Tag: Arizona Freedom Caucus

Arizona Bipartisan Budget Deal Reached; Freedom Caucus Takes Principled Stand

Christy Kelly
Arizona Capitol

Late Saturday night, lawmakers signed a controversial budget deal, which is now on its way to Governor Katie Hobbs where she is anticipated to sign it. Hobbs, House Speaker Ben Toma (R-Glendale), and Senate President Warren Peterson (R-LD12) negotiated this bipartisan agreement, excluding both Democratic leadership and Freedom Caucus members from the negotiation table.

Republican leadership praised the Arizona Fiscal Year 2025 state budget for its conservative fiscal discipline, addressing a $1.4 billion shortfall without raising taxes, and prioritizing public safety and school choice.

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Arizona Supreme Court Upholds Arizona’s 1864 Law Banning Almost All Abortions

Rachel Alexander
Abortion Supporters

The Arizona Supreme Court issued a 4-2 ruling Tuesday upholding Arizona’s 1864 territorial ban on all abortion unless necessary to save the mother’s life, A.R.S. 13-3603. After the Arizona Legislature passed a law in 2022 banning abortions after 15 weeks except to save the mother’s life, A.R.S. 36-2322, Planned Parenthood challenged the older law, which was revived after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.

Planned Parenthood alleged that the two laws were in conflict, so the earlier law must be struck down. After a split between the lower courts, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld the law, finding that the two statutes were harmonious. The court relied upon legislative language accompanying the newer law, which said it did not supersede the earlier law. Both laws penalize the provider of the abortion, not the mother.

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State Representative Justin Heap Enters Race for Maricopa County Recorder, Cites 300,000 Disenfranchised Republican Voters in 2022

Rachel Alexander
Justin Heap

State Representative Justin Heap (R-Mesa) announced at the State Capitol during a press conference on Wednesday that he will enter the Republican primary race for Maricopa County Recorder, challenging incumbent Stephen Richer.

Richer has come under extensive criticism for maintaining that there were only minor problems during the 2022 election, fighting back through the courts against attempts to obtain public records about the election and other related election integrity lawsuits.

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Arizona Freedom Caucus Confirms Plan by Gov. Hobbs to ‘Dismantle’ School Choice is ‘Dead on Arrival’

Tom Pappert

The Arizona Freedom Caucus, parents, and activists rallied on Monday at the Arizona Capitol Lawn against the plan recently unveiled by Governor Katie Hobbs (D) they warned would “dismantle” Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs), the popular school choice program that boasts more than 70,000 students. Organizers planned the rally to coincide with the first day of the 2024 legislative session in Arizona.

Arizona Freedom Caucus founder Senator Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), who spoke at the rally, told The Arizona Sun Times, “I have a message for Katie Hobbs on behalf of the Arizona Freedom Caucus and every legislative Republican: your attempt to destroy educational opportunities for more than 74,000 Arizona children is dead on arrival at the legislature.”

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State Senator Justine Wadsack Victorious After Recall Petition Fails, Reports Zero Signatures in Four Months

Tom Pappert

State Senator Justine Wadsack (R-Tucson) emerged victorious after the recall petition against her failed, with activists returning zero petitions to the government. Wadsack, speaking to The Arizona Sun Times, thanked her supporters in Legislative District 17 for becoming her surrogates through the process.

Wadsack said in a press release that “the far left so-called ‘recall effort’ in LD17 has failed” to return “a single signature” by the September 5 deadline, and said their failure “amounts to a third electoral victory after being nominated in 2022 and then elected in November.” She added that the recall “was never a serious effort” but rather “a 4-month social media campaign with little to no ground game.”

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Arizona Legislature Sends Modified Prop. 400 Tax Increase Extension to Hobbs to Sign, Dividing Conservative Republicans

Rachel Alexander

The Arizona Legislature resumed session this week to redraft a bill to extend Prop. 400 sales tax for public transportation. Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed an earlier version of SB 1102 that conservative legislators supported. The new version satisfied some of the conservatives in the legislature but not all of them and was sent to Hobbs.

The Arizona Freedom Caucus (AFC) issued a lengthy statement denouncing the bill and the Republicans who supported it. AFC said the earlier version would have sent the tax increase to the voters as a referendum broke down into two questions: whether to extend the tax to pay for roads and whether to extend the tax to pay for public transportation. SB 1102 combines both into one question for voters.

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State Freedom Caucus Calls on Arizona Library Association to Leave the American Library Association

Hannah Poling

The Arizona Freedom Caucus called on the Arizona Library Association to cut ties with the “woke, extremist” American Library Association (ALA).

The American Library Association is the world’s oldest and largest library association. The association states its strategic advocacy directions include literacy, diversity, and equity of access, information policy and intellectual freedom, and professional and leadership development.

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Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs Second Least Popular Governor in America, Poll Says

Hannah Poling

Democratic Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs came in as the second least popular governor in America, according to a new Morning Consult poll.

The poll detailed that among samples of registered voters in each state surveyed, Hobbs had the second-lowest favorable rating in the country at a mere 40 percent, barely avoiding last place by beating out Democratic Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, who garnered a 39 percent favorable rating.

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State Senator Wadsack Says Arizona Families Tax Rebate Coming This Fall

Hannah Poling

Arizona State Senator Justine Wadsack (R-Tucson) is encouraging families that the “Arizona Families Tax Rebate,” a part of the $17.8 billion state budget approved by Governor Katie Hobbs on May 15th, is expected to be sent out sometime this fall.

