The AZ Political Podcast

As someone who started her career as a 7th grade math teacher, Dr. Terry Ruiz is hoping the numbers work in her favor in this November’s General Election for Superintendent of Public Instruction — when she’ll face state Treasurer Kimberly Yee, the Republican nominee.

The numbers certainly added up for Ruiz in the Democratic Primary Election: She beat Brett Newby, her challenger in that race, by nearly 60 percentage points and with almost twice as many votes. 

Ruiz, my guest on this week’s AZ Political Podcast, is also hoping that she can make the numbers line up to increase spending on public education in Arizona. 

And get the math a little more in line when it comes to how she feels money should be spent through Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) program — but she didn’t express a desire to end ESAs. Instead, she says she just wants to “follow the rules.”

Interestingly, when prompted, she admitted the state superintendent has somewhat limited power to affect change. For instance, she can’t increase spending on Arizona schools — that’s the job of the Legislature. 

She can’t pay teachers more — that’s something determined by the state budget and individual schools and districts.

And, she can’t really add staff to the Department of Education — but, she says, good administrators move staff into place to focus on the problems at hand and she sees overspending within the ESA program — and underspending on public education — as problems.

Her other priorities include setting up an office for rural and small schools; working on teacher retention and getting more certified teachers in classrooms; and, she wants to see Arizona’s 13 Career and Technical Education districts expand their programs.

As someone who is a product of Arizona’s K-12 and post-secondary educational systems — and as someone who has served within both those systems (including her last job as president of Glendale Community College), Terry Ruiz believes she’s not only up for the job of superintendent, but she also has the education under her belt to help do it.

Even though the color of Arizona’s statewide offices were 100-percent ruby-red Republican at the completion of 2010’s election cycle, could 2016 see a complete color change to through-and-through blue?  

That’s a possibility laid out by political consultant Chuck Coughlin, my guest this week on the AZ Political Podcast. The fact that Chuck — who oversaw Republican Gov. Jan Brewer’s 2010 win (the start of that four-year run of Republican rule) — makes this prospect of a bounty of blue all the more intriguing. 

It all boils down to whether Democratic disdain for Donald Trump drives them to the polls. And whether enough independents come along for a ride in their blue car.

On the “Primary Postmortem/Preview and Pivot to the General Election” edition of the AZ Political Podcast, Chuck does make a prediction: incumbent Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs will refuse to debate her Republican opponent, Andy Biggs, this fall — a repeat nonperformance of 2022 when she refused to debate Republican Kari Lake.

We also take a look at Arizona’s high-profile congressional races for 2026: wondering how the national Democratic party failed so miserably with its backing of losing primary candidate Marlene Galán-Woods in the 1st Congressional District (CD1) and asking if Amish Shah, the CD1 Democratic winner, can rise to the occasion this time and beat Republican Jay Feely? (That's something he failed to do against Republican David Schweikert in 2024.)

In the southeast Valley’s 5th Congressional District (CD5), we ponder if the Republican winner, former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, will continue to “give the Heisman” to the Press when they press him on his sexual misconduct allegations? Is CD5 so red that Democrat Elizabeth Lee doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in a Gilbert summer — leading to Lamb never having to talk about his alleged history of dirty talk?

Get caught up on what the big races will be on the AZ Political Podcast. Then buckle up and, please, keep your hands inside the ride at all times — because Arizona’s 2026 midterm elections will be a wild ride. 

Jim Sharpe sits down with Congressman Andy Biggs with less than two weeks to go until the primary election for Arizona governor. Biggs discusses his campaign strategy, the urgent need to combat Medicare and Medicaid fraud within the state's recovery industry and how he manages to balance a statewide campaign with his duties in D.C. He also shares his Day 1 vision for reaching across the aisle to work on unifying issues such as water conservation, power generation and data center regulations.