Legislative Elections
The District DeskLegislative District 2
Debate availableLD2 · 2-Year Term
Population
253,802
Registered Voters
132,115
District Lean
R+9.1
Voter Registration Breakdown
General Election Debate
Legislative District 2 General Election Debate
State Senate
Shawnna Bolick
Republican · Senate
Shawnna Bolick served in the state House from 2019 to 2022, then lost a Republican primary for secretary of state. Maricopa County supervisors appointed her to the Senate in 2023 after Steve Kaiser resigned; she won a full term in 2024 over Democrat Judy Schwiebert. Since returning she has had 36 bills signed into law, mostly on criminal justice and prison oversight. She voted to repeal the 1864 abortion ban, then opposed the 2024 abortion-rights measure. She is married to Arizona Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick.
Prominent Endorsements
Amelia Gallitano-Mendel
Democrat · Senate
Completed the Agenda's candidate questionnaire
Amelia Gallitano-Mendel is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who holds an endowed professorship at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix, researching schizophrenia genetics. She has not held elected office; Judy Schwiebert, Bolick's 2024 opponent, recruited her into the race, and she won the Democratic primary over Dan Toporek. She gathered signatures for a voucher-oversight initiative courts kept off the ballot, and she would limit corporate home buying and make the data-center tax-incentive pause permanent. She says she follows "evidence, not ideology."
Prominent Endorsements
State House
Stephanie Simacek
Democrat · House
Stephanie Simacek, a teacher, sits on the Deer Valley Unified School District board. In her first term she sponsored only a handful of bills, none of which became law, pushing accountability measures for the Empowerment Scholarship Account voucher program and local control over short-term rentals. She calls most of this year's ballot propositions a "wolf in sheep's clothing."
Prominent Endorsements
Justin Wilmeth
Republican · House
Justin Wilmeth, a former Oklahoma news writer and Americans for Prosperity deputy state director, has served in the House since 2021. He chairs a new Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Committee, and Gov. Katie Hobbs has signed 11 of his bills, including one making Pluto the state planet. He put Proposition 138, the tipped-worker measure, on the 2024 ballot, where voters rejected it 3-to-1, and he joined Democrats to repeal the 1864 abortion ban.
Prominent Endorsements
Paul Carver
Republican · House
Paul Carver was elected to the Deer Valley Unified School District board in 2022 and is its president. He entered the House race as a write-in during the primary election and qualified for the general election ballot. From April 2021 to June 2022 he was registered agent for the Arizona chapter of the Union of Three Percenter American Patriots, and he deleted a Facebook post suggesting he was at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.