Marcia Smith (Arizona)

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Marcia Smith

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 5, 2024

Education

Bachelor's

University of Minnesota, 1983

Law

Albany Law School, 1996

Military

Service / branch

U.S. Navy

Years of service

1984 - 1990

Personal

Birthplace

Minneapolis, Minn.

Religion

Christian: Catholic

Profession

Attorney

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Instagram

Campaign YouTube

Personal website

Marcia Smith (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Arizona House of Representatives to represent District 1. She lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Smith completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Marcia Smith was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She served in the U.S. Navy from 1984 to 1990. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota in 1983 and a law degree from Albany Law School in 1996. Her career experience includes working as an attorney. She has been affiliated with the Arizona State Bar, the Oakcreek Country Club Women's Golf Association, and the Northern Arizona Women's Golf Association.

Elections

2024

See also: Arizona House of Representatives elections, 2024

General election

General election for Arizona House of Representatives District 1 (2 seats)

Incumbent Selina Bliss and incumbent Quang Nguyen defeated Marcia Smith and Jay Ruby in the general election for Arizona House of Representatives District 1 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Selina Bliss (R)	33.9	88,691
✔		Quang Nguyen (R)	33.5	87,726
		Marcia Smith (D)	16.9	44,199
		Jay Ruby (D)	15.6	40,911

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 261,527
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 1 (2 seats)

Marcia Smith and Jay Ruby advanced from the Democratic primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 1 on July 30, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Marcia Smith	53.4	16,516
✔		Jay Ruby	46.6	14,397

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 30,913
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 1 (2 seats)

Incumbent Quang Nguyen and incumbent Selina Bliss defeated Shawn Wildman in the Republican primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 1 on July 30, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Quang Nguyen	44.3	38,264
✔		Selina Bliss	39.4	34,074
	Submit photo	Shawn Wildman	16.3	14,117

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 86,455
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

Smith received the following endorsements. To view a full list of Smith's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here.

• Arizona AFL-CIO
• Boilermakers Local 627
• Service Employees International Union
• Arizona National Organization of Women
• Save Our Schools Arizona
• Sierra Club

Campaign themes

2024

Video for Ballotpedia

Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released June 25, 2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Marcia Smith completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Smith's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am candidate for the Arizona House because I believe in working in and for government, not against it. I live in the Village of Oak Creek near Sedona. I grew up in Minneapolis and am the youngest of 11 children. We lived in a working class, Catholic neighborhood where big families like mine were common. I went to Catholic schools where I learned from the Sisters how to be a good person and care for others in my community. I have been working since I was 10. First as a babysitter, then in restaurants and other service-industry jobs. I even sold dry-cleaning coupon books door-to-door for awhile. After graduating from the University of Minnesota, which I was able to pay for myself because I received state scholarship funds to cover tuition, I joined the Navy. I served as a Supply Corps Officer and was assigned to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program in Washington DC. I met my husband in the Navy, and we moved from DC to Idaho Falls with his job. When my daughter was about 2 years old we moved to Albany, New York and I attended law school, which we paid for using veteran’s assistance and scholarships. So the government helped me get a college degree and a JD. My law practice has focused on representing healthcare providers. My last full-time job was as General Counsel for a statewide Catholic healthcare system in Iowa. I currently work part-time from home.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Women should have the right to make their own decisions about whether they are willing and able to continue a pregnancy. I support a women’s right to choose and the Arizona Abortion Access Act. As an attorney who has represented health care providers for over 25 years, I know the chilling effect abortion bans have on physicians and other providers who treat pregnant women. In states with abortion bans, health care providers are afraid to treat a pregnant woman if such treatment requires the termination of her pregnancy, even in cases where the mother’s life is at stake and the pregnancy is not viable. This means pregnant women will suffer. So will the providers.
• All Arizona residents deserve access to affordable healthcare. Yavapai County has a shortage of primary care practitioners, where there is only one primary care physician for 1730 residents. Because of the shortage of practitioners, too many residents in our District travel long distances for care. We need representatives who can effectively address this shortage so we can access healthcare when we need it. I understand the issues providers face and what policies can be adopted to help them help us.
• Our healthcare system must include mental health care resources to address the opioid overdose crisis and the epidemic of loneliness in our retirement communities. There is a direct connection between loneliness and poor health, including the risk of early death. We need lawmakers who will ensure we have a robust community health system that includes all aspects of healthcare.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am focused on protecting women’s rights. Women have been fighting for centuries to be recognized as fully human with the same rights as men. In the United States, many of our goals were achieved in just the last 100 years, but we are losing ground.

The 2022 US Supreme Court decision in Dobbs may be just the beginning. The Dobbs decision said abortion rights were not deeply rooted in our history and therefore were not recognized by the US Constitution.

What other rights could we lose because they are not deeply rooted in our history? Will they take away our right to use contraception? Will they restrict whom we can love and marry by overturning their decision requiring states to grant and recognize same-sex marriages?

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

I remember the first moon landing in 1969. I was 8 years old. My sister and I spent the night at my oldest sister's house. I am the youngest of 11 children, and my oldest sister was 24 and had her own apartment. We baked cookies and she styled our hair. We watched the coverage of the moon landing on TV and then went outside to gaze at the moon to see if we could see the moon lander with our naked eye. (We could not.) I have been fascinated by space travel ever since and the possibilities it evokes. A few years ago, my husband, my daughter and I got the Drake Equation tattooed on our right forearms (N = R*x Fp x Ne x Fl x Fi x Fc x L). Frank Drake developed this equation in 1961 to estimate the probability there are other worlds in the Milky Way Galaxy with intelligent life that can communicate with us. Although the distances are vast and communication across such distances may be close to impossible, I believe the probability is high we are not the only civilization in our Galaxy capable of communicating with other planets. If you extrapolate the high value of N to the near-infinite number of earth-like planets in the entire universe, the probability is even higher. Each of is a just small speck in the universe, but we are significant because we are intelligent and can communicate with other worlds.

