Shawnna Bolick, a former state legislator who tried to classify abortion-related healthcare as a homicide, is back at the Capitol. She was selected by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
Bolick was the frontrunner for the appointment, as the other two candidates were seen as being too extreme.
The Maricopa County supervisors had to choose a replacement from among three candidates selected by the vacated district’s precinct committeemen. The nominees had to be from the same party as the legislator being replaced.
The board chose Bolick to serve out the rest of state Sen. Steve Kaiser’s term, representing Legislative District 2, which covers parts of north Phoenix from Deer Valley to Paradise Valley.
Kaiser resigned in June, less than six months into his first term in the state Senate. Prior to that, he served one term in the House.
Kaiser reportedly resigned last month to run a nonprofit policy group he founded.
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Bolick’s tenure in the legislature is one marked with controversy. In addition to being opposed to abortion services to the point of wanting the procedure to be considered murder, she also authored legislation that would have allowed state lawmakers to override the presidential choice of Arizona voters with a simple majority, and signed a letter to Mike Pence in 2020, asking him to overturn the presidential election results.
She also signed on to a letter to Congress asking them to accept the 11 “alternate” electoral votes for Trump or to have all of the state’s electoral votes “nullified completely until a full forensic audit can be conducted.”
Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates said that Bolick has moved on from the 2020 and 2022 elections. Gates has been a fierce defender of Maricopa County’s election process—and as a result, he and his family have received death threats, and he even had to go into hiding.
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But Jerod MacDonal-Evoy of the Arizona Mirror recently found some online posts from Bolick that go against what she told Gates, including calling the County’s election department “bogus,” calling the 2020 election “rigged” as recently as last May, and even using the hashtag “Jail the Supervisors” – which would include Gates.
Bolick also appears not to recognize Gov. Katie Hobbs the governor of Arizona, instead referring to her as the “occupant” of the governor’s office.
“We believe Ms. Bolick will be an incredible asset to her constituents, Maricopa County and the state as a whole,” Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen said in a statement Wednesday.
If Bolick runs to keep her seat in 2024, she will face a tough challenge from Democratic Rep. Judy Schwiebert, who has already served in the state legislature for several years.
CONTINUE READING: Gov. Hobbs Vetoes Personhood Bill That Would Have Further Criminalized Abortion
Camaron Stevenson Camaron is the Founding Editor and Chief Political Correspondent for The Copper Courier, and has worked as a journalist in Phoenix for over a decade. He also teaches multimedia journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
