Ballot Recommendation List

AZ Primary Election 2026
June 22 – Voter Registration Deadline https://www.servicearizona.com/
June 24 – Ballots Mailed to voters
July 21 – Election Day
If you’re in Maricopa County and would like to check your status, visit: http://BeBallotReady.vote 

As a general rule, those reviewing this ballot recommendation list should understand how we approach who to recommend.  As a voter, you are essentially looking at who you’re going to put in place to strengthen and preserve self governance (where elected officials are accountable to you with election integrity) and who you can trust to help strengthen your self reliance and personal prosperity so you can strengthen and preserve your individual liberty and pursuit of happiness.

Most voters don’t know that school board positions don’t pay a salary and city council positions commonly pay less than minimum wage, depending on how much time is allocated to it.  To get a political conservative to run and prioritize constituents is truly a selfless undertaking with a year of campaigning, candidates often contributing to their own campaigns and asking friends to do the same.  It is the selfless who establish and protect individual liberty and the selfish who destroy it.  Money interests are always at work in politics.  The lobbyist class always wants a large piece of your money for themselves through taxes as well as a piece of your individual liberty.  As a conservative in school board, you’re against the machine of the unions and communists trying to indoctrinate our kids in public schools with our own taxes.  As a constituent prioritizing conservative on city council, you’re up against the left wing agenda of the new green deal to shrink trash cans for less convenience and more expense, against DEI which undermines the meritocracy culture which was critical to the success of our nation, and even more so special interest developers that want exceptions for bigger more concentrated building and living for more short term profits despite the long term impacts on the cities for over development.  Often times these special interests will set up a PAC (Political Action Committee) with a nice sounding name to smear the elected officials protecting your wallet from higher taxes, your individual liberty and your city from overdevelopment.

Just as a meritocracy made our nation success, at Tea Party AZ, we view a meritocracy essential to electing those who represent us.  School board, city council and state legislature are great entry points to see how well someone will prioritize constituents over special interests.  Like a bank extending a credit line, voters should consider those entry points in politics as a smaller credit line than Congressional seats for the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate or any statewide race like Attorney General, Secretary of State, Governor, etc.  Our choices in the primary reflect that value system.

Arizona Republican Primary Election Ballot Recommendations
FEDERAL
U.S. House of Representatives:
CD1 – Joseph Chaplik (Joseph Chaplik is the model of the meritocracy we support as a club. He has served as a state legislators for approximately 3 terms. Two of those terms he ran for Speaker of the House and was so well regarded by his peers that he almost won each time but the special interest lobbyist thwarted those attempts because they knew their gravy train would be coming to an end with Chaplik battling for what is best for constituents. Chaplik is the clear choice in this race.  You know exactly what you’ll get, a proven conservative constituent serving elected official applying common sense to problems.  Jay Feely has no business running for Congress in CD1.  Feely lives in CD5. He intends to remain in CD5. He has no political background or track record. He was silent when individual liberty was at risk while Chaplik was fighting to preserve it. Feely may be one of the worst Trump endorsements of all and we’re attributing that to Trump’s Chief of Staff’s husband doing a football camp with Feely. Feely will not be constituent prioritizing like Chaplik will. Feely thinks because he’s connected to the powerful he can drop some mailers saying he’s Trump endorsed and that will get him into Congress. Feely is an affront to the meritocracy we advocate for as a club. John Trobough is another candidate.  He looks promising for the future but has no business running for Congress with no political track record.  He should start in the state legislature like Chaplik did to prove himself to us. It’d be foolish for voters to split the Chaplik vote to wind up with Feely. Chaplik all the way for the win!!)
CD2 – Eli Crane (Doing an outstanding job as a Congressman.  Voting for Crane is a no brainer!)
CD3 – Nicholas Glenn (Write in; needs approximately 900 write in votes to be printed on the general election ballot so Republicans have a candidate in CD3 to oppose the Dems.)
CD4 – (We know the foundation of U.S. Constitution was built upon Judeo Christian values and as a club it’s difficult to support any candidate for Congress that doesn’t understand that & isn’t fighting to preserve it.  In our view, the Republican Party is best served to back candidates who understand that otherwise the nation will be lost if both parties have muddied the water without clarity on that issue. This is why we can’t publicly support Dr. Zuhdi Jasser despite his best efforts to mold Islam to be more constructive. No one wants to say it out loud but everyone knows Islam is destroying Western civilization from within and bringing Islam into the Republican Party is not a smart long term course of action.)  
CD5 – Mark Lamb (Lamb is loved in his district for his public service, regardless of the recent political attacks, and it’s a red district.  He’s going to be the next Congressman in CD5)
CD6 – Juan Ciscomani (He can win reelection and there’s no reason to take a chance in losing a Republican seat in that district.)
CD8 – Abe Hamadeh (This is an uncontested primary race.)
CD9 – Paul Gosar (Gosar always shows backbone for conservative values & votes well.  It’d be nice to see more like him in Congress.)