What is your favorite book? Why?

My favorite book is Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? by Michael J. Sandel. The author is a Professor of Government at Harvard University. This book guides you in thinking about and analyzing public policy issues and should be required reading for every elected official.

What do you believe is the ideal relationship between the governor and state legislature?

The ideal relationship between the governor and state legislature would be characterized by cooperation and commitment to serving the needs of the residents of Arizona. There would be open communication and transparency. The state legislature would not waste its time considering and passing legislation that they know will be vetoed just to send a message to their political supporters, and would focus its attention on the real problems affecting working families in Arizona.

What do you perceive to be your state's greatest challenges over the next decade?

Arizona's greatest challenge over the next decade is how to balance continued growth in population and economic opportunities, which are both important to maintain the financial health of the state government, with the limits on growth due to climate change, including dwindling water resources. Arizona is one of the fastest growing states in the nation. This growth has come with a cost. By 2050, groundwater demand in numerous river basins is expected to exceed base flow. The Arizona Legislature and Governor must act soon to regulate excessive groundwater pumping and update the 1980 Groundwater Management Act to recognize the connection between ground and surface water and provide for rural water management areas.

Both sitting legislators and candidates for office hear many personal stories from the residents of their district. Is there a story that you’ve heard that you found particularly touching, memorable, or impactful?

Many supporters have shared their concern that their daughters and granddaughters will not be able to access life-saving healthcare if they become pregnant but have complications and need to terminate their pregnancy. I had an ectopic pregnancy in 1990 and would have died without immediate medical intervention. In states with near total abortion bans, pregnant women are being denied life-saving healthcare because physicians are afraid to treat a pregnant woman if such treatment requires the termination of pregnancy, even in cases where the mother’s life is at stake and the pregnancy is not viable. Although Arizona's 15-week abortion ban includes an exception for an abortion procedure that is necessary to save the pregnant women’s life or if a delay would create serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function, there is enough ambiguity in the statute that physicians may be unwilling to provide life-saving healthcare to a pregnant woman out of concern for their license and their freedom.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

Arizona National Organization of Women

What committees interest you?

If elected, I am interested in serving on the Health and Human Services Committee, which is responsible for considering legislation related to health care services, public health, long-term care and the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCS). I have over 25 years of experience as an attorney representing health care providers and health systems, and would bring considerable expertise to this Committee. I am also interested in serving on the Military Affairs and Public Safety Committee, which reviews legislation related to military affairs, public safety and border security, and also review bills on veterans' affairs. As a veteran of the US Navy, I am interested in ensuring all veterans are treated honorably and appropriately recognized for their service.

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.

Campaign finance summary

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Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

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Marcia Smith campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	Arizona House of Representatives District 1	Lost general	$59,136	$59,152
Grand total			$59,136	$59,152
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

See also

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External links

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Candidate

Arizona House of Representatives District 1

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Personal

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Footnotes

[show]

Current members of the Arizona House of Representatives

Leadership

Speaker of the House:Steve Montenegro

Majority Leader:Michael Carbone

Minority Leader:Oscar De Los Santos

Representatives

District 1

Selina Bliss (R)

Quang Nguyen (R)

District 2

Stephanie Simacek (D)

Justin Wilmeth (R)

District 3

Joseph Chaplik (R)

Alexander Kolodin (R)

District 4

Pamela Carter (R)

Matt Gress (R)

District 5

Sarah Liguori (D)

Aaron Marquez (D)

District 6

Mae Peshlakai (D)

Myron Tsosie (D)

District 7

Walter Blackman (R)

David Marshall (R)

District 8

Janeen Connolly (D)

Brian Garcia (D)

District 9

Lorena Austin (D)

Seth Blattman (D)

District 10

Ralph Heap (R)

Justin Olson (R)

District 11

Junelle Cavero (D)

Oscar De Los Santos (D)

District 12

Patricia Contreras (D)

Anastasia Travers (D)

District 13

Jeff Weninger (R)

Julie Willoughby (R)

District 14

Laurin Hendrix (R)

Khyl Powell (R)

District 15

Neal Carter (R)

Michael Way (R)

District 16

Chris Lopez (R)

Teresa Martinez (R)

District 17

Rachel Keshel (R)

Kevin Volk (D)

District 18

Nancy Gutierrez (D)

Christopher Mathis (D)

District 19

Lupe Diaz (R)

Gail Griffin (R)

District 20

Alma Hernandez (D)

Betty Villegas (D)

District 21

Consuelo Hernandez (D)

Stephanie Stahl Hamilton (D)

District 22

Lupe Contreras (D)

Elda Luna-Nájera (D)

District 23

Michele Pena (R)

Mariana Sandoval (D)

District 24

Anna Abeytia (D)

Lydia Hernandez (D)

District 25

Michael Carbone (R)

Nick Kupper (R)

District 26

Cesar Aguilar (D)

Quantá Crews (D)

District 27

Lisa Fink (R)

Tony Rivero (R)

District 28

David Livingston (R)

Beverly Pingerelli (R)

District 29

Steve Montenegro (R)

James Taylor (R)

District 30

Leo Biasiucci (R)

John Gillette (R)

Republican Party (33)

Democratic Party (27)