Arizona State Senate District 12 candidate surveys, 2022
This article shows responses from candidates in the 2022 election for Arizona State Senate District 12 who completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey.
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- Click here to see Candidate Connection survey responses.
Candidates and election results
General election
General election for Arizona State Senate District 12
Denise Epstein defeated David Richardson in the general election for Arizona State Senate District 12 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Denise Epstein (D)  | 58.1 | 58,349 |
 | David Richardson (R) | 41.9 | 42,008 | |
| Total votes: 100,357 | |||
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Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey responses
Ballotpedia asks all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. The section below shows responses from candidates in this race who completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
Survey responses from candidates in this race
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Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
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Denise Epstein (D)
Economy-Having worked in the financial sector and in technology, Mitzi uses her experience and knowledge to take a critical eye to proposed legislation. “I leverage my own experience and skills with the knowledge of an ever-growing network of experts in technology and finance. Together, we do the work to balance support for innovations with protections for consumers,” Mitzi explains. In the senate, Mitzi will ensure local small businesses are supported, corporations are accountable to the community while given space to innovate, and above all, that as taxpayers, every resident enjoys the balance between keeping our hard-earned income while contributing fairly to the community services that ensure a high quality of life.
Fiscal Responsibility - Taxpayers deserve results from their investment in government projects. To know how our dollars are performing we must have transparency and accountability. Mitzi is highly respected in the legislature for her careful attention to detail and to budgets. “How will it affect you?” Mitzi asks real people all the time. Mitzi has experience using analyses and metrics to understand the impacts of proposals before voting them into law. The government shouldn’t be allowed to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on partisan games, whether on farcical election audits or partisan vanity projects.
David Richardson (R)
The issues facing Arizona have never been more complex or daunting than they are right now. We need skilled decision-makers in our state legislature. As an engineer-scientist and businessman, I’m skilled at diving into complex problems and finding innovative, economical solutions. As a conservative, I’m dedicated to ensuring these solutions don’t compromise individual liberties.
I believe it is possible to uphold strong conservative values while still treating those who disagree with us as neighbors, not enemies. It will take a compassionate and unifying voice to win our district and represent it well, and I’m running to be that voice.
Denise Epstein (D)
Our American system of public education provides many benefits, but if we ruin it, we will ruin the foundations of our economy and our pursuit of happiness.
This year, Republican legislators pushed for dangerous kinds of censorship and book banning. Also, they passed a very expensive voucher system for taxpayers to pay for all students in private school and other activities, on top of paying for public schools. There are many dangers in this Republican voucher system in addition to its increased cost to taxpayers.
This huge new voucher system is likely to drain away most of the new funding in the budget for K12 schools, leaving all the students in public schools with less, again. With public schools, we have laws to protect children’s safety, and to assure they are learning based in evidence and truth. Parents and students have rights in public schools, by law. To support a bright future, we should work on continuous improvement in our public schools and invest in public education.
David Richardson (R)
David Richardson (R)
The experience has also taught me to reject the idea that when solving a problem I have to choose between two binary options (and usually bad options). The bioscience CEO has a commitment to inventing a third option, a creative solution, a win-win solution. And this is what our current political climate needs. Instead of asking Arizonans to choose between two binary options, we need legislators who will propose creative third options!
Finally, I have extensive experience managing large budget projects and being accountable to hit milestones.
David Richardson (R)
See also
More about these elections:
Select a district below to read responses from candidates in those races:
