Skyla Edwards
Elections and appointments
Personal
Contact
Skyla Edwards (Republican Party) ran for election to the Arizona House of Representatives to represent District 26. She lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Edwards completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Skyla Edwards was born in Bad Tölz, Germany. She earned a high school diploma via the GED test.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Arizona House of Representatives elections, 2024
General election
Democratic primary election
Republican primary election
Campaign finance
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Edwards in this election.
Pledges
Edwards signed the following pledges.
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Skyla Edwards completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Edwards' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I want to thank you for looking at this website and for taking a closer look at your candidates. This is an incredible privilege we all share and it should never be taken lightly. As a future lawmaker I would be shaping legislation that directly impacts your day to day life and that of the people you see everyday. I know I am not the expected choice, after all I am not a real estate agent or lawyer, career politician or property developer. I am a citizen of this district, a wife and mother. I am just one person who is tired of being underwhelmed by legislation. I have always been someone who prefers to shut out the noise and go straight to the core so that a solution can be reverse engineered from the rubble. I am a red faced, round little scrapper who doesn’t shy away from a fight especially when I see the right path so clearly. We all have common sense our laws should as well. As someone who is hopelessly addicted to solutions I am not afraid to negotiate, and press for what is necessary. You’re not going to hear me say the mainstream media buzzwords that set passions on fire. I am not a peacock, I am problem solver. Join me.
- As someone who looks ahead to tomorrow with optimism I can see the benefits that we have only just begun to tap in school choice. Had I not experienced it for myself with my own child I couldn’t have understood how much specified education can impact the future stability of a new adult. You know your child’s gifts, talent and potential better than any lawmaker or educator does. I want to create a partnership in your child’s education with you so that we can both see that potential, spark and passion materialize in a stable way, so that they can earn a living wage and stand on their own feet as new adults.
- Preserving Arizona’s natural resources for Arizonans.
My great grandfather was just a teenager when he crossed into the Arizona territories. He came with his younger brother to find their mother and finally live a better life. A life where he was the steward of his own destiny. Phoenix was farmland, livestock and a metropolis in the making. But Jesus Maria Inez Enríquez Madril was a futurist who saw what it would become. I see what it will become as well. We have triumphed over the elements but Arizona will always be on the vulnerable cusp and so care must be taken to protect our resources, culture, traditions and heritages.
- Safety and prosperity. Our entire society is a net. To prosper we must understand the way things interact. Safety and prosperity are an example because to have one you need the other. Prosperity in my meaning isn’t just financial stability it’s whole stability. It’s security. And safety isn’t one sided but fair consideration to all sides. Fair justice, swift and prepared appropriate response.
There are so many urgent issues and 100 days to address thousands of needs, disappointments, desires, hopes and expectations. My personal public policy that am most passionate about will always be the future of Arizona and Arizonans. Establishing or expanding upon a buildable base for prosperity and opportunity to thrive. Arizona isn’t just today it’s a hundred years from now, more. I am from this state. It is my home and my joy. So I naturally gravitate towards policy that has long reaching potential and that will provide Arizonans with the most opportunity while respecting their individual sovereignty and freedoms.
My dad. Captain Skip Bailey. Those are some shoes to fill! My goodness. Special Forces, Green Beret, Airborne Ranger, inventor, entrepreneur, all around fascinating character. He used to say you are luckiest kid to have me for a father and I can confidently say I was. What a huge, wild, terrible, wonderful life. I have seen him as a tower and as a puddle and I learned so from him. Up on the mountain top scared as I have ever been. Terrified and trembling in the cold in my little 7 year old’s skis looking down at what seemed like a cliff and he said “Skyla, just go on three no matter what” I knew what to do. It was the just the fear of what I perhaps didn’t know that was freezing me in place wide eyed and shallow breathing. But he counted..1…2…and we were off and every time I have felt fear grip me I can hear him. “Go on three no matter what” and I do.
This question goodness. I can’t answer it without sounding pretentious or self righteous but I will try. I am a Baptist Christian and so yes it’s true I pull a lot of perspective out of the Bible. I suppose in philosophy I am far more of a stoic than I am a nihilist. I believe my faith only compounds that. But perhaps you are a different faith than me. Or perhaps you are not a believer at all and the idea of someone who pulls their entire approach to life from a single dusty old book is worrisome. Let me tell you why it isn’t. Because the book showed me the triumph of humanity. Nations rose and fell and here we are today. That book says more will rise and fall before it is all done. But what lingers to the very end and beyond is us. So my love shouldn’t be about my own legacy unless that legacy includes yours as well. So from that book my sense of duty formed and with it the courage to embark on this endeavor to help you create your righteous legacy whatever it is and whomever you are.
Loyalty to the people who live here. Integrity to stand firm on legislation that has clear benefits to Arizonans. This means stepping beyond party interests if the value is real to the people it would serve. Compassion. I am not wealthy in fact today I have three digits in my bank account. Not mismanaged or overspending, I don’t really have any debts but our economy is so intangible and unstable that pulling ahead and standing on solid ground long enough to catch your breath just a little feels like a dream for some of us. My family earns more than enough, this shouldn’t be our reality but still we endure the gaslighting of those who have tried to reassure us that our suffering is all in our head. “The economy is thriving,” they say. “Best it’s ever been,” they report. I guess I just don’t live there. I live here in the real world where it isn’t and we all know it. I don’t want to be represented by someone who intellectually understands. I want someone who has felt that fear. Who feels that fear and knows it well. Not because they saw a parent struggle but because they are that parent who is fighting fires every minute of the day. I want to know that when they are making laws they are considering every soul and every struggle and they are championing for real lasting improvement for all. I want someone who will fight like they are trapped in a corner and since that person never appeared then I have step forward and do it. Because if you can’t get something done do it yourself. Let’s get something done together.
