull the state backward and pull people down.

“The repressive values that Republicans have on abortion access, consistently pushing abortion bans, and restricting our reproductive freedoms should be a major concern for voters.”

“Another one is that they’ve been going down the path of banning books and going after drag shows and attacking trans people. The cruelty towards some of these communities, who are some of the most vulnerable in our communities, highlights their cruel agenda and is not at all indicative of what Arizona voters deem important.”

“Finally, voting rights. Democrats are the ones who are trying to make sure that voters’ rights are protected. Republicans are the ones trying to continually chip away at our ability to be able to access the ballot; to sit down at our kitchen table and fill out our ballots completely and have a lot of time to do it. In fact, the Republican legislative leaders have been leading lawsuits trying to undo Secretary Fontes’ Elections Procedures Manual. They’re wasting taxpayer money going after voting access and trying to chip away at our voting rights.”

• Please comment on the current state of your ground game and turn out the vote operations across state specifically because as you’re aware, people sometimes vote the top of the ticket and by the time they get to the LDs, they’re like, who’s that. 

“That’s absolutely where ADLCC and our legislative candidates shine across the state. We’ve got Democratic candidates running in all 30 districts and they are doing important and valuable work of meeting voters where they are and showing voters that there are Democrats in their area, even if they happen to live in a very red district. Even in our not so red districts, but in the battlegrounds and even the blue districts, our candidates will be out there knocking on doors. They’re the ones that can make that face-to-face interaction with voters and drive turnout because they can inspire somebody to take a look at ‘Oh, I didn’t know that there was a local person at this level now.’”

“I’ve had plenty of conversations at the doors where voters are just so excited to see us and say ‘Oh, you’re that actual person running’  but on top of that we also have a field game that’s candidates as well as field staff and volunteers. We’ve got a very, very heavy investment in voter turnout through field.”

• Is there anything you would like to convey to the readers about the ADLCC’s goal to flip the state legislature or anything else we did not cover in the first four questions? 

“The ADLCC and Democrats are at a really critical moment right now because the fight has been here in the States, within the last decade.”

“We have broken the Republican super majority in the State Legislature, and now this year, we’re closer than ever to actually achieving that Democratic majority. We also know that the State Legislatures are more important than they’ve ever been before because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s latest round of decisions, like Dobbs (killing Roe v Wade) a few years ago. As power is being given to the states, having a Democratic state legislature is important because we are the front lines to stopping horrific legislation from happening. Regardless of who is at the top of the ticket, we have a commitment and duty to represent the will of the people. Republicans have failed to do so for decades.”

“Arizonans are tired of the Kari Lake style of extremism, Republicans have gone too extreme and Democrats are providing the common sense solutions and leadership that will move our state forward.”

Shortly after this interview, the ADLCC received a boost by Arizona Senator and Harris Vice Presidential Finalist Mark Kelly who announced his endorsement of all the candidates running in battleground LD districts.

In a press release, Senator Kelly said:

“From abortion rights and strong public schools to addressing gun violence and supporting workers, there is so much at stake with our state legislature in November. These candidates can make a difference and give Governor Hobbs a legislature that will work together to move our state forward. I’m grateful these candidates stepped up to run and I know they will fight for working Arizonans.”

ADLCC Chair and Senator Sundareshan commented:

“There has never been more at stake in Arizona. For decades, Republicans in the legislature have undermined our public schools, neglected our long-term water supply, and chipped away at abortion access. Senator Kelly knows Arizonans deserve better than this, and he’s all in on supporting candidates up and down the ticket.”

Please click here to access the ADLCC website.