Believing “we all do better when we listen and work together so that everyone gets their chance to thrive,” Arizona House Representative Judy Schwiebert would like “the honor of trying to continue to work on those issues important for the people of my community” in the new Legislative District Two, “rather than lead us all down the rabbit hole of division” that her Republican opponents offer.
While Representative Schwiebert has continuously advocated fully funding public schools, protecting democracy, promoting green sustainability, and embracing civil rights protections for everyone including a woman’s right to choose, her opponents Christian Lamar and Representative Justin Wilmeth have constantly promoted divisive measures designed only to uplift the very wealthy and constrain the majority like:
- Supporting vouchers for private school tuition or tax cuts for the rich as it really is.
- Restricting a woman’s right to choose.
- Discriminating against LGBTQ student athletes.
- Suppressing the right to vote.
- Making society more dangerous by removing regulations on firearms.
- Attacking school teachers and their ability to teach accurate history and literature.
- Subscribing to the Big Lie of the 2020 Presidential election.
If elected to the State House in the New LD Two, Ms. Schwiebert pledges to continue working to fully fund public schools, help address the water crisis, assist people in keeping their homes and apartments, and protect a woman’s right to choose.
Representative Schwiebert graciously took the time to discuss her candidacy for the State House in LD Two.
The questions and her responses are below.
1) Please tell the voters at least three reasons they should vote for you over your opponent.
First, I support parents’ choices; my opponent does not.
I’ve spent my life listening to and serving our community. And like my neighbors, I support our teachers and local public schools. As a mom, teacher, and grandma, I know the importance of making sure that EVERY student gets the great education they deserve. Not just for their benefit, but for OURS, too. We need critical thinkers and qualified workers for our community to thrive.
Parents overwhelmingly choose our local public schools that provide fully qualified teachers in academics, career and technical education, athletics, the arts, and a create a center for everyone in our community. That’s vital. Educated people are healthier, contribute to our economy, and make us all safer. So, funding our public schools properly is a smart investment.
However, rather than respecting the choice made by the vast majority of parents who send their children to public schools, my extremist opponent supports false accusations that pit parents against teachers, neighbors against neighbors. The people that hurts most is our children who need their parents and teachers to be working together.
I believe in teaching the truth. No child should ever be made to feel that there’s something wrong with them because of who they are. We want to raise all of our children to be physically and emotionally healthy.
That’s why the process for developing curriculum and instruction in our public schools is transparent and includes input from parents, teachers, and many important sources. Our public schools are accountable to elected school boards.
Ironically, the universal voucher scheme my opponent supports would actually send students to unaccountable private schools with NO such transparency. They would be free to indoctrinate our children – and use OUR tax dollars to do so.
Proponents like him call voucher expansion “school choice”, but the fact is voucher expansion will just give more choice to unaccountable private schools that can cherry pick their students and indoctrinate them with any extremist views.
This latest voucher expansion would also subsidize private school tuition for the wealthy, leaving the vast majority of students whose families choose their local public schools without the resources they deserve. Every student deserves a highly qualified teacher and reasonable number of students in their classroom. The way to do that is to invest properly in our public schools.
Secondly, I support people’s most personal freedoms; my opponent does not.
We all want to be able to live a safe and healthy life and be free to define our own path.
Every day people face the deeply personal decision of whether to continue a pregnancy. And every pregnancy and circumstance is different. There cannot be a one-size-fits-all law that governs our reproductive decisions. The decision to become a parent is one of the most important life decisions we make.
My opponent is quick to champion PARENT CHOICE until it comes to a parent’s most fundamental choice of all: when and how to have a family. He supports a 100% abortion ban. As politicians, we cannot know the details that impact every person’s pregnancy– and we should not be intruding ourselves into their most private choices.
This is personal for me. My daughter-in-law and son struggled for years to have a child, and so were thrilled when they became pregnant. But after the first few months, doctors discovered that the fetus was developing without a properly formed skull and could not live past birth. After prayerful consideration, they chose abortion. And thankfully, there was no state legislator looking over their shoulder to judge, fine, or even jail them or their doctors in this heartbreaking situation.
Arizona’s heartless ban on abortion burdens people with even more pain than the complicated choices they already face and turns women into second-class citizens.