STATE
Governor – Andy Biggs (Biggs has always been a servant to the people. He is a proven leader, whether as former AZ Senate President or as Former Chair of the Freedom Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Biggs is consistently on the right side of issues for constituents.  Schweikert seems to have been compromised as the years have progressed. The only reason Schweikert got into the race is because lobbyist interests, who knew they couldn’t own Biggs, convinced Schweikert to run. The electorate is awake in the Republican primary.  Voters know who actually has the track record of serving them; the most recent poll put Biggs 46 points above his next closest primary competitor: https://x.com/nextgenpolling/status/2067706609544069359?s=46 Biggs is also the Republican Governor candidate who polls best to beat Democrat incumbent Governor Katie Hobbs in the general election.)
Attorney General – Warren Petersen (The ads being run are misleading. Warren Petersen has served in the state legislature w a conservative track record as Senate President. Petersen as Republican Senate President has had a lot of success in lawsuits against the Democrat Governor & Democrat AG. We know who Petersen is; he is the most qualified for the job, has prosecuted 9 trials & Andy Biggs is supporting his candidacy. Rodney Glassman ran for state party Chair of the Democrat Party and hasn’t substantiated his qualifications for the office. This website lists Glassman’s weaknesses: https://notrodney.com/ Petersen is the safer pick and matches the meritocracy model we advocate for. Here’s a link to the primary debate to judge for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/live/4Xj9dSlDSao?si=pE6JW1H1XoK7qsIN)
Secretary of State – Alex Kolodin (Alex Kolodin is the model of the meritocracy approach we advocate for. Kolodin had been a conservative activist for many years, he is an attorney who stepped up to help defend election integrity for the AZGOP, he ran as a state legislature and has served 2 terms in the House as an election integrity specialist commonly countering the incumbent Democrat Secretary of State on the election procedures manual and winning.  His primary challenger is Gina Swoboda who is a former Democrat.  While she stepped up to fill in during disruption in the AZGOP as a Chair candidate and won, when the body of the AZGOP listened to her speak against ESA, against the border policies of Trump and betray her promises to the body that she wouldn’t run for office if elected AZGOP Chair, the body has largely turned against her.  Swoboda did good work opposing rank choice voting in the state but in the end election integrity starts with personal integrity and Alex Kolodin has kept his word and been regularly available to constituents.  Kolodin is the clear choice for Secretary of State in the Republican primary & general election.)
Treasurer – Elijah Norton (You know someone by how they spend their money. Elijah Norton has had an admirable history in business.  He has had success started a company from scratch, growing its sales and managing its resources incredibly well.  While doing that, he has supported/financially contributed to some of our best candidates over the years allowing for our grassroots conservative constituent prioritizing candidates to have a fighting chance in their elections.  He’s partially responsible for many of the good people we have in office today.  He initially tried running for Congress, skipping the meritocracy approach we advocate for, and lost but he continued on at a more basic level successfully running for AZGOP Treasurer and did a very good job for the AZGOP while in that position.  He made the AZGOP look a lot better than it would have otherwise if he hadn’t been in the position. Katherine Haley is well respected in the party but just doesn’t have the high level experience of managing large funds with the track record Elijah Norton has.  With Elijah’s track record our returns on investment of state assets are likely to be stronger resulting in lower taxes for Arizonans. These are some of the reasons Elijah Norton is our pick.)
Superintendent of Public Instruction – Kimberly Yee (This race has split opinions in the party. Tom Horne has served this state for many years as Attorney General and now as the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Kimberly Yee has served as state treasurer for multiple election cycles and 4 years ago no one got more statewide votes than she did.  This is a 4 year term and when it comes down to it, while Tom Horne has been a servant to the state and has worked well with others in the party, his age is becoming an issue and we feel it’s time to pass the torch to someone who can carry it longer with more energy.)
AZ Corp Commission – Vote 2 of these 3 – Kevin Thompson, Nick Myers, Ralph Heap (All 3 of them are patriots. Kevin & Nick have been running together and are the incumbents. They recruited Rachel Walden for AZ Corp Commission and Rachel is one of the best true patriots in the state.  She says her amendments to lower rates for ratepayers pass 60%-70% of the time because Kevin & Nick are the ones on the AZ Corp Commission who support them. The AZ Free Enterprise Club & Turning Point Action are passionate that more could be done to restrain rate increases. AZ Free Enterprise & Turning Point Action are fully behind Ralph Heap and thinks Nick Meyers is vulnerable in the general election. It’s our understanding Lea Marquez Peterson, currently in office w a term expiring in 2 yrs, goes along to get along with what the utilities want too much, perhaps setting herself up w a job w them after her term expires. It’s our feeling that whoever loses the primary this election cycle may want to consider running for Lea’s seat next cycle.)

