Sarah Liguori Wants to Continue in Her Dream Job as a State Representative from LD Five

State Representative Sarah Liguori has had an eventful first six months of 2022.

With the support and assistance of her husband and mother (the Arizona Legislature does not provide child care options for the legislators or staff,) the businesswoman from the former Legislative District (LD) 28 has had a momentous time since being appointed to fill in the remainder of Aaron Lieberman’s term.

Championing policies ranging from water access to fully funding public education, Representative Liguori has earned a reputation of a serious policy maker who will lead and work with both Democrats and Republicans to achieve serious legislative results.

Calling serving the people “her dream job” because it combines her work and activist experience, Representative Liguori would like to apply all the experience she has learned from the last six months into a full term in the State House as a member from the new LD Five.

If elected to a full term, she will embrace policies that:

• Protect Democracy and rights like a woman’s right to choose.
• Combat climate change and promote sustainability, especially with regards to the water supply.
• Fully fund education and expand areas that help children like KidsCare.
• Provide affordable housing.

Representative Liguori graciously took the time to discuss her candidacy for the State House of Representatives.

The questions and her responses are below.

• What are at least two reasons you would like to run for a full term in the Arizona State Legislature?

“I’m running what will be my first campaign to continue to expand the work and the little successes I’ve had in my first session.

A year ago today, I never thought I’d be down there, but it’s an opportunity that I’m very grateful to have had and it has turned out to be my dream job because it combines all of the business, the work experience, the organizations, and relationships I’ve made in this community.

Then I get to blend it by fighting and advocating for all of the democratic values that I feel so strongly for. So, it’s, it’s a perfect blend of that. And that’s one of the reasons I want to continue.

The second is just that the work keeps piling on in the past two weeks, even.

So, we have the Supreme Court handing us six more things that we need to get out into the streets and activate people and push back for.

The biggest thing that I saw this term was we were legislating and I was very vocal at calling this out of we’re legislating from culture wars, issues that don’t really mean or matter to many people.

Then we went from that to now, the highest court in the country, stripping away our rights, our environmental rights and potentially our voting rights.

Loosening gun regulations and then stripping women and people of their access to healthcare is one of the reasons I want to run again.

There is much more important work to do. The stakes could not be higher to work on. That’s what I want to be a part of. That’s what got me active last year when I ran for the appointment was all the work I was doing for Democrats on voting and public education. And now it’s like that plus so much more. So, if I could get another full term, I think I’d be able to really, um, make more progress on all the above.

I also believe in an Arizona that is better than what I’m seeing, we’re being portrayed as right now, I think we’re a state full of very hard working and very valuable people.

We want and deserve better from our leaders. And so, I would like to go and be representative of what I think our leaders should be of listening and respectful and critical thinking and dealing with issues that matter and presenting tangible solutions and that’s what our leaders should be doing.

And so that’s why I want to run again: to be one of those examples of that kind of a leader.”

• Please tell the readers at least two proud accomplishments from the time you’ve had in the legislature.

“The first one I’ll say is I am very proud to have been part of not just a fantastic Democratic caucus. I have built relationships and friendships with these people. A lot of us have just gone through the trenches day after day of battling these issues and there’s been real friendships that have made. I’m very proud to have been a part of such a strong, smart, dedicated team.

Also, that I was one of six appointees that came in and the friendships that we made and collaborated on. And we were thrown into the deep end and all of us just started swimming and helping each other that I’m very proud of the democratic caucus and the appointees I got to work with and be a part of that.

On the legislation side, I ran four bills. One of them made it through the system, in a weird way, but it made it through the system. My rainwater harvesting bill was my passion bill, mirrored on the City of Tucson’s water program, rainwater harvesting program. I had bipartisan support on it.

That little bill got life. It got life on a striker through the Senate. It achieved bipartisan approval in committee in the Senate. You know, I got approval from the speaker. He has spoken on it many times. His staff, the Senate staff. The governor’s office.