The Arizona Families Tax Rebate, championed by Arizona Senate Republicans and the Arizona Freedom Caucus will allow Arizona families to receive up to $750 in rebates based on 2021 tax returns.

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Arizona Freedom Caucus Blasts Federal Debt Ceiling Deal, Calls for Better Results for Americans

Neil Jones

The Arizona Freedom Caucus (AFC), a group of conservative-minded state lawmakers, released a statement Tuesday, blasting the debt ceiling limit deal made between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as a bad deal for the people of this nation.

“It should be obvious that Americans can’t afford to be saddled with yet more national debt. Given the $31.8 trillion national debt, growing by the second, prudence long ago dictated that getting spending under strict controls is non-discretionary; our runaway debt imposed by a lack of fiscal discipline at the federal level is nothing less than a national security threat,” according to the AFC’s joint statement.

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State Legislators Say Ranked Choice Voting Will Only Cause Problems If Implemented in Arizona

Neil Jones
Woman voting at booth

The Arizona Freedom Caucus (AFC) released a statement Tuesday, allowing several members to speak out against Ranked Choice Voting (RVC) in Arizona and promote two bills that would prohibit it in the state.

“RCV may not always result in the candidate with the most first-choice votes winning the election,” said AFC Member Senator Anthony Kern (R-Glendale). “I am aware that there are groups in Arizona advocating for RCV, but this will only lead to chaos, and we must ensure that our constituents have easy and fair access to the ballot box.”

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Arizona Freedom Caucus Calls for Removal of ‘Racist’ Scottsdale School District Superintendent Who Still Hasn’t Been Fired

Rachel Alexander

Last month, all three Scottsdale legislators called for the termination of Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) Superintendent Scott Menzel after “racist” comments he made about white people in 2019 were reported in the media. Since no action has been taken, the Arizona Freedom Caucus (AFC) held a press conference last Thursday demanding the school board fire him. 

State Sen. Joseph Chaplik (R-Scottsdale), said, “Superintendent Menzel has chosen to publicly conduct himself in such an unbecoming manner that a critical mass of parents in the district do not have confidence in his ability to be responsible and effectively lead our children.” 

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Arizona State Legislature Officially Lifts Spending Cap on Public Schools After Senate Vote

Neil Jones

The Arizona State Senate has officially passed Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) 1009, sponsored by Sen. Ken Bennett (R-Prescott), which lifts the spending limits placed on public schools by the aggregate expenditure limit. This lifting will allow schools to spend a nearly $1.4 billion surplus in allocated funds.

“Senate Republicans have an uninterrupted history of always allowing our K-12 public schools to spend the money appropriated to them by the Legislature, and this year is no different,” said Bennett. “By far, our public education system receives the most money annually from our state budget.”

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Arizona Freedom Caucus Takes Stand on Lifting School Spending Limit: Only If it Comes with Reforms

Neil Jones
Students on the floor in the classroom, listening to the teacher read

The Arizona Freedom Caucus (AFC) announced it would take a stand against lifting the highly contested aggregate expenditure limit (AEL), which puts a cap on public school spending unless it comes with systemic reform.

“Fiscal responsibility is a foundational tenant of good governance, and the legislature has a fiduciary duty to our constituents to ensure that their tax dollars are spent as efficiently and responsibly as possible. Unfortunately, despite years of record high education funding from legislative Republicans, government-run school districts continue to increase class sizes, strip teachers of critically needed classroom resources, and force feed a far-left worldview on children,” according to the AFC.

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Arizona Freedom Caucus Vows to File Litigation Against Gov. Katie Hobbs for Alleged Illegal Executive Orders

Neil Jones

PHOENIX, Arizona – Monday marked the opening day for the 56th Legislative Session, but before getting down to business, the Arizona Freedom Caucus (AFC) and a group of Republican Legislators from the House and Senate met with the press to state they would be filing a lawsuit against Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D).

“It’s become a modern phenomenon for Executive Branches across the country to try and legislate via executive order. We saw it with Barack Obama. We see it now with Joe Biden. And now, seemingly, Katie Hobbs, she also believes that she has the ability to legislate with the power of the pen, attempting to create law that simply does not exist,” said State Sen. Jake Hoffman (Queen Creek).

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Arizona Freedom Caucus Demands Resignation of Maricopa County Officials Following 2022 General Election

Neil Jones

The Arizona Freedom Caucus (AFC) blasted Maricopa County Election Officials for allegedly breaking the law during this election cycle and demanded that the officials involved resign from their positions.

“After taking an absurd and unnecessary amount of time to count ballots, we are now finding Maricopa County election officials may not merely be incompetent but may also be criminals,” said AFC Chairman, State Rep. Jack Hoffman (R-Maricopa).

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Arizona State House Republicans Launch New Caucus

Rachel Alexander

Following in the footsteps of the federal Congressional House Freedom Caucus, legislators in the Arizona House have started an Arizona Freedom Caucus. A group of conservative lawmakers announced during a press conference last week that nearly a third of the Arizona House’s 31 Republicans have already joined it. 

The founding chairman is State Rep. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), who said he was humbled to “to lead them in battle against the left and the establishment GOP that refuses to answer to the will of the people and instead chooses to answer to special interests and lobbyists’ groups that reside down here — they fill the halls.” 

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