The state legislature is broken up into 30 legislative districts (LDs), where you vote for 1 State Senator & 2 House Representatives, these are the candidates we recommend:
LD1 Senate – Mark Finchem (Finchem is running unopposed in the primary in a red district & has a conservative voting record.  His reelection is guaranteed)
LD1 House – You choose (It’s our understanding from talking to those in the district that Quang Nguyen & Selina Bliss regularly attend local events, are readily available to their constituents and have been honest in their communications with others. Quang is the Chair of the Judiciary Committee and rightfully kills a lot of bills.  Too many bills are introduced each session. It appears Finchem has an issue w Quang over Family Court Reform bills which is why Finchen support Shawn Dell Wildman for LD1 House. We are not aware of the details on that & that’s not been an issue brought up in our club so if it matters to you, you should look more into it. Quang has a track record of going over and above on many things, such as helping avert homeless being put into Scottsdale resorts to help Scottsdale residents concerned for what it meant to their communities, traveling to other districts to speak on what’s really happening in the state legislature, and traveling the nation helping to advance 2nd amendment rights. Quang & Selina have been tough on crime in their voting.  Given their availability & honesty with their constituents, we think it’s likely they’ll both be reelected.)
LD2 Senate – You choose (Tim Ferrara is unlikely to win the primary and general election. It’s our understanding he has gone the clean election route which means he will be uncompetitive in the battleground district against the Dems in the general election.  In some ways it’s reckless to recommend voting for him for that reason but some are choosing to vote for him in the primary as a protest vote against Shawnna Bolick. Bolick is the incumbent and most likely to win both the primary & general elections. Shawnna Bolick is a mixed bag.  She worked with Alex Kolodin on an election integrity proposition we’ll all be voting on for the general election but she has been a tool of developers to override municipal rights and even voted in favor of the Axon bill, that too many other state legislators voted for too, which gave exceptions to Axon over others who want to develop in Scottsdale and undermined our conservative constituent serving Scottsdale City Council members.  Tim Ferrara is really more of a protest vote to let Shawnna Bolick know grassroots is watching and not happy about municipal rights being undermined by her.  We’ll recommend you vote Republican in the general election in LD2 even if Shawnna Bolick wins her primary.)
LD2 House – Justin Wilmeth https://www.justinwilmethaz.com/
LD2 House – Write in (It’s an embarrassment LD2 has not developed a deeper bench that when a candidate drops out a write in candidate doesn’t have to be necessary but that’s where we are today in an important battleground district.  In our opinion, LD2 needs a lot of work. We have had problems with Maricopa County Republican Committee, MCRC, those who want to dictate top down to spend a majority of time hand counting endless intra party political races and no time on candidate development.  The result as been a shallow bench of candidates in LD2. MCRC and LD2 need new leadership to change these issues.  Paul Carver is a write in candidate as the former LD2 Chairman but his lack of leadership for what’s right at MCRC meetings and just going along to get along is unimpressive & makes it hard to get behind his candidacy. That leaves relatively unknown Kenneth Laird as a write in alternative to Paul Carver.)