My million-dollar appropriation to rainwater harvesting is now baked into the $200 million that Democrats were able to negotiate for the water conservation fund. So for me, not even a freshman Democrat, but an appointee coming in halfway through to be able to testify in committee was a huge accomplishment for me. I still remember feeling how wonderful that was to be actually go speak onto my bill and advocate for it and to see, you know, that process takes place of the work that is involved and the avenues and the channels like that. I was very proud of that. And then also my leadership roles. I was appointed to the ad hoc committee on energy.

So, my time in questioning and willingness to learn and listen in the water and energy spaces I had to accomplish there from a leadership perspective. And then also seeing, you know, the issue of water, which is very near and dear to my heart growing above and beyond what I ever thought could have ever imagined it to me in a short in six months. So that, that was a huge accomplishment for.”

“Another noteworthy accomplishment I had was successfully identifying and removing the ‘Pine Tree’ flag from the Capitol. I noticed it my first week and alerted leadership and we kept up the pressure to have it removed. The extreme religious symbol along with violent extremism it represents had no place there.”

• Please tell us what have been two regrets you have had from your time in the legislature?

“My two regrets, if you can call them that, are being a political outsider now on the inside seeing, the errors and the flaws in the system.

We’re in the minority party down there. And just kind of understanding how, not just an uphill battle it is for Democrats, but how rigged the system is. And I think that’s a fair word to use. I co-sponsored, you know, 45 bills from Democratic members that I believed were good bills, like bipartisan bills, real solutions to Arizonans and just to understand that they never get the light of day. They never get to be discussed. They’ve never given a chance to go through just because there’s a D behind our name was very disappointing to me.

And then when we were able to kill, you know, a piece of bad legislation that they usually just tinker with it to make it worse. So, we kill a bill and committee and then in the next hour, it’s brought back. And they pass it or we kill a bill on the floor and they have someone bring it back and then they pass it. So, it was just I remember how disheartening it was for me to see. The rules can change. They can change the, the rules, the clock, the referees, the goalposts, all of it can be moved for one side.

And yet the other side that has good ideas and bills and voices that need to be heard. They don’t get to have that same shot at all and then the other thing to me that that’s been regretful is just to see how the political ideologies are running rampant through the system right now. It’s not based on merit or common sense or facts or logic, a lot of the time. It’s what ideology can we latch onto and out to, and I’ll close my ears and just adhere to that more than anything. So, it’s disheartening as a citizen going into that system to see exactly how the sausage is made in those respects.”

• What are least two reasons voters should elect you over any opponent in the legislative rates?

“I think that my biggest strength is I’m a real person. I’m an outsider to politics. I got in through like a grassroots effort of I just want to help Democrats. I was fortunate enough to get down there. For me, I have no motives or political agenda other than addressing and fixing the monumental issues we have in this state like water, voting rights, and affordable housing.

Those are the three things I went in there to accomplish and I have no strings attached to anything I’m doing other than I want to roll up my sleeves and I want get to work and I want to bring real solutions and I want to move the needle. I want to do that as respectfully and as crucially as I can and the other things I bring to the position.

People trust in me. I’ve been able to build relationships very quickly in a short amount of time, just because people know that I will sit with them, I will listen to them, and I will speak to them with respect, logic, and kindness. I bring a lot of empathy to the space down there and it’s been very well received from my Republican colleagues on every side of the spectrum and also in a collaborative effort within my caucus.

So, the one thing I like to do is not so much lead with my words, but lead with my work. So, people know that I’m going to show up and I’m going to continue to show up for these causes and issues. I will not just show up. I will also use my voice and I will present creative and effective solutions to actually initiate change.

You can look at it in my track record there in six months like being able to move my water bill and able to enter leadership roles and able to build trust across the aisle. I’m able to connect with people and I’m able to bring a lot of critical thinking to the space and discuss a multitude of issues with the passion that I have for all of them.”

• If reelected or elected, what are at least four issues you will focus on in the legislature?

“When I went in this last session, my top three were voting rights, affordable housing and water.

