At Thursday night’s LD21 district meeting, Republican Senate Majority Leader Rick Gray announced he would not be running for re-election in 2022, opening up a safe seat for the GOP. To the surprise of many, Gray then announced he had recruited Youngtown Mayor Michael Levault to run for his seat, and that he was endorsing Levault.
The choice of Levault was not very popular with attendees, most of whom had not heard of him, in spite of his having been in office since 2006. Several attendees wanted a conservative choice instead.
“This is garbage,” said one upset Precinct Committeeman, “that isn’t Rick Gray’s seat and he doesn’t get to hand pick his successor. That seat belongs to We The People, and we want a conservative Senator, not Levault.”
Gray also announced that both State Representatives Kevin Payne and Beverly Pingerelli would be running for re-election and that State Representative Michelle Udall (R-LD25) would not be running for re-election, potentially opening up the House Education Chairmanship for Pingerelli.
According to two attendees, that came as a surprise to both Payne and Pingerelli. Neither endorsed Levault and most precinct committeemen expect Payne to run for the Senate seat.
“This is all happening pretty fast. No decisions have been made, but we have a conservative district and I’m sure everyone will sit down soon to figure out how to ensure we elect a conservative State Senator in 2022.” said Pingerelli.
“It makes sense for Kevin to run, he’s conservative, he’s got seniority, he raised a lot of money last cycle, and as a former district chairman, the grassroots still really love him.” said one attendee, “But if he doesn’t run, then Beverly is a shoe-in for that seat. She’d crush Levault or any Democrats.”
For his part, Levault was elected Mayor of Youngtown in 2006, but has largely stayed below the radar. Youngtown is a fairly small jurisdiction with a total population of less than 7,000. Even as Maricopa County’s population has skyrocketed, Youngtown’s population has increased by only 1,000 people in the last ten years.