Politicians and juries should not be the decision makers about what is medically and personally right in a circumstance. I trust women, their families and their doctors to make the decisions that are right. My opponent thinks he and other politicians should be in charge of people’s most personal decisions.
Finally, I prioritize working together on solutions to the very real issues Arizonans face; my opponent does not.
I’m committed to addressing the many urgent issues we as Arizonans are facing including the teacher, affordable housing and water shortage crisis. And I’ve demonstrated that already by working across the aisle to co-sponsor or support increased investment in public schools, expand career and technical education, increase the pipeline of school counselors, psychologists and social workers, make health care more reliable for children in AHCCCS and reduce maternal deaths. I’ve worked across the aisle to ensure we’re creating multi-pronged solutions to the water shortage crisis.
My Kari-Lake endorsed opponent is focused on decertifying the 2020 presidential election despite no evidence of fraud in multiple investigations. Like other extremists in his party, he uses false charges to sow distrust in our neighbors and elections professionals who run one of the most highly regarded and secure elections in the country – and undermine our freedom to vote. Arizonans are facing urgent issues. We deserve representatives who are working to address those.
2) Please advise what are at least three main issues in the Legislative Race. Please explain.
Education – We urgently need to address the teacher shortage crisis by not only increasing teacher salaries, but improving working conditions by reducing class sizes and increasing support for students, teachers and staff. Are we going to elect people who will prioritize our children and their education – or continue to keep Arizona in the national basement in per pupil funding? Every child has the right to a great education, but under the current Republican majority, Arizona continues to rob them of opportunities by prioritizing the agenda of out-of-state billionaires over the choices of everyday Arizonans to invest in our public schools.
Abortion – Are we going to respect people’s most personal freedom of all – or have a government that violates our privacy and dictates what we can do with our own bodies?
Affordable Housing and homelessness: Arizona ranks third from the bottom in having an adequate supply of affordable housing, just barely above Nevada and California. We’ve all seen the skyrocketing increases housing prices. This is unsustainable. Too many families of all ages are unable to achieve the American dream of home ownership – and worse still, are falling into homelessness.
Our job as the people’s representatives is to ensure we’re prioritizing the public good. We need multi-pronged solutions to this serious crisis. We should be not only be expediting new home construction, but also allowing cities more freedom to regulate short term rentals that are contributing to the sharp increase in rents, and looking at how out of state corporate ownership of housing in our state is contributing to costs for Arizonans.
Water: The water shortage crisis is an existential threat for everyone in Arizona. Will we be able to continue to live here – or not? This historic drought requires some very tough choices and sacrifices that can’t be ignored.
3) Please describe your campaign strategy to reach voters in the new LD Two.
My teammate Jeanne Casteen for State Senate and I are listening to voters. For months, together with our team we’ve been knocking on doors of Independent and other undecided voters. We’re following up with personal postcards, phone calls and text messages to let folks know we hear them. Finally, we’re also telling people about our single shot strategy to help give us the best shot of winning one of the State House seats.
4) Please describe how you will convince Independents and disaffected Republicans to vote for you.
First, we’re listening to our neighbors’ concerns not only at their doors, but also by inviting them to in-person and virtual events where they can share their concerns and ask questions. Ultimately, though, I think that convincing people to vote for us comes down to being who we are, their longtime neighbors who share their concerns and have a history of working together to make sure everyone gets their chance to thrive.
5) Is there anything not covered in the first four questions you would the readers to know about you and your candidacy? Please explain.
This election really gives Arizonans a very stark choice. Do we want to follow extremists down the rabbit hole of chaos with unfounded lies and conspiracy theories – or do we want to remember that we’re neighbors and work together to solve the very real and urgent issues we face?
It’s been one of the honors of my lifetime to represent the community that I’ve lived in for most of my life at the state legislature. I have been really proud to co-sponsor or support legislation that would increase investment in public education, that would increase the number of counselors that we have available, that would make sure that we’re investing in mental health resources.
Please click on the below social media sites for more information on State Representative Judy Schwiebert and her candidacy for a seat in the Arizona House in the new LD Two.
https://www.facebook.com/JudyForAZ
Judy Schwiebert Wants to Continue Working for the People in the Arizona State Legislature
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