Arizona House Congressional District (CD) Five has not been blessed with good representation.
For years, the residents of the Maricopa County East Valley district covering all or parts of Gilbert, Chandler, East Mesa, San Tan Valley, Queen Creek, and Apache Junction have endured the failed leadership of Dr. No for the people, Andy Biggs, a fringe Freedom Caucus-MAGA figure who has constantly voted against the people’s interests, while still winning their support, and embracing all the ugliness of the Tea Party and Trump Movements including election denialism, anti-vaccination hysteria, anti-immigrant barbarism, and cuts to food and rural hospital/health care assistance.
Now Republicans have nominated flawed candidate, former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, a Jerry Sheridan fringe militia type and darling of the white nationalist Turning Point organization, whose platform of “God, Family, and Freedom” apparently extends to anti-vaxer views, calling the January 6 domestic terrorists “Very loving, Christian people,” and committing alleged sexual misconduct with women other than his wife, complete with text messages, all the way from his home in Tennessee.
Stepping in to persuade the voters in CD Five that there is a better, more decent, mainstream, and saner option to represent them and work to lift them up is district resident Nurse Elizabeth Lee.
A nominee who vows, unlike Biggs and Lamb, to listen to her constituents’ concerns if elected, Nurse Lee would work on advancing an affordability agenda, fight corruption, and work to ensure the people of CD Five can have an opportunity to reclaim the American Dream.
Nurse Lee graciously interviewed with Blog for Arizona to discuss her candidacy for the Arizona Congressional District Five House Seat.
The questions and her responses are below.
Please tell the readers two reasons why you like to run for the Arizona House seat in Congressional District Five.
“The reason that I am running for the last year for this seat and I’m now the official Democratic nominee, because I see that our government has really lost sight of the people it’s supposed to be serving. And as a registered nurse and a patient advocate and a healthcare executive, I have spent my career working on solving problems for families, not creating them. I mean, I’ve seen people have to choose between healthcare, housing, and groceries. I feel like is becoming increasingly more at the forefront of Americans thinking, is that these are not partisan issues, and yet continually we’re fed this hyper partisan narrative of things and so these are human problems so I am running because Congress desperately needs more people who’ve spent time actually caring for people in very high stakes situations, and then our district does deeply deserve somebody a representative who’s fully invested in this community.”
“My husband and I are raising our children here. Our children go to public school. We are realizing the American dream in many ways right here in CD Five. I volunteer here. I shop here. We build our lives here, and people deserve a direct link to Washington that knows what it’s like to live here and serve here. That’s why I’m running for the seat.”
Please tell the readers of CD Five what are at least two reasons you would be a better representative for them than Sheriff Lamb.
“Elections are or should ultimately be about what a candidate is going to do for the people they hope to represent. Again,it boils down to that and recognizing that I have spent an entire professional career centered around serving other people, many times in their most vulnerable situations. And I’ve not only done that but I’ve managed complex organizations that were held to metrics to make sure that we actually improved access to care to make sure we actually reduced costs to make sure we were actually advocating for the patients that were under our care and I always just wonder why the same scrutiny is not placed on our elected officials because if the team that I’m running at the local hospital had the metrics that the last four Congresses have had, I wouldn’t have a job. We would they would hire a whole new team to figure out what was wrong because never ever would they let their profits be affected by such problems. But what’s being affected by such problems right now is our American dream, our families’ budgets. I think that accessibility and accountability are a key part of a great representative, and I think that we need to know that our representatives, whether or not we vote for them. That they will represent us, and that is something that the voters of CD five can be sure of, and that is no matter your party affiliation, I will serve everyone in this district.”
In your opinion to the accusations against Sheriff Lamb disqualify him from holding public office again? Please explain.
“I think elected officials should be held to an extremely high ethical standard because ultimately public trust is really foundational to our Democracy. And we’re seeing that under threat right now because the public trust has really been shaken in a lot of areas over the last, I’ll say, decade in this country. And I believe that when we have credible allegations involving things of this nature abuse of power, misconduct, and dishonesty- they deserve to be taken seriously and examined thoroughly, and I don’t see that happening.”
“Also, this campaign is not founded around attacking one individual. It’s built around offering voters a different model of leadership. And that one is grounded in integrity; that is grounded in transparency and public service and accountability. At the end of the day, the voters of this district are going to have to evaluate all the facts and decide whether or not that disqualifies him from holding public office because, unfortunately, we don’t have those same type of ethical standards that are disqualifying like we do like I said in in healthcare, for example, so the voters are going to have to make that call. But I do believe that we should be holding our elected leaders to a very high standard of ethics and trust.”
