Photos by Jim Small | Arizona Mirror
The winners of a north Phoenix district could determine which party takes control of the legislature next year, and a slate of newcomers from across the political spectrum are competing to fill two seats in the Arizona House of Representatives.
Legislative District 2 is one of a handful of swing districts that have become focal points in the battle between Republicans and Democrats to secure a majority in the Arizona legislature. That’s because, unlike in nearly every other district, where one party dominates the voting population, the political makeup of LD2 isn’t so clear cut. The number of voters registered as unaffiliated is almost equal to the number of registered Republicans — 46,830 to 48,211 — and Democrats number 36,779, marking the district as one of the most competitive in the entire state.
While the district leans conservative, and the area has a long tradition of electing Republicans, GOP wins haven’t been assured in recent elections, which have seen close races, and, since 2020, split representation. The district’s elected Democratic representative, Judy Schwiebert, is now running for the district’s Senate seat, while Republican incumbent Rep. Justin Wilmeth is seeking reelection.
This year, Democrats are hoping to capture a legislative majority and topple the nearly 60-year-long Republican hold on the Arizona House of Representatives. Political newcomer Stephanie Simacek hopes to preserve control of one of the seats in the district.
Simacek moved to the Grand Canyon State 10 years ago and became an elementary school teacher, where she had a front row view of the funding struggles Arizona’s public schools endure. Later, she won a seat on Deer Valley Unified School District’s Governing Board after an unpleasant interaction with a member who she viewed as placing culture war issues above student welfare.
Simacek told the Arizona Mirror that she has little patience with a recent GOP focus on villainizing teachers, and is hoping to work on legislation that supports public schools instead of burdening them with politically motivated rules and unfunded mandates.
“They put their students first every single day, and to put our teachers down and not support them, and take to social media to attack teachers online — it’s unacceptable,” she said.
Top education priorities for the Portland native are full-day kindergarten and tighter regulation of private school vouchers. Simacek said she would be in favor of an income-based cap on the program, which has funneled more than $700 million in funding from public to private schools just this year. In 2022, Republican lawmakers passed a universal eligibility expansion that opened the program up to anyone, even students who have never attended public schools.
Democratic Gov. Katie Hobb has called for enacting oversight over the program, but those efforts have been non-starters with Republicans. A change in who controls the legislature — and thus sets the policy agenda — could lead to reforms.
While this is Simacek’s first run as a partisan candidate, she said her experience as a school board member has prepared her to navigate complex negotiations. Passing a budget and approving curriculum in an era when every topic is a political landmine requires knowing how to find common ground, she said. And, she added, the most important part of representing Arizonans in the state legislature is championing the concerns of voters.
“I’ve learned, through this whole process, that you just need to be a loud voice for those who need to be heard, and to make sure that we’re putting the money in the right places, instead of spending it on things that are not important,” she said.
With such a heightened focus on swing state races in Arizona, campaign funding has exploded, and Democrats have taken the lead financially as progressive organizations have donated millions. In LD2, Simacek’s campaign has outraised her opponents, pulling in more than $384,000, according to the most recent campaign finance report.
The second best funded candidate in the race is conservative activist Ari Bradshaw, whose campaign reported just under $206,000 as of late October. Bradshaw, too, is seeking a legislative seat for the first time. He is the founder of Young Conservatives of Arizona, a local political group focused on mobilizing conservative voters aged 13 through 40. The fourth-generation Arizonan did not respond to interview requests.
Bradshaw has sought to establish himself as moderate, despite a history of relationships with far-right politicians. In 2022, he worked on Kari Lake’s gubernatorial campaign, and last year he joined Sen. Justine Wadsack’s failed reelection bid. He isn’t a stranger to culture war issues, either, showing up to support anti-drag bills being debated at the state legislature last year, one of which was authored by Wadsack.
Bradshaw has also criticized far-right politicians, sparring with Flagstaff Sen. Wendy Rogers over her support of Steve Slaton, a legislative candidate who faced stolen valor allegations after falsely claiming he served as a Vietnam war combat pilot. And in September, Bradshaw denounced the Arizona Republican Party’s decision to run digital billboards spreading the baseless lie promoted by GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance and former president Donald Trump that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are killing and eating local pets.
Bradshaw is a strong proponent of school choice and an opponent of book banning and the state government “dictating the minutiae of curriculum,” though his campaign website states that he would be interested in working with lawmakers like Wadsack and Rep. David Marshall, who have authored and supported legislation that would do just that.
The competition for the second seat is likely to be between Bradshaw and Simacek, who head the most well-funded campaigns in the House race but don’t benefit from the incumbent status Wilmeth does.
