Guests - Peter Gentala, Rachel Keshel, John Winchester, Joel Strabala
Peter Gentala: Know Your Ballot Before You Cast It
With Arizona voters facing eight ballot measures alongside races up and down the ticket, Center for Arizona Policy President Peter Gentala said the first responsibility is simple: know what is actually on the ballot.
“We’re blessed to live in a state where every two years we have both our laws and our leaders on the ballot,” Gentala said. His organization is holding “Know Your Ballot” events around Arizona, including a Tucson event at Pusch Ridge Christian Academy’s South Campus, designed to walk voters through the measures before ballots arrive. 8693662_2026-09-25-183802
For Gentala, the standout issue this year is Proposition 318, the Protect Girls’ Sports Act.
Proposition 318 and the Fight Over Women’s Sports
Gentala described Proposition 318 as Arizona’s opportunity to establish clear protections for female athletics after years of litigation over transgender participation in women’s sports.
The measure would require schools and athletic associations to classify teams as male, female or coeducational based on sex and reserve female teams for girls.
Gentala said the issue extends beyond trophies and championships. Scholarships, roster positions and opportunities built under Title IX are at stake, but so are locker rooms, showers and other private spaces connected to athletic competition.
“It’s not just the opportunity to compete for women,” Gentala said. “It’s also the attendant private spaces like locker rooms, showers, and restrooms.”
His argument is that institutions that should have resolved the issue themselves have failed to do so, leaving lawmakers and voters to establish an enforceable rule.
“Institutions are failing our women and our girls on this issue,” Gentala said. 8693662_2026-09-25-183802
Kathleen Winn agreed, framing the issue as one of fairness, privacy and basic common sense.
Title IX, the Courts and Arizona’s Legal Fight
Gentala also criticized a recent California federal-court decision involving women’s sports, saying the judge misunderstood the purpose of Title IX.
He argued that a protection for female athletic opportunity has little meaning if schools are simultaneously permitted to open female competition to biological males.
Arizona has already spent years litigating its own law. Gentala credited Senate President Warren Petersen and Republican House leadership with continuing the legal defense after Attorney General Kris Mayes declined to defend the statute.
Gentala said Arizona’s case benefited when related cases from Idaho and West Virginia reached the U.S. Supreme Court, resulting in a reversal of the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in the Arizona litigation. 8693662_2026-09-25-183802
For Gentala, Proposition 318 gives voters a more direct opportunity to settle the question in state law.
Gender Medicine and Parental Authority
The conversation expanded from sports into medical treatment for minors experiencing gender dysphoria.
Gentala criticized Gov. Katie Hobbs for vetoing legislation that would have further restricted puberty blockers and hormone treatments for minors. Arizona currently restricts certain surgical interventions, but Gentala argued children remain vulnerable to life-altering medical decisions before they are mature enough to understand their long-term consequences.
“There should not be such a thing as a children’s gender clinic,” he said.
His argument was rooted in parental authority and childhood development. Adults can make decisions about their own lives, Gentala said, but permanent medical interventions during childhood raise an entirely different ethical question.
“There’s plenty of time after a child is no longer a child for them to make lifestyle decisions,” he said. “It’s wrong to make that decision for them effectively when they are a child.” 8693662_2026-09-25-183802
Winn connected the issue to her years working in child protection, arguing that society routinely limits a minor’s ability to consent in other areas precisely because children lack full legal and developmental maturity.
John Winchester: Education Needs Results, Not Just More Money
LD17 House candidate John Winchester pushed back against campaign attacks portraying him as hostile to education.
Winchester works in higher education and said he also works with school districts, JTED and people throughout Arizona’s K-12 and postsecondary systems.
“I’m all for fully funding education,” Winchester said. “But I think Arizona’s education system has some severe deficiencies in what it’s producing.”
His distinction is between funding education and funding failure.
“I want to fund a system that works,” he said.
That includes traditional public schools, charter schools and Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts. The goal, Winchester argued, should be students who leave school capable of finding employment, supporting themselves and participating as informed citizens. 8693662_2026-09-25-183802
Rachel Keschel, a former teacher, agreed. She argued that Arizona already commits more than half of its state budget to public education but too much of the money is absorbed by administration rather than reaching teachers and classrooms. 8693662_2026-09-25-183802
Education, Affordability and the Role of Government
Winchester tied education directly to Arizona’s larger economic debate.
