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Frank Carroll (Arizona politician)

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Frank Carroll
Member of the Arizona Senate
from the 28th district
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 9, 2023
Preceded byChristine Marsh
Member of the Arizona House of Representatives
from the 22nd district
In office
January 14, 2019 – January 9, 2023
Serving with Ben Toma
Preceded byDavid Livingston
Succeeded byLupe Contreras
Personal details
Political partyRepublican
ResidenceSurprise, Arizona

Frank Carroll is an American politician and a Republican member of the Arizona Senate representing District 28 since January 9, 2023. He was a member of the Arizona House of Representatives from 2019 to 2023, representing House District 22. Carroll was first elected in 2018 to succeed State Representative David Livingston, who instead ran for State Senate.[1]

Political career

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According to his campaign website, Carroll was born in Chicago and later moved to Arizona, becoming involved with the Arizona Republican Party, becoming a precinct captain and precinct committeeman. He describes himself as a "Christian constitutional conservative."[2]

Elections to the state legislature

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Carroll was first elected to the Arizona House of Representatives for Legislative District (LD) 22 in 2018.[3] The seat had recently been vacated by Phil Lovas, who resigned to accept a position in the Trump administration; the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors appointed Ben Toma to fill the vacancy, for the remainder of Lovas's term.[4] In the 2017 Republican primary election, Carroll, then a Republican precinct committeeman, ran against Toma, business owner and former Peoria Unified School District member Matt Bullock, and former Maricopa County Community College District member John Heep.[5] Toma and Carroll won the Republican primary and advanced to the general election,[3] in which they defeated the Democratic candidates.[6] Toma and Carroll were both reelected in 2020.[7]

In the post-2020 redistricting cycle, Carroll and Toma, along with fellow Republican state Representative Beverly Pingerelli and state Senator David Livingston, were drawn into LD 28, which includes the northwest Valley of the Sun.[8] However, a high-profile primary battle among incumbents was avoided, because Toma moved to District 27, and Carroll had already declared his candidacy for the Arizona State Senate seat for LD 28, which encompasses Sun City, Sun City West, much of Peoria and portions of north Phoenix.[8] He defeated Clair Van Steenwyk in the August 2022 Republican primary,[9] and won the November 2022 election with 61.8% of the vote, defeating Democratic nominee David Sandoval, who won 38.2% of the vote.[10]

Tenure in office

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Carroll is part of a group of far-right, self-identified Christian conservative lawmakers in Arizona. Along with fellow Republican David Livingston, he is a member of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, an organization founded by Jason Rapert in 2019 that opposes same-sex marriage and supports anti-abortion legislation.[11] In 2021, Carroll was among a group of state House Republicans to introduce legislation (House Bill 2650) to classify abortion as "1st-degree premeditated murder" and force local prosecutors to file charges against women who receive abortions and doctors who provide abortions.[12][13] Democrats and abortion rights groups denounced the measure as extreme.[12]

In 2019, Carroll was part of a bipartisan group of Arizona lawmakers who, following a deadly flood, supported the appropriation of $20 million to build a bridge over Tonto Creek at a site known as the Bar X crossing.[14]

After President Donald Trump lost his bid for reelection in November 2020, Carroll was among the Republicans who denied or questioned Trump's election loss,[15] and supported Trump's attempts to subvert the election results and remain in power.[16] In December 2020, he signed onto an amicus brief supporting the State of Texas's failed bid to overturn the election.[16] In 2022, Carroll continued to question the validity of Trump's 2020 election loss.[15] In 2021, Carroll sponsored legislation that would allow the Legislature to allocate two of Arizona's electoral votes rather than giving the state's full slate of electoral votes to the candidate who won the most votes.[17]

In 2023, Carroll sponsored legislation to purge the Arizona voter rolls every decade beginning in 2031, canceling the voter registration of all of the state's registered voters (which numbered 4.2 million on 2023) every ten years, forcing each to re-register. His proposal (Senate Bill 1566) was criticized by the Arizona Association of Counties, which noted that it would violate the National Voter Registration Act.[18] Carroll's bill passed the Elections Committee on a party-line vote, although it was denounced by Democrats and some Republicans.[18]