Voting rights was huge to me coming off of last year when they stripped PEVL.

Public education and the tax cuts were another thing.

But my two biggest things based on, you know, my experience, I was a financial advisor and I worked in commercial real estate. So, I’ve been seeing water and housing as an affordability issue and an income inequality issue for, you know, eight or nine years now.

Sitting on the Government Elections Committee was very important to me for the voting right aspect. I wanted to sit on natural resources committee because I was very interested in water, but they happen to be conflicting times.

But we’ve just got a huge injection of policy and money to the water space. So, what I’m doing as we speak is turning my sites back to voting rights, housing, reproductive rights and public education because I think we’re going to have a referendum coming on that with the expansion of universal vouchers.

Affordable housing is in our face. We have to bring real solutions to the table like yesterday.

Voting Rights, the Supreme Court, the January 6th committee, like the election coming up, like in our face.

We gave our public schools money that they were happy with in the budget, in a bipartisan manner. But on the other hand, you have the universal voucher expansion.

And so I think for all four of those things, we are going to continue to be very active and needing to push back and use our voices.

And so those are the four things that I’m going to focus on.”

Are you for Universal Pre-K?

 “Yes. I, I think I’m pretty sure I signed onto that legislation this year.”

Are you for expanding Kid’s Care?

 “Yes.”

What about sustainability?

“We need inclusivity and we need sustainability and we need to build that into our economic growth. We can’t just have unfettered growth without looking at the sustainability side of it.

A global manufacturing chip plant is great. I understand why we want to attract big businesses like that but at what expense to our water supply. So,  I like to look at, you know, from a sustainability standpoint, like making sure that there’s balance there.”

The Green Energy aspect of Sustainability?

“So, I sat on the commerce committee and we saw a lot of the hydrogen tax bills and then energy bills come through commerce. And I’ve been meeting with SRP and Nikola and there’s actually a climate coalition call I’m on every Friday at three to try to understand what is Arizona like from an energy standpoint in the future. So, I’ve spent the past seven months that I’ve been down there, learning and listening. Because of that, I was appointed to the ad hoc committee on energy.

I’m really curious to see where we can go from here, especially with the progress we’re starting to see made with the Corporations Commission and shutting down the expansion of coal plants and how do we transition APS and SRP with those huge goals to go green.

What do they need? I’m happy to be a part of those conversations. I’m continually learning and I’m really hoping just like with water, we have to get it right in these spaces. 

I want to be there as someone that can put the environment first over money or profits or growth.  Also letting people know that you need to believe in the fact that if we don’t have water, we don’t have a state.

And if we’re just going continue to disenfranchise our communities and think that we can have CO2 emissions unchecked we’re past the point of no return for a lot of these things. We have to steer back to a sustainable green. We can do it smartly and correctly.

That’s where I really hope to continue to lead the discussions.”

• Is there anything not covered in the first five questions that you would like to reader us to know about you or your candidacy? Please explain.

“I am an Arizona, native. I’m a mom. My parents were raised here. I was raised here. I’m raising my kids here. Like I have so much pride and investment in this state and I see a place that deserves so much better than what we’re, giving it right now. And I want to get us back on a path of respect and reason where I think we were headed before we deviated very sharply to the ideological right.

I’m doing all of this work because I feel it in my core and that this is the right thing and necessary thing to do. I want to make a better place, not just for my children, but for everybody’s children that lives here.

I’m just very excited to be a part of all these fascinating people that are working in these places and together, we can do so much good.

When I say I’m just a real person, not a politician, but like someone that just wants to do the work in these places. That’s really the core of why I’m doing it.

I’m just very grateful for this opportunity. It’s been the most rewarding experience of my life. I love that people think that you can’t make progress in a little amount of time, and I’m very happy to have been a part of such major progress in such a short amount of time, and to have been able to use all the tools that I have in order to help these bigger causes.

I just want to continue to do it now that I’ve been down there six months. I think I can, there’s so much more I can do with another six months and with another term.”

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