LD3 Senate – John Kavanagh
LD3 House – George Khalaf (George knows his way around politics. He’s helped run the campaigns of many of our grassroots conservative candidates and is well likely by them. He has helped the grassroots meritocracy culture effort and collectively the effort is largely standing with him today because of it.)
LD3 House – Cody Reim or Thomas Walsh (Joseph Chaplik resigned early as a House Rep in LD3 to focus on his competitive Congressional race in CD1.  That vacated seat wound up as an appointment to Cody Reim. Cody Reim has limited experience as a state legislator in the district now & has been liked for that limited work.  Cody also started his campaign earlier than Thomas Walsh.  Walsh has been a hard worker and strong door knocker for the cause.  Walsh has more life experience and comes to the position with medical experience as a dentist.  Cody seems to be the one showing up more on the ballot recommendation lists of others but either of them would serve LD3 well in our opinion.)
LD4 Senate – Carine Werner https://wernerforaz.com/
LD4 House – Matt Gress (not the best voting record but helps the district win as a fundraising champion; has been very supportive to the conservatives on Scottsdale City Council & SUSD) https://www.mattgress.com/
LD4 House – Sandra Christensen (Sandra Christensen is a true servant to the people with a conservative backbone.  She has served on the school board of Paradise Valley School District as the lone conservative voice outnumbered 4 to 1.  She’s paid her dues to run for the state legislature.  There’s no doubt she’s be a principled vote in the AZ House. Pamela Carter is the incumbent and competition in the primary.  Carter campaigns well and has definitely improved as a state legislator during her time in office but we didn’t like her choice in who she voted for as Speaker of the House which resulted in that Speaker bringing Axon in to steamroll the City of Scottsdale.  Carter voted against the Axon bill but it felt like too little too late and she hasn’t done enough over and above stuff like Matt Gress has to justify supporting her in the primary.)
LD5 House – Alberto Gutier III
LD7 House – Andrew Costanzo (David Marshall’s chosen replacement)
LD7 House – Barby Ingle
LD8 Senate – Bill Loughrige (Write in)
LD8 House – Donald Hawker (SINGLE SHOT!!!)
LD9 Senate – Bridget Fitzgibbons
LD9 House – Brad Bettencourt (SINGLE SHOT!!!)
LD10 Senate – David Farnsworth
LD10 House – Justin Olson
LD10 House – James Rogers (Rogers has been the attorney for Justin Heap, Maricopa County Recorder, & has done a good job; Ciara Anderson is also running for LD10 House, who is a great activist but the feedback we’re getting is that it may not be her time this election cycle since the other House candidates are extremely well qualified.)
LD11 Senate – Joshua Ayala
LD11 House –  Joseph Dailey
LD11 House – Cesar Aleman
LD12 House – David Richardson (SINGLE SHOT!!!)
LD13 Senate – Julie Willoughby
LD13 House – Kevin Hartke or Debra Schinke?
LD13 House – Janet Weninger
LD14 Senate – Mylie Biggs
LD14 House – Laurin Hendrix
LD14 House – Tyler Farnsworth
LD15 Senate – Jake Hoffman
LD15 House – Neal Carter
LD15 House – Michael Way
LD16 Senate – Thomas Shope
LD16 House – Teresa Martinez
LD16 House – Chris Lopez
LD17 Senate – Anthony Dunham 
LD17 House – Rachel Keshel
LD17 House – John Winchester
LD18 Senate – Doug Everett
LD18 House – Bob Dohse (Great conservative grassroots strategic activist in his region.)
LD19 House – Cheryl Caswell