In May 2023, Carroll urged Florida governor Ron DeSantis to seek the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.[19]

In 2022 and 2023, Carroll introduced legislation to bar the State of Arizona from contracting with any business that "discriminates" against firearm manufacturers or the National Rifle Association of America. Carroll introduced the bill, based on a nearly identical measure enacted in Texas, that targeted banks that declined to take gun manufacturers on as clients following shooting massacres.[20] The Arizona Association of Counties and the Arizona Bankers Association opposed Carroll's bill.[20] The legislature passed the bill (Senate Bill 1096) in 2023, but it was vetoed by Governor Katie Hobbs, who wrote in her veto message: "I once again urge the legislature to focus on providing real solutions to real challenges faced by our state."[20][21]

Personal life

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Carroll lives in Sun City West.[20]

References

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  1. ^ "Who Are Arizona's 2018 Legislative Candidates?". Arizona Daily Independent. June 3, 2018. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
  2. ^ "About Frank Carroll". Elect Frank Carroll for Arizona Senate. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
  3. ^ a b State of Arizona Official Canvass - August 28, 2018 Archived September 12, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, compiled and issued by the Arizona Secretary of State.
  4. ^ Carolyn Dryer, Bullock seeks LD 22 House seat, Peoria Times (October 13, 2017).
  5. ^ Hank Stephenson, Lovas leaving House for job in Trump administration, Arizona Capitol Times (April 10, 2017).
  6. ^ State of Arizona Official Canvass - 2018 General Election: November 6, 2018 Archived December 7, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, compiled and issued by the Arizona Secretary of State.
  7. ^ State of Arizona Official Canvass - 2020 General Election: November 3, 2020, compiled and issued by the Arizona Secretary of State.
  8. ^ a b Jeremy Duda, Who won and who lost with the new legislative districts?, Arizona Mirror (December 29, 2021).
  9. ^ State of Arizona Official Canvass - 2022 Primary Election: August 2, 2022, compiled and issued by the Arizona Secretary of State.
  10. ^ 2022 Arizona State Senate Election Results, Arizona Republic.
  11. ^ Henry Larson & Francesca D'Annunzio, A group of far-right Christian lawmakers aims to merge church and state, News21 via Arizona Mirror (September 11, 2023).
  12. ^ a b Josh Kelety, Several Arizona Republicans Back Bill Requiring Homicide Charges for Abortions. Phoenix New Times (January 22, 2021).
  13. ^ Nathan Brown, Questions surround constitutionality of abortion bill, Arizona Capitol Times (January 22, 2021).
  14. ^ Jim Small, Following deadly flood, lawmakers seek Tonto Creek bridge funding, Arizona Mirror (December 17, 2019).
  15. ^ a b "2022 election: These candidates still deny or question 2020 Trump election results". Arizona Republic. Gannett. November 8, 2022. Archived from the original on November 12, 2022. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  16. ^ a b EJ Montini (December 11, 2020). "15 Arizona lawmakers shamefully joined failed Texas lawsuit to void elections". Arizona Republic. Gannett. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  17. ^ Andrew Oxford (January 29, 2021). "After November election losses — and wins — Republicans in Arizona seek significant changes in voting". Arizona Republic. Gannett. Archived from the original on February 1, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  18. ^ a b Caitlin Sievers (February 15, 2023). "Every Arizona voter would be purged every decade under GOP proposal". Arizona Mirror. Archived from the original on February 25, 2023. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  19. ^ Kevin Stone (May 12, 2023). "Prominent Arizona Republicans urge Ron DeSantis to run for president". KTAR. Bonneville International. Archived from the original on May 12, 2023. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  20. ^ a b c d Jerod MacDonald-Evoy (March 28, 2023). "Hobbs vetoes bill targeting banks that refuse to work with gun makers, NRA". Arizona Mirror. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  21. ^ Howard Fischer (March 28, 2023). "Hobbs vetoes bill to force banks to do business with firearms industry". Arizona Daily Star. Archived from the original on January 11, 2024. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
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