2 Tucson state legislators face challenge in GOP primary

Three candidates are running in the July 30 Republican primary for the Arizona House in District 17: Incumbent Reps. Rachel Jones and Cory McGarr and businesswoman Anna Orth. Two out of the three will move forward to the general election.

In November, the winners will face Kevin Volk, who is running unopposed in the Democratic primary for House nomination in that district.

Here are the candidates:

Rachel Jones Rachel Jones is the mother of five kids and has been a resident of Arizona for 17 years.

According to her campaign website, Jones earned a degree in business management from Metropolitan State University of Denver, and spent her career as a business executive at the third largest UPS facility in the country. Before being elected to the Legislature she was also a teacher and a preschool director.

“Her time in business formed a strong, calculated, and passionate leader, who now hopes to continue utilizing her experience to identify problems, execute solutions, and deliver results in the State House in Phoenix,” Jones’s campaign website says.

She was elected to the House in 2022 and is seeking reelection.

According to her campaign website, her primary policy objectives focus on border security, election security, and Arizona’s economy.

“During session I fought for states rights regarding law enforcement and vaccine mandates. I believe in funding state and local law enforcement, so that they’re able to help our Border Patrol Agents secure the border. I also believe in protecting children in the foster care system, especially since my three adopted children were adopted out of foster care. I believe in lower taxes and regulation. I also believe that the school counselors and social workers should not be indoctrinating our children in public schools,” her campaign page says.

She has supported legislation seeking to amend election policies, including House Bill 2543 which would have repealed no-excuse voting by mail within the state, House Bill 2547 which would have forbid the use of voting centers in addition to or as a replacement for specifically designated polling places, according to VoteSmart.org, and House Bill 2787, which would have allowed elected officials to access all source codes of voting equipment.

She received scrutiny earlier this year for proposing legislation that would have awarded Arizona’s 11 electoral votes to the Republican presidential nominee in the November election if Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs refused to sign Republican-led voting security measures.

She also co-sponsored legislation aimed at controlling immigration, including House Bill 2748, which would have established illegal entry into the state of Arizona via unspecified locations as a misdemeanor, and re-entry after exclusion, deportation, or removal as a felony, according to Bill Track 50.

Other policies listed on Jones’ website include “fighting for parental rights,” “fighting the woke agenda in schools,” “defending the 2nd Amendment” and “fighting for the unborn.”

“I am a fighter for the people, not lobbyists; For Arizonans, not out-of-state interests,” Jones says on her campaign website.

She was unavailable for further comment.

Cory McGarr Cory McGarr found his purpose in life in his Christian faith, his campaign website says.

He has four children with his wife Rebecca, an Arizona native, and before his time in the Legislature, he worked for a local pest control company.

He was born in 1988 in southern New Jersey. After moving to Tucson, he got involved with local pro-family groups and began attending legislative district meetings, the website says. He was elected to the House in 2022.

“I promised to be a conservative fighter for Arizona families and not special interests. In Phoenix, that’s what I’ve done and I’m running again to continue my promise,” McGarr’s campaign page says.

He lists his focuses as pro-family, pro-life and religious liberty.

“Cory is a constitutional conservative who believes that the best government is that which governs least and that its sole purpose should be to protect the rights and freedoms of the individual.”

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In the Legislature, he has pushed for legislation aimed at cutting taxes, reforming border security and changing election policies.

He co-sponsored legislation including House Bill 2544, which would have prohibited voting by mail within the state, according to Bill Track 50. He sponsored House Bill 2786, which sought to introduce new guidelines for presidential candidate nominations, including requiring presidential aspirants to submit a nomination paper between 100 and 130 days before the presidential preference election. The bill also stipulated that if a candidate is disqualified from another state’s ballot, the nominee and the nominee’s electors would not appear on Arizona’s ballot and any votes cast for a disqualified candidate would not be counted, according to Bill Track 50.

Another bill McGarr sponsored was House Bill 2469, which amends the voting law in Arizona to specify that the officer in charge of elections should compare the signature on the early voter’s ballot with that on the voter’s registration record, and deems both a voter’s registration record and early ballot affidavit as public records available to any candidate or person upon request, according to Bill Track 50.

His campaign website also says he has worked to “defend parental rights,” including efforts to “Ban Drag Shows for Minors, Ban Hormones and Puberty Blockers for Minors, and Ban Critical Race Theory and Diversity Programs from Our Schools.”

McGarr co-sponsored House Bill 2657, which outlined the rights parents have to direct and oversee their child’s education, upbringin, and health care. These include obtaining information concerning any child safety services investigations, accessing to the child’s medical and academic records, making health-care decisions for the minor child, and more, according to Bill Track 50.

He was also a co-sponsor House Bill 2657, which would have prevented disciplinary or adverse employment action for teachers and employees of school districts or charter schools for behaviors such as informing parents of information about a student, declining to address individuals using pronouns inconsistent with their biological sex, and engaging in religious expression or discussions. The bill also sought to give protections for teachers sponsoring or participating in religious student clubs, wearing religious clothing or jewelry that conformed with existing dress codes, and decorating personal spaces with items reflecting their religious beliefs.

McGarr declined to comment for this article.

Anna Orth:Anna Orth is a 4th generation Tucsonan and a businesswoman with over 30 years of experience as an organizational behavior consultant.

Orth is a graduate of both the University of Arizona and Grand Canyon University, and earned her master’s degree in organizational psychology. She and her husband Steve have three grown children, and Orth has spent years working and volunteering in the community.

Orth said she made the decision to run for representative after volunteering at a ballot processing center in 2019.

“I just became aware of how much help we need in our elections,” she said. “We need to be able to trust our voting process, the one thing that we hold dear as Americans, and there’s been so much concern about whether ballots were valid, whether they counted.”

According to Orth’s campaign website, her priorities are to “clean up our elections, secure the border, push back against Biden’s overreach, and defend rights, from school choice to medical decisions.”

“I think the most important thing is that we have leadership that our district and our state can rely on to make effective, common sense decisions that are the kind of solutions that can actually get things through the Senate and the governor to get them signed,” she said. “There’s been so much disparity between the parties that I felt what I do for a living would be valuable at the state level, because I think it’s important to be able to sit down across the table and discuss an issue, but more importantly, as a conservative, I’d like to be that conservative voice for my district.”

As a legislator Orth said she would focus on supporting all border security efforts, and making sure taxpayer-funded benefits aren’t misused for immigration.

“We are a border state directly affected by the things that are decided upon on the federal level, but we need to have a handle on it,” she said. “Our citizens need to know that our social services are being used appropriately and carefully.”

Water management is another top issue for Orth.

“In Southern Arizona, we’re always having to be focused on water conservation,” she said. “I want to be able to represent our Tucson, and our Southern Arizona constituents who are greatly affected by the decisions made on water up at the state level.”

As a business owner, Orth said her economic focus is on supporting small businesses.

“It is the engine of our economy here in Arizona, so making sure that we don’t have stifling regulations or taxes or policies that strain them,” she said. “My goal would be to focus on making sure that we have limited governmental constraints over our businesses.”

As a candidate Orth says there are several things that set her apart from the others.

“I’m the only fourth generation Tucson, so I have a unique understanding, because of my legacy here, how legislation has affected Southern Arizona throughout decades,” she said. “I have the knowledge, the skill sets, the experience, and I have the trust of the community to be able to feel like I can represent them, not only effectively and knowledgeably, but with honor and integrity.”