He warned that poorly performing schools create generations of young adults unable to compete economically, while policies such as rent controls, price controls and increased government regulation make affordability problems worse rather than better.
“The purpose of education is the individual child and helping them achieve their own dignity,” Winchester said.
He portrayed the LD17 race as part of a larger ideological divide over whether government should manage more of the economy or allow individuals and businesses greater freedom.
“We can drive down costs by getting out of the way, not by helping,” Winchester said. 8693662_2026-09-25-183802
Why Winchester Says Tucson Families Are Being Squeezed
For Winchester, the campaign is personal.
He was born and raised in Arizona, is raising four children in Southern Arizona and said he has no interest in leaving Tucson for better economic opportunities elsewhere.
“This is my home,” he said. “And I want it to be a place where families can thrive.”
Winchester argued that Tucson’s weak economy, education problems and increasing cost of living are tied to local policy choices. He said excessive regulation drives up housing costs and makes it more difficult for young families to buy homes.
He also criticized local leaders for placing environmental and political priorities ahead of public safety, economic development and family needs.
“I don’t want to have to leave my home for greener pastures,” Winchester said. “I’d like to be able to stay here and fight for it.”
His test is straightforward: if his children can grow up, work and build families in Southern Arizona, other families should have the same opportunity. 8693662_2026-09-25-183802
Public Safety and Tucson’s Police Resources
Winchester also focused on policing.
He argued that Tucson officers themselves are not the problem. The problem, he said, is that officers are being asked to operate in a city with insufficient resources while dealing with property crime, homelessness, fentanyl and other public-safety problems.
“Our police are doing everything that they can, but they’re massively understaffed and even more massively underfunded,” Winchester said. 8693662_2026-09-25-183802
He sees public safety and economic development as connected. Businesses and families are less likely to invest in communities where crime is high, schools struggle and regulation drives up costs.
Rachel Keschel: Election Integrity Begins With Clean Voter Rolls
Representative Rachel Keschel turned the discussion toward election integrity and allegations of inaccurate voter-registration records.
Keschel argued that distrust grows when voters believe election officials are not transparent about who remains on voter rolls.
She discussed concerns about felony-conviction records and repeated a case she encountered involving a former Arizona voter who moved to Texas and later discovered that a mail ballot had been requested in her name in Arizona.
Keschel said her concern is not simply whether an ineligible person personally walks into a polling place.
“I do not believe that illegals are voting,” she said. “I think they’re being voted for.”
Her broader argument is that inaccurate voter rolls create opportunities for ballots to be requested or cast in the names of people who should no longer be registered at a particular address. 8693662_2026-09-25-183802
For Keschel, restoring confidence requires transparency, clean registration records and election officials willing to answer questions rather than dismiss them.
Proposition 144 and Citizenship Verification
Keschel and Winn also highlighted Proposition 144, which they said would strengthen voter-identification and citizenship requirements.
The measure surfaced repeatedly because both women view voter eligibility as one of the defining issues of the election.
They argued that citizenship should be an uncontroversial prerequisite for voting and that stronger identification standards would help restore public trust.
The Legislature’s decision to refer measures directly to voters also became part of a broader political theme: with Hobbs vetoing numerous Republican bills, ballot propositions have become another way for the Legislature to take issues directly to Arizonans. 8693662_2026-09-25-183802
Kevin Volk, Bipartisanship and the LD17 Race
Keschel also challenged Democratic Rep. Kevin Volk’s campaign image as a moderate who works across the aisle.
She said Volk “says the right things” but ultimately votes much more often with progressive Democrats.
Keschel pointed specifically to family-court reform, an issue she has worked on extensively. She said Republican lawmakers and several Democrats—including members of the Hernandez family—were willing to help move reforms forward, while Volk did not assist her efforts.
“Family court reform is not a Democrat or Republican issue,” Keschel said.
Her criticism was not that bipartisanship is impossible. In fact, she cited Democrats who worked with her as proof that it can happen. Her argument was that genuine bipartisanship should be judged by actions rather than campaign advertising. 8693662_2026-09-25-183802
DCS, Family Courts and Protecting Children
Keschel said concern for her five children originally drove her into politics.
That concern now extends to Arizona’s Department of Child Safety, family courts and group-home system.
She and Winn discussed cases involving children harmed while in state care and questioned policies that allow some employees facing allegations of misconduct to remain working in group homes while investigations continue.
