From left to right: Sen. Rick Gray, Reps. Beverly Pingerelli, Kevin Payne on the opening day of Arizona s 55th Legislative session.
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.