'Conservative wave' sweeps Arizona city councils and school boards. Now what?

Date:2025-08-27 21:38:20 Category:US Views:1 Comment:0

Liberal politicians warned that a blue wave was coming in Arizona's politics. And while the state has turned a more purple shade in the last few years, recently a conservative wave has been breaking in local governments.

These positions were previously seen as bipartisan roles, and technically still are, but pushes for certain policies are aligning with national political parties.

From Scottsdale to Avondale, some reliable veterans of city governments have been ousted by a new crop of candidates intent on reversing what they see as policies that are too "woke," ineffective and out of touch with the general population. This movement has been getting national attention from the media and other politicians.

"Local government these days is getting a lot of the issues that happen in cities and counties and school districts filtering up and people are hearing about it on the national political scene," says Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, a public policy associate professor at Harvard University and guest on this week's episode of The Gaggle.

"So instead of a decision about curriculum in a school district being confined to maybe that one school district or a neighboring school district, now it's often true that that might make national news because someone at the school board meeting happens to take a video of it or someone is really incensed about a particular book that happens to be in the curriculum."

Some point to President Donald Trump’s aggressive efforts to erase DEI policies, those programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion in city business. Others contend it’s a natural swing of the pendulum to correct governing bodies that they say have leaned too far left.

It’s upended the regular order of things, but a key question is whether this shift has produced tangible differences in key city functions, such as picking up the trash and filling potholes.

This week on The Gaggle, a politics podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, hosts Ron Hansen and Mary Jo Pitzl are joined by Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, an associate professor of public policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Together they discuss why this phenomenon is happening and what are the consequences of knowing the political allegiances of local councils.

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