What are these three issues you’ll be running on in the general election 2026?
“The top three things that I am focused on in this cycle and in this campaign are affordability, fighting corruption, and reclaiming the American Dream.”
“We have an affordability crisis on a multitude of fronts: housing, healthcare, gas, groceries, childcare, utilities, you name it, people are going to pay. I mean, we paid $25,000 in one year for our two children because they were both in daycare at the same time. People are going bankrupt because they get sick. They’re putting childcare on a credit card. Are we out of our minds? From an affordability perspective, everything has gone off the ranch, and families are working harder than they ever have before and still falling behind, and that is because this is not a right and left issue. This is a top and bottom issue or seeing like this massive consolidation of wealth to the very top echelon, and the rest of us are working people are left kind of begging for scraps and that leads me to why fighting corruption and really holding firm for government accountability is a key part of my campaign and my platform because everybody regardless of your political affiliation, people are so frustrated that they feel like Washington is only working for special interests, and we absolutely must know we’ve got to have stronger ethics rules to be holding people responsible because what we’re seeing right now is, is what happens when corruption runs rampant, and that leads me to why fighting to reclaim the American dream as a key part of my platform because Mark Lamb would love for us to believe that the American Dream is a $3 million ranch 1500 miles away from here. And I reject that because I have spent time talking to people in every single precinct of this district, who say that that is not the American Dream. It’s a choice. It’s really a choice to talk about your second home to people who don’t have a first home. The average first-time homebuyer right now is 40 years old, and Mark Lamb still tells us that the reason he has to live on that ranch in Tennessee is that running for Congress is a huge sacrifice, and it’s going to be a huge financial blow for him to be in Congress; that $ 174,000-a-year salary is really just going to be a huge setback for him. That is not the American Dream. If $170,000 a $ 170,000-a-year job is a setback for you right now in the math of today’s economy, you are entirely out of touch with American issues, and you are entirely unqualified to fight for the American Dream as it exists for the majority of us.”
Did you want to touch on more about corruption and accountability?
“I think people are frustrated with the way that government currently is really only working for the special interests, and that is partially because, or if not entirely because of Citizens United. We have so much money being poured into politics. It makes it such that the government is more responsible to the PACs and the special interests than they are to the people. And, you know, you look at the fundraising numbers between myself and Mark Lamb, and he’s outraised us by 10 times, and yet I don’t know that it’s, to me, it’s kind of, it says a lot about you if you want to flex your muscles about spending $1.5 million to run your campaign while people are losing their SNAP benefits. That is the definition of corruption, and we have to really shift the narrative. We’ve got to get more people who are willing to say, you know what, no, I’m not going to take corporate PAC money. That is my stance in this race. People have said it’s crazy because he’s going to have so much money. No, we have to draw the line and show people what a people-powered campaign can look like and that’s exactly what we’ve done. I think that Mark Lamb really kind of represents corruption, sadly. And 85% of independents in this district or across Arizona completely reject the extremist MAGA policies and those are centered around corruption. So that’s why if we don’t fight for accountability and transparency against this corrupt government, we’re never going to be able to achieve the things that do make up the American Dream.”
How is your campaign going to appeal and turn out people that are independent, like-minded Republicans, and also people, frankly, that aren’t informed and just look for the R or the D on the ballot?
“As I mentioned earlier, 85% of Arizona independents or PND, party not designated, reject MAGA extremism. 85%. So the math for us to win, because these aren’t just feelings; I don’t just feel I can win or believe I can win. The math says that we can win by capturing 90% of the Dem turnout. We have an extremely energized Democratic base of people that are bursting at the seams, waiting to do anything and everything they can to pepper this district with canvassers and all of that. If we can maintain 90% of the Democrats by continuing to work to keep their respect moving forward. But the independent vote, we need 60% of independents. A couple of years ago, that would have been much harder, but now, getting 60% of them when 85% of them feel disaffected by the Republican Party becomes a very, very doable thing. And I think that if you distill it all down, campaigns go wrong because they tell people why they are wrong. They like, come in, and they’re like, ‘here’s why you’re wrong. Here’s what your problem is. And here’s the solution that would solve it.’
