Campaign funds can be used for child care, AG Kris Mayes says 

Photo by Liudmila Chernetska | Getty Images

Arizona candidates for public office can use their campaign funds to pay for child care needs while they are campaigning, Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a legal opinion. 

The Sept.16 opinion places the Grand Canyon State among 34 other states, along with Washington D.C., in allowing candidates to pay for child care costs with campaign funds. 

Mayes, a Democrat and the first mother to hold the office of attorney general in Arizona, issued the opinion at the request of four state legislators who are also mothers of young children. 

Led by Sen. Eva Diaz of Tolleson, the group of Democratic women asked Mayes in a May 9 letter to issue an opinion on existing campaign finance law. 

The legislators, including Diaz, and Reps. Stacey Travers, Quantá Crews and Sarah Liguori, all of Phoenix, drafted the request with the Vote Mama Foundation, an organization whose ultimate goal is to codify the use of campaign funds for child care into law.

On Sept. 16, Mayes issued a favorable opinion, though it came with a caveat. 

“Arizona’s campaign finance law permits the use of privately raised campaign funds for dependent care if, and only if, the expenses are for the purpose of enabling the candidate or other person to perform campaign activities,” Mayes wrote. 

She added that the campaign funds could be used to pay for child care even if the candidate doesn’t leave her home, but is indisposed to care for her children because of campaign activity. 

“I’m excited that the state is finally coming into parity with federal law,” Travers told the Arizona Mirror on Tuesday. 

Using campaign funds for child care costs has been permissible for federal candidates, since the Federal Elections Commission ruled in 2018 that New York congressional candidate Liuba Grechen Shirley could use campaign funds to cover her campaign-related child care expenses. 

After that, Shirley created the Vote Mama Foundation, which is working to get legislation passed in all 50 states to allow campaign funds to be used for child care.

Just seven weeks out from the general election in November, the opinion is unlikely to have a great impact this election cycle. But Travers is hopeful that she and her colleagues can spread the word over the next two years to spur single mothers and fathers — and others who were held back by child care costs — to run for office. 

“We need a multitude of diverse voices in our legislature,” Travers said, including people with different lived experiences who can bring various perspectives and ideas to the table. 

She and her colleagues believe that the lack of clarity in Arizona’s campaign finance laws regarding the use of campaign funds for child care, prior to Mayes’ opinion, was a deterrent for some potential candidates. 

Only about 7% of Arizona’s state legislators are mothers of children younger than 18, according to a 2022 report from Vote Mama. 

“When women run for office, they win at the same rate as men. But they do not run at the same rate,” Mayes wrote in her opinion. “Some commentators have suggested that women do not run as often as men in part because of the ‘care gap.’ According to this theory, the burdens of caring for dependents mean that women are less likely to have the time, capacity, and other assets necessary to run for and serve in office.” 

Mayes wrote that her opinion was supported by opinions released in other states with  statutory language similar to Arizona’s,  including Virginia, North Carolina, Connecticut and Maryland. 

While the opinion is a win for the legislators who requested it, parents who run for office and win will still have to figure out how to deal with child care while they are in office. 

With an annual salary of $24,000 for state legislators, and only a small per diem for lawmakers who live in Maricopa County, that could still be a significant deterrent. 

Travers said that legislation she introduced last year to bump legislator pay to $35,000 annually, would have helped with that, but the proposed change was tied to lifetime term limits for the House and Senate and was never given a committee hearing. 

She added that the Tempe Elementary School District had done great work in funding before and after school care for students, and there might be an opportunity to expand their approach. 

All of the legislators who signed onto the letter asking Mayes for an opinion celebrated the news on Monday. 

“Historically, political service has been unattainable for parents and caregivers due to barriers such as lack of resources,” Crews said in a written statement. “With the attorney general’s clarification, Arizonans with political aspirations will have one less barrier of entry into political public service. Political leaders should look like Arizona and I’m pleased to see child care won’t be a reason a mom, dad or caregiver can’t share their gifts and passions fighting for a thriving Arizona.”