LD19 House – Lupe Diaz
LD21 Senate – Esteban Flores
LD21 House – Chris Kibbey
LD23 Senate – Michelle Altherr (Not thrilled to put her on the list because she has lacked the discernment to see the damage Maricopa County Republican Committee under Shelby Busch/Robinson has done to the intra party, Altherr has in fact played a role in supporting that intra party damage. That said, LD23 is a battleground district we need to win and we expect Altherr to generally be a conservative vote if elected.)
LD23 House – Michelle Pena https://www.michelepena.com/ (Has developed a great reputation and has been a good House Rep for LD23)
LD25 House – Michael Carbone
LD25 House – Nick Kupper
LD26 Senate – Jim Bishop
LD26 House – Jonathon McKenna (Good reputation; appears to be a superb candidate)
LD26 House – Frank Roberts
LD27 Senate – Anthony Kern
LD27 House – Lisa Fink
LD28 House – Beverly Pingerelli
LD28 House – You choose (Many in LD28 question why Heather Rooks is running for State House when the body largely feels the incumbents are doing a good job. David Livingston’s score is not as conservative as others in the state legislature but w Toma he helped to create the 2.5% flat tax, Universal ESA pushing Ducey to accept it, led legislation to pass $1.4 billion tax cut, created “rainy day” fund that never existed in AZ, led the way to pay off $2.5 billion in debt, kept Hobbs contained from financial pet projects…he’s an accomplished state legislator but it appears AZ Free Enterprise Club & Turning Point Action feel they’ll get even more conservative votes out of Rooks. Some in LD28 have expressed concerns about Rooks being a divisive force to LD28 instead of a uniting force, pointing out Rooks has cost the school district a lot of money and lost every lawsuit. Rooks has shown herself as a fighter but not as a fighter who gets the desired results is the feedback we’re getting.)
LD29 Senate – Janae Shamp 
LD29 House – James Taylor
LD29 House – Steve Montenegro (He’s currently Speaker of the House & we’ve had serious issues w his leadership. While we desire to have a Republican majority and are supporting his candidacy for House as a result, we don’t support his reelection as Speaker for next session.  Too many compromises for special interests against local constituents. The most egregious last session was providing the company Axon unprecedented access to the House and then bringing a bill to the floor & passing it which violates the spirit of the AZ Constitution where bills aren’t supposed to be crafted to help one company in one region particularly at the expense of municipal rights enflaming an already bad situation where Axon was getting special treatment over other developers in Scottsdale and going against a signed referendum by Scottsdale residents.  Passing the Axon bill has only emboldened Axon from thinking it can own our state legislature for what it wants to Axon supporting a PAC smearing the our conservative constituent serving Scottsdale City Council members.  Axon should have never gotten what it did from the state legislature and that is a failure of principled leadership by the Speaker of the House.)
LD30 Senate – Leo Biasiucci
LD30 House – David Rose
LD30 House – Mike Gannuscio or Grace Hecht? (We’re told Mike Gannuscio is the more conservative of the two though Grace is not any sort of leftist. We ruled out Lopez-Ranjaniemi in part because her meeting with Kris Mayes has many speculating she supports the Green New Deal. We’re hearing Caroline Strecker is accomplished and young but leans anti-Israel.  Feel free to confirm this information yourselves.)

