Learn more about the candidates for the 2024 Arizona Legislative District 4 Senate race: Democrat Christine Marsh and Republican Carine Werner. LD4 is a competitive district covering parts of Phoenix, Paradise Valley and Scottsdale that has elected Republicans and Democrats over the past several election cycles.
Christine Marsh
Party: Democrat
Website: christineportermarsh.com
Marsh, a Scottsdale teacher, first won election to the Arizona Senate in 2020, unseating Republican Kate Brophy McGee. Since entering office, Marsh has focused on public education, supporting bills to increase funding for public education and further regulate the school voucher program. She opposed a bill that would have required schools to build separate bathrooms for trans students and another that would have banned certain books in schools that include sexual material or “promote gender fluidity or gender pronouns.” Marsh, whose son died from fentanyl overdose, has also championed legislation to respond to the opioid epidemic, including a bill that legalized fentanyl test strips.
Carine Werner
Party: Republican
Website: wernerforaz.com
Werner has been a member of the Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board since 2022. She lists her education priorities as empowering parents and increasing teacher pay while reducing wasteful school spending. In 2020, she fought against COVID-19 health guidelines for high school sports. While on the board she has expressed concerns over “social emotional learning” and also advocated for schools to use PragerU, conservative media nonprofit that creates animated videos that embrace far right positions on a range of topics, from climate change to Christopher Columbus.
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Every two years, Arizonans cast their votes in primary and general elections. And every two years, critics complain it takes too many days for all the votes to be counted. Through KJZZ’s Q&AZ project, a listener asked: Why does the vote counting process take so long?
