The Citizens Clean Elections Commission sponsors statewide and legislative debates. Only contested races will have a debate. Additionally, debates will only occur if there is a participating Clean Elections candidate or upon the request of a traditional candidate. All debates and times are subject to change.
You can email your question by clicking the button below. Just be sure to indicate what district debate your question is for and if the question is for a particular candidate or everyone. If the button doesn't open an email for you automatically please send questions with the district number and the words "Debate Question" in the subject line to: [email protected]
Any person with a disability may request accommodation, such as a sign language interpreter, by contacting the Commission at (602) 364-3477 or [email protected] Requests should be made as early as possible to allow time to arrange accommodations.
Rachel Leingang is the co-founder of the Arizona Agenda, a Substack newsletter about Arizona government and politics. She has covered government, politics and higher education in Arizona since 2015, first at the Arizona Capitol Times, then The Arizona Republic, where she most recently wrote government accountability stories with an eye for those impacted and a focus on problem-solving. She has a master’s degree from Arizona State University, which is how she ended up here in 2012.
Hank Stephenson
Biography
Hank Stephenson is the co-founder of the Arizona Agenda, a Substack newsletter about Arizona government and politics. He has written about Arizona for national outlets like The New York Times, Politico Magazine and Columbia Journalism Review. But he’s a community reporter at heart. He was most recently editor and meme-maker at Yellow Sheet Report, a political tipsheet and gossip rag. He has covered Arizona politics and government since 2008.
Biography
Gary has been a journalist since 1994 and worked at two other newspapers in the Valley before joining the Arizona Capitol Times in 2010. Gary, a Valley resident since 1988, spent 13 years at the Pulitzer Prize-winning East Valley Tribune, where he covered courts, public safety and municipal government. He won third place for Best News Story in the 2008 Arizona Newspapers Association Better Newspapers Contest for a story about a jailhouse interview with a mass murderer, and he has won multiple first-place awards or investigative stories at the Capitol Times. At the Chandler Independent, he covered municipal government for three years. Gary is a graduate of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, a die-hard Denver Broncos fan and avid runner.
Biography
Wayne is a Phoenix native who cut his teeth covering cities and local communities at newspapers throughout the Valley, including the Scottsdale Progress, East Valley Tribune, Gilbert Sun News and Arcadia News. As managing editor, he oversaw the successful 2018 relaunch of the Scottsdale Progress, a celebrated local newspaper that first went into publication in the 1940s. During his two years at the Progress, Wayne won the Arizona Press Club’s 2020 community breaking news award for his on-the-ground coverage of the Scottsdale Fashion Square riot. He was also recognized by the Arizona Press Club for his year-round coverage of Scottsdale schools during the Covid-19 pandemic and for his 2019 investigative report on Opportunity Zones in Scottsdale.
Biography
Nathan covers the Arizona House of Representatives for the
Arizona Capitol Times. He started his journalism career
covering various beats at the Adirondack Daily Enterprise
and the Times Herald-Record in upstate New York, getting
his start at political reporting by covering two heated and close special congressional
elections in 2009. He moved west in 2015, covering the Idaho Legislature for
newspapers in Twin Falls and Idaho Falls. He was also one of the lead reporters
covering a debate over whether to shut down the refugee resettlement center in Twin
Falls that divided the community and drew international attention after a young girl was
sexually assaulted by three refugee boys. He moved to Arizona at the start of the 2021
Legislative session. Nathan has won numerous journalism awards over the course of
his career, including ones from the Associated Press for his coverage of a courthouse
shooting in New York and the creation of a new wilderness area in Idaho and first-place
awards from the Idaho Press Club for his reporting on refugee resettlement, state
politics and environmental issues.
Biography
Kyra covers education and the judiciary for the Arizona
Capitol Times. She grew up in Kansas and attended the
University of Missouri, earning bachelor’s degrees in
journalism and political science. She spent fall of 2020 as the
long-term substitute journalism adviser for Free State High School in Kansas, overseeing
three student publications and teaching introductory classes. Before her teaching detour,
she covered education and local government for The Visalia Times-Delta in California’s
San Joaquin Valley. Kyra has also worked as a summer Pulliam Fellow at The Arizona
Republic. During college, she spent a semester covering the 2018 midterm elections as a
fact-checking intern at PolitiFact. Kyra’s story on the shortcomings of Missouri’s adult
abuse hotline won a 2020 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award and a Society of
Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award, both for investigative reporting. In
2019, her story about autism caregivers won a Regional Murrow for excellence in video.
Biography
Camryn is the state senate reporter for the Arizona
Capitol Times. She was raised in the San Francisco Bay
area and recently earned her bachelor’s degree from
Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y. In college,
Camryn studied journalism and was the news editor for her school paper, The
Phoenix. She interned at Telegraph Media in Oakland, Calif. and ELLE Magazine in
New York in 2019. Camryn also reported for the Yonkers Times in Yonkers, N.Y.
She spent the summer with the Arizona Republic as a Pulliam fellow. She can be
found in the newsroom drinking coffee and welcomes tips at any time.
Biography
Nick covers the governor’s office and state executive
branch for the Capitol Times. Before moving to
Phoenix, he reported for the Nogales International,
covering the city government, the U.S.-Mexico border
and everything in between. Prior to that, he lived and worked in Argentina. He
speaks fluent Spanish. Nick received more than a dozen awards from the Arizona
Press Club and Arizona Newspaper Association for his work in Nogales and was
twice named runner-up Community Journalist of the Year by the AZPC.
Biography
Dan Shearer is editor of the Green Valley News and Sahuarita Sun in Southern Arizona, and is the editorial director for Wick Communications, which has media interests in 11 states. He has been a senior editor at The Arizona Republic and has worked in newsrooms in California and Texas.
