Navajo County Board of Supervisors to pick new lawmaker to fill LD7 vacancy

The Navajo County Board of Supervisors will pick a new state lawmaker on Tuesday to replace Republican David Marshall, who resigned to become the county’s next recorder.

The supervisors will pick from a list of three finalists selected by the local Republican Party in Legislative District 7, a sprawling district that covers mostly rural communities north and east of Phoenix.

The party nominated former state lawmaker Sylvia Allen. She represented northern Arizona in the state Legislature for more than a decade, until Sen. Wendy Rogers defeated her in the 2020 Republican primary.

The list of candidates also includes Taylor Town Councilman Lynn Dewitt and Tisha Carlisle, a real estate agent and founding president of the Northeast Arizona Republican Women club.

Allen, a former chair of the Arizona Senate’s Education Committee, was known for staking out controversial positions and pushing conspiracy theories, including claims that the Earth is 6,000 years old and that planes spread “chemtrails.” Allen apologized for the comments and denied she harbors racial animus.

She was also criticized for a comment she made in 2019 about immigration after she said the U.S. is “going to look like South American countries very quickly” and that new immigrants will not be able to assimilate.

The board’s pick will finish Marshall’s legislative term, which ends in January.