“Everywhere I’ve gone in this campaign, I have started by listening. The first time I did it, the room was kind of like, this is weird, because there was a house party. We sat down, and they were expecting me to stand up in the corner of the room and preach at them for a while, ask them for money, and slip out. And I just pulled up a chair, and I said, can we start with everybody introducing themselves and spending one minute telling me what keeps you up at night? Boy, what happens when you start by listening. Most politicians don’t do that. But you’ve spent time creating some common ground with people. And I think that the ultimate test here is we have to help people to understand that they do not have to agree with me 100% of the time. That is a completely unrealistic expectation that we have had of our representatives. If we agree on things 70% to 80% of the time, or on the issues, that’s a really good place to be. That’s enough to work together. And eight out of ten Americans agree on about eight out of ten of the big, huge issues that politicians are really great at partisanship.”
“We’re going to do it the same exact way as we did in the primary. I wish we had kept count of how many people said to us when we came to their doors, no one has ever knocked on my door. No politician, no one running for office. All across Apache Junction, Queen Creek, Santan Valley, Mesa, Gilbert, mostly Chandler, like those folks were rocking, right? But so many of the people whose doors we knocked on had never been; they weren’t paying attention, right? They were part of that people, the group that wasn’t paying attention. And so one of the problems I think is that people don’t wake up in the morning thinking about legislation and what laws are going to get passed. They’re thinking about their rent and finding childcare and affording their groceries and taking care of their parents who are getting older. When we frame every conversation in that way, rather than through partisan party talking points, that helps people to feel a sense of community with us. And that is also because we meet them where they’re at. So that means not just at their doors, which I take that call very seriously. I canvassed a ton of doors. I knocked on doors every day for several months. But I think that beyond that, you have to find where people are: neighborhood events, in their community organizations, social media, coffee shops. Wherever you’ve got to find people where they are, and then just be honest and ask them to help you paint a picture of where they’re at. And then if you listen first, it’s really just, it’s quite astonishing the trust you can gather with people. I remember speaking to a woman who was a self-proclaimed MAGA, in fact, and at the end of the conversation, we had coffee, and at the end of the hour, she goes, ‘We agree on everything pretty much’ and I was like ‘I know we do.’ And so if you listen first and you gain trust, I think that’s exactly how we’re going to appeal to the people.”
“Another way too, don’t forget, Mark Lamb might be the best gift that the East Valley ever received because the picture of him nationally is looking kind of rough and so when you combine that with the open seat, you combine that with disaffected independents and moderates, this becomes, oh, and I didn’t finish off earlier, but the math is 90-60-10, 90% of Dems, 60% of independents and 10% of Republicans, which is fine because we know that probably the 40,000 people that voted for Mark Lamb, those are the 40,000 people that are going to be stoked to vote for him in November. Everyone else is fair game.”
Is there anything not covered in the first five questions that you would like the readers to know about your candidacy for the Congressional District Five House seat?
“I really hope that people will understand that this campaign is so much bigger than one election. We are in the fight of our lives right now. Economically, everybody is struggling. Corruption has become normal. The American dream is completely unattainable right now. I want people to understand that this is about so much more than one race or one campaign. It’s about deciding if we care more about solving the problem than we do about being right.
I tell people, I’m not running because I dreamt of becoming a politician or anything like that. It’s that so many of our problems societally are fixable if we’re willing to do the hard work to fix them. And I want people to understand this is not about whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat. This is not about whether you vote for me, insinuating that you agree with everything that I stand for. If we can make an agreement together that we don’t have to agree on everything, but that we can agree that we need better leadership that is more accountable, more transparent, and that has a more robust history of doing right by the people. I’ve been a nurse for a long time. If I did a quarter of what Mark Lamb is accused of, I would no longer hold a nursing license. And I think we need to recognize that it is about holding people to a higher standard, and turning the page is not about politics. Or rather partisanship.”
“Also, I think that this is the magic of why we won the primary so decisively. We brought together thousands of people who are the everyday people that make up the district. Teachers, veterans, nurses, firefighters, union members, small business owners, retirees, students, Democrats, independents, Republicans, everyone. Lots of different minority groups because they have been able to see what it looks like to run for the right reasons and what it looks like for somebody to serve. And so I am proud to know that we have brought together thousands of people who have been able to sort of wake up and go, ‘oh, this is what real representation looks like.’ I am very grateful that so many people have put their trust in me, and I intend to earn every single vote in November.”
Please click here to find out more about Nurse Elizabeth Lee and her campaign for the Arizona Congressional District Five House seat.
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