Arizona’s 2nd legislative district covers a portion of north Phoenix from 43rd Avenue to State Route 51, and from Thunderbird Road to several miles north of the Deer Valley Airport.
As part of our efforts to help inform and empower voters as the 2022 election approaches, The Copper Courier is creating an overview of local races throughout the state, along with access to tools Arizonans need to find out how to vote, who will be on their ballot, and what they can do to participate in the upcoming election.
Bookmark this page for the latest information about Arizona’s 2nd legislative district. The Primary Election will be held Aug. 2, and the General Election is Nov. 8.
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State Senate
The races for seats in the Arizona Senate and House of Representatives have condensed a bit, with one Republican and Democrat each vying to represent Phoenix in the state senate, and two Republicans and one Democrat running for a spot in the house.
Arizona’s 2nd legislative district covers a portion of north Phoenix from 43rd Avenue to State Route 51, and from Thunderbird Road to several miles north of the Deer Valley Airport.
Steve Kaiser
Arizona Rep. Kaiser has been in office since early 2021. He initially ran for office in 2010, but lost in the Republican primary.
Kaiser sponsored HB 2161, a bill that he claims affirms parents’ right to their children’s counseling records, but language in the bill also gives parents the right to sue teachers for impeding the “upbringing, education, healthcare, and mental health” of their kids.
The bill can effectively force schools to tell parents if their children have confided in a counselor that they are gay or transgender.
Kaiser also voted in favor of HB 2289, the so-called “One Day, One Vote” bill, that would largely eliminate absentee and mail-in voting for the large majority of Arizonans.
Jeanne Casteen
Casteen is a Democrat and former member of the Creighton Elementary School District Governing Board.
Her campaign site lists education, increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and women’s reproductive rights as her top three priorities.
Casteen lost a close race for Maricopa County School Superintendent to Steve Watson in 2020 by roughly 12,000 votes, or 0.7 percent.
State House
Judy Schwiebert
Rep. Schwiebert has been in her seat since 2020. Before running for office, she worked as a public school teacher in the Valley for nearly 30 years.
She supports using Arizona’s budget surplus to increase education funding, invest in manufacturing infrastructure, build shelters for the homeless, and expand access to broadband internet, all without raising taxes.
Schwiebert is against vouchers for charter and private schools and instead wants to expand funding for Arizona’s public schools.
She has also called for gun safety measures to be passed in the state legislature.
Christian Lamar
Lamar is a self-described “election truther,” which means he believes the 2020 general election was stolen, despite no evidence supporting widespread fraud.
He wants to decertify President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in Arizona, something that is not legally possible.
On his campaign website, he has a section with 10 “top issues” that voters in LD2 care about, according to him. Out of those 10, nine are related to the voting and election process.
Lamar also notes that he wants to suspend all forms of immigration until it is determined how many undocumented workers live in the United States. Suspending all immigration would be disastrous for the US economy.
Pierce Waychoff
Waychoff’s campaign site claims Arizona leadership overreached during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I opposed the original mandates requiring gyms and restaurants to close,” the site says.
Over 30,000 Arizonans died of COVID-19. Almost 1 out of every 200 Arizonans died of COVID over the past two years.
“No matter what unreal arguments liberals in Washington come up with, defunding the police and abandoning border security is a real recipe for disaster,” Waychoff’s site says.
It should be noted that,despite rhetoric espoused by Waychoff and many Republicans, President Joe Biden has said “fund the police” several times, including at his 2022 State of the Union address.
Phoenix’s mayor, Democrat Kate Gallego, also said “we are going to fund the police” at her 2022 State of the City address.
Justin Wilmeth
Rep. Justin Wilmeth ran office in 2020 and won for the first time in Arizona. He graduated from Arizona State University and previously worked in Oklahoma.
During his time in the Arizona house, Wilmeth voted in favor of eliminating absentee and early voting for the vast majority of Arizonans.
He also voted in favor of the anti-LGBT HB 2161.
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Robert Gundran Robert Gundran grew up in the Southwest, spending equal time in the Valley and Southern California throughout his life. He graduated from Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism in 2018 and wrote for The Arizona Republic and The Orange County Register.