That answers core is the responsibility to the Arizonans they serve. The whole purpose is to legislate, create, protect and support. Before I was a Republican I was a libertarian. Deeply ingrained in me is belief that my government should fit on the head of pin. It is not there to do anything more than to preserve your freedoms and give you room to thrive. The best of life begins from the ground up. The best of government respects that and owes its service to the communities it manages. I can’t hand you the money you need to solve your immediate problems but I can open the doors and windows that will allow a light to illuminate your path out. I can provide for the best and brightest to make the tools you will need to rebuild your empire. My responsibility is to your liberty, freedom and opportunity.
I worked at the little concession stand in Wickenburg Arizona’s single screen theater “The Saguaro Theater”. People seem to prefer half ice in their drinks.
I like Raymond Reddington from Blacklist
But I also like Harvey Specter from Suits.
I would be SURPRISED if anyone knew this song. But it’s sort of good and stuck in there. The band was called Tv on The Radio and the song is called Lazerray. Here is the bit I have on repeat
“Four thousand years ago, I came back to my senses
Jumped on a laser ray and blew into a new dimension
This vertical line, I watch it go by
Chop down your masterplan in nanoseconds, man
I hope you understand that nothing living lasts forever
This vertical line, I watch it go by
I can feel it
Overheating
So bad, it makes me want to cry
I can feel it
Overheating
A burning heart unstuck in time
Now I'm a solar flare, now I'm that light that rages
Now I'm that laser ray that blows a hole right through the ages
This vertical line, I watch it go by
Ain't got no second-hand, just got my good intentions
Just got my laser ray exploding into new dimensions
This vertical line, I watch it go by”
You are in no danger of getting it stuck in your head :) Ideally to remember who they are all beholden to and to provide the balance of legislation that doesn’t suit a party but serves a people
I am deeply concerned about the nation’s growing mental/ emotional health issues. This is a hole in the net that is allowing loss in. Like a domino effect it impacts us. Our apathy or neglect only supports its ability to impact others. To impact our most vulnerable future generations, our children. It fuels addictions, crimes, suffering, poverty, and has turned a whirlpool into a hurricane that is becoming too big to ignore. It is overwhelming our systems and demanding our attention.
The next imperative is our state’s natural resources. We have asked a lot from this state and a new balance must be reached. We have to end parasitic resource plundering from enterprises that hold no allegiance to this state, its people or its future. We have to put a stop to predatory housing market manipulation and put power back in the hands of consumers so that we can once again lift as a whole.
Next is most precious resource and that is the generations of new adults entering our states society over the many years to come. We are on the precipice of a new technological evolution. We are on the beach looking at the incoming wave that is AI and we must prepare education to meet the challenges it will present to the workforce. A high school diploma is obsolete and not enough to earn a living wage, live affordably, support a family, pursue true passions and further education. We must adapt to propel education beyond what we know it to be today. I mentioned that I experienced first hand the true difference of an education tailored to the individual instead of one size fits all. After my daughter was diagnosed at 11 with autism I felt confined by the inadequacies of special education. I knew that in the right hands she could blossom and I was right. With a public charter school designed specifically for her needs in an environment that empowered her.. she did blossom. School is evolving, we shouldn’t stop it we should see how far it can go. For their futures sake. I believe if you’re on this website looking at these candidates then you are already civic minded you already feel a sense of duty. Legislation should be made by people like you. People who live what they create. I am state committeeman and precinct committeeman for my district LD26. Being a committeeman affords me the opportunity to meet candidates before the cameras do, before they get good at making speeches and public speaking. I can tell you what I have seen, it’s not the person, sometimes it’s not the party but the ideas, the ambitious ideas they strive for. This is what sets them apart. We are a base upwards society or we should be at least. For the people, by we the people. You can set standards in whatever way makes you feel secure but I am most secure with a tempered fighter who knows what battles to pick who claws experience out of clay. I don’t have experience in government or in the deeper pools of politics but I am a tempered fighter on your side.
Absolutely. All across the state we have a bounty of excellent candidates. I have never been more hopeful for Arizona’s future than I have when meeting these amazing people seeking to serve their districts. Again as a precinct committeeman I perhaps get a preview before voters do but this is the first time I have encountered such dedicated people pursuing every role across the state.
I want to do better than my best at this role, perhaps if I have mastered it I will keep going but for now this is biggest way I can help you and so that is what I have set out to do.
I am pretty easily amused. It’s easy to bring a smile to my face and make me laugh. Let say I have been known to loose my breath laughing at “a horse walked into a bar”
You know the voter guide mislabeled me. I am actually a clean elections candidate. That means I am not funded by my political party or pacs or organizations, unions, foundations or interests.
I have intentionally not sought endorsements in this campaign although I have been offered it. I don’t know that I will do so in the future. I need to prove myself and I need to make sure someone is endorsing me not to keep me in their pocket but because they sincerely endorse what I am and what I set out to accomplish for Arizona.
On our state level we should embrace transparency and encourage government accountability. As I have said before the best of life grows from the ground up. From the smallest movement to as big as it was ever meant to go. We learn and lead by example and so from the smallest elected office to largest in the state and all the conduits in between it only benefits us as a state and further benefits us as a nation if we pass on this expectation and demand of behavior and action to our elected leadership.
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Campaign finance summary
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See also
External links
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 2, 2024
Leadership
Speaker of the House:Steve Montenegro
Majority Leader:Michael Carbone
Minority Leader:Oscar De Los Santos
Representatives
Republican Party (33)
Democratic Party (27)