Simacek has sought to highlight Bradshaw’s links to far-right politicians and cast him as too extreme for the district. An attempt by Bradshaw to call into question Simacek’s honesty and candidacy, meanwhile, backfired.
On Sept. 25, Bradshaw made an uninvited early morning visit to Simacek’s north Phoenix home, where he spoke with her husband, who told him they’d separated and she no longer lived there. Bradshaw took to social media to accuse her of lying about her marriage and her residency in the district, which is required to run for office. He later called the tweets a mistake and claimed he was simply in the neighborhood distributing campaign literature when he noticed her name on the voters list.
Widely considered a shoe-in for one of the two House seats, Wilmeth has represented the north Phoenix district since he was first elected in 2020. According to the latest campaign finance report, he’s raised a little over $158,000 for his reelection. Wilmeth did not respond to interview requests.
A native of Texas who previously worked as a spokesperson for the Oklahoma House of Representatives, he has sought to bill himself as a pro-business candidate, backing legislation to lower burdens for local entrepreneurs, including one that made it easier for cosmetologists to practice in Arizona if they have a year of experience in another state, and another that eased the financial and legal requirements for Arizonans under 19 to run a business.
But not all his proposals have won approval from everyday Arizonans. This year, Wilmeth sponsored Proposition 138 at the request of the Arizona Restaurants Association, which voters will decide the fate of on Tuesday. The ballot measure drew criticism from restaurant employees, who lambasted it for exploiting tipped workers and subjecting them to less than minimum wage pay. While it purports to help tipped workers — it’s titled the Tipped Workers Protection Act — it actually allows employers to pay them 25% less than minimum wage as long as they make at least $2 per hour more than minimum wage, counting tips.
In education policy, Wilmeth is a proponent of parental rights and curriculum transparency. On his campaign website, he accuses public schools of advancing leftist ideology and promises to advance legislation to address that.
“As your Representative, I will ensure you have a say in your child’s education,” reads a statement on the website. “I will pass legislation that demands accountability from our school boards, require curriculum transparency, expand high-quality education options, and ending the teaching of Critical Race Theory and other woke ideologies. The classroom is a place for learning, not indoctrination.”
Earlier this year, Wilmeth made headlines as one of just a handful of Republican lawmakers who bucked their party to join Democrats in repealing a near-total abortion ban that became law during the Civil War, when Arizona was still a territory, that was revived by the Arizona Supreme Court.
Wilmeth didn’t give an explanation for his vote at the time or release a statement reconciling his commitment to his pro-life stance with the repeal, as other Republicans who voted to strike down the law did. Nor has he sought to capitalize on that action in the election to appeal to moderate voters. There is no mention of the vote on his website.
In 2022, Wilmeth voted for the 15-week gestational ban that led to the reinstatement of the 1864 law.
Voters in LD2 can also choose to cast their ballots in favor of a registered Independent — though Democrats have warned that doing so would only serve to detract from Simacek and bolster the Republican candidates.
Tom Simes, a local businessman who moved to the state 17 years ago, has run a nearly entirely self-funded campaign. According to the latest campaign finance report, Simes has raised roughly $24,000 in total funding. While he acknowledged that he’s unlikely to win a seat, he told the Mirror that he’s hopeful, and that, in the end, winning wasn’t his only goal.
He said he launched his bid, in part, to bring more awareness to Independent candidates.
“I’m not under any illusions,” Simes said. “There’s never been an Independent elected to the Arizona state legislature. But unless more of us start doing it, we’re never going to break through that.”
Simes added that this year and political climate made for the best environment to run for office as an independent. People are tired of partisanship, he said, and the LD2 voting population are the likeliest to support an Independent candidate, given how many voters identify as unaffiliated. If he doesn’t win, he said he hopes to at least do well enough to cause the other candidates to reevaluate how they approach lawmaking.
Among Simes’ top policy concerns are protecting abortion rights, supporting comprehensive immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship — action that can only be taken by Congress, not the Arizona Legislature — and investing in public schools and career-readiness programs for students looking to enter the workforce.
While some have accused Simes of being a spoiler for Simacek, he waved away that concern. If that happens, he said, then the fault lies with the candidate Democrats chose. Independents deserve to have candidates of their own to root for, he added.
“I’ve been a registered independent for a long time, and I never have any options,” he said. “It’s always this party or that party. Either way I look at it, my election gets spoiled every year. They can use whatever term they want. Run better candidates.”
Simes said he’s not planning to run again if he loses, saying the process for independent candidates is costly and difficult. But Proposition 140, a ballot measure that seeks to open up primary elections to all candidates regardless of party, aims to reduce the barriers to entry for Independent candidates. If voters decide to approve that proposal, Simes said he would consider launching a new campaign in a changed electoral landscape.
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