Maricopa County
Clerk of the Superior Court – Jeff Dial

Chandler City Mayor – Jeff Weninger
Chandler City Council – Lisa Askey & Ron Hardin
Chandler Unified School District – Sindi Martinez-Reich

Fountain Hills Mayor – Jerry Friedel
Fountain Hills City Council – Ben Larabee, Mathew Corrigan & Dan Kovacevic 

Glendale City Council Barrel District – Michael Calles

McDowell Mountain Justice of the Peace – Michele Reagan

Mesa City Council District 4 – Ray Johnson
Mesa City Council District 5 – Aleks Vranicic
Mesa Unified School District – Rachel Walden

Phoenix City Council – Matt Evans (District 2), Zach Lauer (District 4), Michael DelPrete (District 6) & Frank Abasciano Jr. (District 8)

Scottsdale City Council – Barry Graham, Bob Littlefield & Michelle Ugenti-Rita (It has been outrageous to see a PAC called “Better Together” be funded by Axon related interests to smear our best conservative constituent serving candidates who have a proven meritocracy track record of prioritizing constituents, each having been in office to know how they vote.  Axon wants to control the City of Scottsdale instead residents controlling it.  Axon is not being a good neighbor and what’s worse is they are supporting the Democrats running for Scottsdale City Council because they’ll bend a knee to Axon but in their “Better Together” ads against Bob Littlefield they dishonestly visually tie Bob Littlefield who has been a staunch Republican throughout his life to Joe Biden in the ad. The tyrannical tendencies of Axon & the dishonesty is jaw dropping when you understand what’s happening.  If the Dems took control you’d have higher expenses to replace trash cans with smaller ones for the New Green Deal agenda like Dems did in CA and you’d have the city run by DEI instead of a meritocracy.  We need a strong turnout for Barry Graham, Bob Littlefield & Michelle Ugenti-Rita as a rebuke to what Axon & the Dems are attempting to do to Scottsdale. You can also trust Barry Graham, Bob Littlefield & Michelle Ugenti-Rita to restrict overdevelopment so you don’t need shower and drink water from toilet to tap like Democrat Solange Whitehead has been advocating for, nicknamed “Sewage Solange.”)
Scottsdale Unified School District – Amy Carney & Jeanne Beasley

Mohave County
Justice of the Peace Lake Havasu, Justice Precinct 2 – Jennifer Brodie
Justice of the Peace Bullhead, Justice Precinct 3 – Robert J. Heieck
Justice of the Peace North Canyon, Justice Precinct 4 – Robert H McEuen
Justice of the Peace Cerbat, Justice Precinct 5 – David Jay Wayt
Kingman Constable, Justice Precinct 1 – Timothy F. Griepp
Lake Havasu Constable, Justice Precinct 2 – Martin Standsberry
Bullhead Constable, Justice Precinct 3 – John Deese
North Canyon Constable, Justice Precinct 4 – Michael K. Hoggard
Cerbat Constable, Justice Precinct 5 – Edward John Carman

Kingman Mayor – Ken Watkins
Kingman City Council – Smiley Ward, Jim Dykens & Shawn Savage

Navajo County
Snowflake Mayor – Byron Lewis

Pima County
Marana Town Mayor – Jon Post
Marana Town Council – Herb Kai, John Officer, Teri Murphy, & Write in Jackie Craig 

If you’d like other opinions on ballot recommendations & endorsements, here are some links to proven conservative clubs (who may not also push as hard for a meritocracy culture as we do):
https://www.crimsonsaguaro.org/ (Specializes in the northeast valley of Maricopa County)
https://freedomclubpac.com/endorsements/ (Specializes in all things Arizona & does a great job of doing weekly zoom type calls on Friday afternoons and texts for calls to action to keep grassroots informed and engaged in a constructive way.)
https://www.tpaction.com/endorsements (Impressive building from one election cycle to another tools, funding and endorsements to drive a conservative agenda.  From time to time at odds with a meritocracy perhaps to cut a political deal or donor preference but by & large very aligned with our own political efforts and policy agenda.)

In the general election for October/November, these will be the ballot measures sent to voters by our Republican State Legislature to decide:
HCR2001 (https://apps.azleg.gov/BillStatus/BillOverview/83527)
citizenship; identification; contributions; early voting
HCR2003 (https://apps.azleg.gov/BillStatus/BillOverview/83656)
interscholastic; intramural athletics; biological sex
HCR2040 (https://apps.azleg.gov/BillStatus/BillOverview/84619)
NOW: school districts; labor organizations; resources
HCR2044 (https://apps.azleg.gov/BillStatus/BillOverview/84743)
preferential treatment; discrimination; prohibited acts
SCR1004 (https://apps.azleg.gov/BillStatus/BillOverview/83695)
NOW: photo enforcement systems; voter approval
SCR1032 (https://apps.azleg.gov/BillStatus/BillOverview/85012)
educator salary increases; school reporting (NOW: instructional expenses; operational spending; enforcement)
HCR2048 (https://apps.azleg.gov/BillStatus/BillOverview/85271)
NOW: military families; scholarship accounts