Apparently learning from the strategic error that cost them a State House seat in Legislative District (LD) 13 where Jennifer Pawlik held a seat for six years, Dr. Racquel ‘Rockee’ Armstrong, an Education Professor at Arizona State University, is running to recapture the seat that includes parts of Sun Lakes, Chandler, and Gilbert in 2026.
With the slogan “leads with strength; fights with purpose,” Armstrong vows to fight for fully funded public schools and attainable housing if elected.
She also pledges to listen to the quietest of her constituents as well as the loudest.
Dr. Armstrong graciously took the time to speak with Blog for Arizona about her candidacy for a State House seat in Arizona LD 13.
The questions and her responses are below.
Please tell the readers two reasons you would like to run for the Arizona House Seat in LD 13.
“One of the first reasons why I’m running for state representative for Legislative District 13 is bringing a fresh new voice to the legislature while bringing significant experience, particularly in the field of Education. Right now, education is one of our top issues that the legislature needs to address and having had both practical and pedagogical experiences as a professor in education, I think I bring a unique experience to that role.”
“In addition to that, I also want to be able to be a voice that can represent an intergenerational group. Legislative District 13 has many voters who are retirees, veterans, and we also have young professionals and working families. I believe I would be able to really take the issues of all of those different populations and be a representative voice at down at the legislature.”
Please tell the readers or what are two reasons voters should choose you over any primary or general election opponent.
“So, one of the first reasons that voters should choose me is that I want to bring a common-sense approach to the legislature. We are in times where political ideology has pushed people to extremes, and we’re not able to work in a bipartisan manner and really focus on the solutions that all Arizonans need. And given that I have experiences working with people, regardless of background and life experiences, I would be able to really target the core issues and move those things forward and be collaborative in doing so.”
“In the current political landscape, those who have entered the race are a long time, politicians and I think the end of the day, while that experience is great, we really need people who actually have some real-world experience outside of politics who can come to the legislature and come up with some new solutions that we haven’t explored.”
“I think another reason why I think voters should look at me is again a lot of the people that we have seen really running for positions from local, state, even federal, are long-time politicians and I’m relatively young. I’m a millennial and being able to be that fresh voice, that fresh perspective that we haven’t had, that is willing to really learn from people while bringing a balanced perspective down to the legislature as well.”
What are two at least two issues will be running on in the 2026 cycle?
“I mentioned education. Arizona, it’s no secret, is ranked near the bottom in terms of public education and what we do know statistically that we don’t talk about much is Arizona used to be much better. Part of that correlation had to do with education funding. Being someone who has the experience with education and understanding how funding correlates to outcomes and workforce development and economy, I would focus on putting some guard rails on our ESA spending in order to support and reinvigorate public education spending. A public press release came out from Superintendent Tom Horne that identified teacher pay as a critical issue for addressing teacher shortage and school performance. Well, you can’t pay teachers more if you’re not funding education.”
“But along with that is recognizing that particularly in the East Valley, we have economic growth. We have companies that are growing. The landscape is growing, but we have to be able to have jobs that are able to employ the people around us. We know that people typically live within 15 to 20 minutes of where they work, and so we have to ensure that we have a labor force that’s ready to be employed by the businesses around us. Workforce development, apprenticeships and supporting wages that allow us to be able to live comfortably is critical to ensuring that when a student graduates high school or college, we’re not losing that brain trust simply because they can’t afford to live in our state.”
Please expand on your Ideas for an Affordability Agenda.
“I think you have a couple of different issues. You obviously have increasing inflation, which a lot of that has a federal component. But it is important to address state policies help address inflation issues.”
“But in addition to that, you also have housing. Some of the housing attainability models that municipalities are looking at are unable to be implemented due to limits on local control. And whether you’re looking at attainable versus affordable housing, I know, particularly in my district, there is a need for what we call attainable housing. You know first-time home buyers getting their first job. Then also recognizing that many of our seniors are concerned that the ballooning cost of housing will be detrimental in the long run given their fixed income needs. So, I want to be able to address this through policy, but also recognizing that housing is tied to workforce development, education and Industry, and how those things work together. Some of that comes with being able to ensure that maybe with the tax cuts that we’re providing companies to come in, there’s an attachment around apprenticeship and workforce development so that we’re ensuring that our labor force is being able to transition to livable wages.”
Please discuss water security.
Absolutely. The biggest challenge to our water and Arizona is inefficient systems around farming. So, what we do know is that cities are pretty self-sufficient. There’s a lot of systems that allow recyclability even with people who are concerned around our data centers. But most are recycling water. A lot of this has to do with our farming needs. We are still an agriculture state and we need the proper infrastructure in order to reduce our consumption of water for sustainability. But the biggest issue isn’t just water. It’s power. We know that as we’re growing in tech, a lot of new data centers are utilizing an exponential amount of power, which will cause an increase in our utility rates. We’re going to have to find some solutions, because those Industries are still bringing jobs. They’re still bringing opportunity. We have to balance it in terms of the cost of living and find the solutions and infrastructure that’s going to support that.”
Please discuss public safety.
“The police department and our cities in my district have worked really well to develop some solutions to ensuring that not only are our community safe, but people are heard. There’s a lot of civilian input that has really increased the trust in our community, and so I want to be able to support those initiatives on the local level and make sure that our legislature is learning from the solutions that work. We know that there are communities across the state that have increased public safety challenges. Well, what are the things that are working in some of these municipalities that can be applied across the board that the legislature can support because public safety is absolutely crucial. It’s like when we have growing downtown centers and wanting to ensure that people are safe and can just live and thrive and not have to worry about, increasing crime.”
What are at least two ways you could conduct voter and social media outreach to Democrats, Independents, and like-minded Republicans?
“I’m not going away from the traditional, just good old-fashioned canvassing and door knocking. It allows for that one-on-one conversation with voters to be able to actually hear what are the issues that are really important to them. So I am spending time doing that even starting now, regularly going around in different communities and being able to hear from voters. But we also know that, people are busy. A lot of folks also aren’t necessarily answering their doors and so I am working on different types of outreach. One of them is obviously social media and some of that is engaging through, videos to talk about pertinent issues and being able to reach and engage folks in that way and also being able to host listening sessions. I think often, when we’re running campaigns, the focus is trying to earn the vote. But there isn’t enough time that’s spent just listening. We have communities in my district that have specific needs. I had the opportunity to sit with a group of veterans and being able to listen to the things that they’re facing and with changes in federal policy what are the ways that the state can respond. As someone who’s not a veteran. I can have many ideas, but it’s important to hear from those constituents first that will help formulate what it is that I need to say in response to refine my platform and reach more voters.”
“So, definitely canvassing and through videos, whether it be Instagram or Tik Tok.”
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 House in LD 13?
“I’m a people first, kind of person. I know, in this age, that we often have folks that are in politics and based upon different decisions or the climate often they have lost the trust of the people. But I’m a firm believer that this role is about representing the people, all people, and so that means being a listening ear always, even if I disagree, or even if I feel that there’s a faction of constituents that disagree. It’s always being available to hear the perspectives of not just the loudest person, but the quietest person, the voice that’s not represented. And that’s, that’s definitely who I am.”
Please click here to find out more information about Dr. Raquel Armstrong and her candidacy for an Arizona State House seat in LD 13.
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