“The children suffer the most,” Keschel said.
She also accused state government of wasting money on questionable providers and said Republican lawmakers are investigating group homes that may not be delivering the services taxpayers are funding.
“I’m fighting for the people against a lot of government agencies and others that do not have their best interests in mind,” Keschel said. “That’s what I was elected to do.” 8693662_2026-09-25-183802
Winn: The Election Is About More Than Candidates
Between guests, Winn returned repeatedly to one larger argument: Arizona voters are not simply choosing personalities in November. They are deciding how state and local government will approach crime, education, spending, business, family policy and elections.
She praised Republican gubernatorial candidate Andy Biggs as a conservative she considers pragmatic and experienced, while sharply criticizing Hobbs, Mayes and Fontes.
Winn also returned to the contrast between capitalism and socialism, arguing that economic freedom gives individuals the ability to choose careers, build businesses and create wealth while government dependency ultimately limits opportunity.
Her advice to voters was to study the entire ballot rather than stopping after the high-profile races.
“There is so much on this ballot and it’s going to be easy to look at it and get overwhelmed,” Winn said. “But you do your own research.” 8693662_2026-09-25-183802
Joel Strabala: Election Observers Are Needed Across Pima County
Joel Strabala, a member of the Pima County Election Integrity Commission and chairman of LD17, closed with the practical side of election administration.
Strabala said the Election Integrity Commission can address concerns involving felony records, although Arizona’s open-meeting rules require issues to be placed on the agenda in advance.
More immediately, he said Republicans need trained observers at early-voting sites and Election Day vote centers throughout Pima County.
“From an election integrity perspective, we need election observers at all our early voting sites and all our Election Day vote centers,” Strabala said.
Training and shift sign-ups are available through the Pima GOP’s Elections 2026 page. 8693662_2026-09-25-183802
October 5 Registration Deadline, October 7 Early Voting
Strabala reminded voters of two dates: October 5 is the registration deadline, and early voting begins October 7.
Registration can be checked through the Pima County Recorder’s voter-registration dashboard.
His strongest recommendation was not to assume that information checked months ago is still correct.
“Even if you verified your voter registration back in the primary, things happen,” Strabala said. “Go check your voter registration to make sure it didn’t change.”
Voters expecting an early ballot who do not receive one can use the recorder’s dashboard to request another, he said. 8693662_2026-09-25-183802 8693662_2026-09-25-183802
Proposition 144 and Voter ID
Strabala also discussed Proposition 144, which he said would require government-issued photo identification and stronger voter verification for both in-person and mail voting.
If approved, the changes would take effect in 2028.
“Prop 144 closes many of those loopholes and requires positive voter verification, both for in-person voting and for by-mail voting,” Strabala said. 8693662_2026-09-25-183802
He also said he believes Arizona’s existing motor-voter system creates a risk of noncitizens appearing on registration rolls because citizenship can depend heavily on self-attestation during the driver-license process.
The solution, in his view, is better verification—not less participation.
Cleaning the Rolls Starts With Voters Too
One of the most practical discussions involved deceased voters.
Winn recently lost her mother and asked what families should do when someone on the early-voting list dies.
Strabala said relatives can contact the recorder through the voter dashboard using identifying information or take a death certificate directly to the recorder’s office to have the registration inactivated. He had previously done the same for both of his parents.
Winn said citizens cannot demand clean voter rolls while ignoring their own responsibility to report deaths and address registrations that should be canceled.
“We can’t complain about the voter rolls if we don’t participate in keeping them pristine and ethical and legal,” she said. 8693662_2026-09-25-183802
LD17 by the Numbers
Strabala put numbers behind the political stakes in LD17.
He said the district contains 63 precincts in Pima County and five in Pinal County, with roughly 179,000 registered voters. His estimate included approximately 69,000 Republicans, around 60,000 independents and about 56,000 Democrats.
That gives Republicans a registration advantage, but Strabala stressed that registration means nothing without turnout.
His recommendation was old-fashioned retail politics: talk to friends, neighbors and coworkers, answer misinformation and make sure supporters vote. 8693662_2026-09-25-183802
And for those who want to do more than vote, the election system itself needs people willing to participate—as observers, poll workers and informed citizens.
Strabala ended with his own version of the turnout message:
“Patriots who don’t vote elect Democrats.” 8693662_2026-09-25-183802