By Ray Stern || The Arizona Republic
About 840,000 voters in five Arizona legislative districts will shoulder a heavy responsibility this November.
The decisions they make on who to send to the Legislature will have an outsized effect on what happens at the state Capitol over the next two years.
The districts are mostly in urban areas — two are in Phoenix, two are in the East Valley. The fifth stretches through Coolidge, Sacaton and Casa Grande into parts of west Tucson.
If Democrats score a few key victories there, the Legislature could end up in a gridlock-inducing tie. For Democrats, that would mean blocking a Republican agenda they view as dangerous to democracy and women’s health.
Victory for Republicans in those districts, on the other hand, would empower the Trump-supporting faction of lawmakers who are poised to forge an intensely conservative era in Arizona law-making, depending if GOP nominee Kari Lake wins the governor’s race.
From abortion to public safety to the economy, the next two years would look quite different.
“Certainly those are the districts most at play,” said Joanna De La Cruz, a Republican political consultant who counts four candidates in the districts as clients. “If I’m a Democrat trying to win a seat, it’s those districts that I’m focused on.”
These are the districts and the candidates:
