Border
Simacek tells voters she supports border security. In 2025 and 2026 she voted against every border funding and immigration enforcement bill below, and she has given no sign that her votes will change.
| Bill | What it did | Her vote |
|---|---|---|
| HB2606 (2025) | Money for local border support | No in committee on February 10, no on the floor on March 5 |
| HB2099 (2025) | Immigration duties for the governor and attorney general | No on February 18 and April 28 |
| SB1088 (2025) | Government compliance with immigration and deportation | No on May 1 |
| HB2904 (2026) | State sovereign authority at the border | No in committee on February 9 |
| HB2416 (2026) | Money for DPS local border support | No in committee on February 16, no on the floor on March 3 |
| SB1051 (2026) | Hospitals reporting patients’ immigration status | No on February 16 |
| SB1457 (2026) | Air mobility fund for border security | No on June 9 and June 11 |
| SB1520 (2026) | Agencies sharing immigration data | No in committee on March 16; did not vote on the floor on June 11 |
Taxes
She has signed onto new income-tax rates twice, and she has voted against tax cuts for tipped workers, overtime, and adoptive parents.
- HB2636 (2026), co-sponsor. Adds an 8 percent bracket for income over $1 million. Arizona’s income tax is currently a flat 2.5 percent. The bill needed a two-thirds vote and never got one.
- HB4095 (2026), co-sponsor. Adds another income-tax rate to pay for education.
- SB1106 (2026). She voted no on January 15. The bill cut taxes on tips and overtime, raised the standard deduction, and increased the child tax credit.
- HB2081 (2025). She voted no on February 10 on a tax break for tipped wages.
- HB2155 (2025). She voted no on February 12 on a tax break for adoption expenses.
Ari Bradshaw, 2024
Simacek won her seat by beating Ari Bradshaw, a first-time Republican candidate who grew up in north Phoenix, by 988 votes. In the final weeks of that race, her campaign sent at least three mailers to District 2 voters tying Bradshaw to 9/11 conspiracy theories and claiming he wanted the death penalty for doctors.
He held neither position. His campaign site and Clean Elections materials listed water, education, housing, the cost of living, drug addiction, border security, and homelessness. The Arizona Republic reported that she was working to portray him as an extremist.
Bradshaw asked her publicly to apologize for “harmful, dangerous, and bigoted lies.” She never did. Bradshaw went on to work at the Arizona House as a communications staffer throughout 2026, in the same building where she serves, and the apology still has not come.
Medical cards and devices
Arizona issues medical-marijuana cards to qualifying patients 18 and older. The adult-use law voters passed in 2020 protects pipes, bongs, and other paraphernalia only for people 21 and over (A.R.S. 36-2852), so patients aged 18 to 20 already rely on being able to buy them at smoke shops.
In 2025 Simacek was the lead sponsor of HB2293, which would make it an offense to sell or give a tobacco product to anyone under 21. The bill defines tobacco product to include “filters, rolling papers, blunt or hemp wraps and pipes,” plus vape pens and their parts, “whether or not any of these contain tobacco or nicotine.” It has no exception for medical-card patients.
Under her bill, an 18-year-old patient could still buy marijuana at a dispensary but could not buy a pipe, papers, or a vaporizer to use it. That pushes young patients toward concentrates, a much stronger form of the drug. She also voted for SB1247, a narrower version that became law in 2025. It carved out service members under 21. It did not carve out patients.
Veterans’ children
HB2240 (2026) waives college tuition for children of disabled veterans. When it came up in the House Education Committee on February 10, 2026, Simacek did not vote. The committee passed it 7 to 3. Anthem, in her district, has a large share of military families.
Lifetime probation
HB2966 (2026) stops courts from ending lifetime probation early for people convicted of dangerous crimes against children. Simacek voted no on the House floor on February 23, 2026. Governor Hobbs signed it.
Girls’ sports
HCR2003 (2026) asks voters whether school girls’ sports should be limited to biological girls. A ballot referral goes straight to voters without the governor’s signature. Simacek voted no in committee on January 20 and on the floor on February 23.
Power bills
HB2113 (2026) lets the state step into utility rate cases on behalf of customers when a company asks for a very large increase. Simacek voted no on February 23, 2026.
Bills she signed
- HB2464 (2026), co-sponsor. Repeals Arizona’s right-to-work law, if voters later approve, so a union contract could require dues as a condition of keeping a job. Right-to-work has been state law since the 1940s.
- HB2465 (2026), co-sponsor. Stops state agencies from requiring proof of citizenship for professional licenses and accepts a federal tax ID number in place of a Social Security number.
- HB2222 (2026), co-sponsor. Lets a person change the sex on a birth certificate to male, female, undesignated, or other, with no surgery required. The bill sets no minimum age.
- HB2928 (2026), co-sponsor. Once the temperature passes 80 degrees, employers would owe workers shade or air conditioning, paid cool-down breaks, a restroom within 400 feet, and training. Workers could sue.
- HB2580 and HB2583 (2026), prime sponsor. New rules for Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, micro-schools, tutors, and fingerprinting.
In a January 29, 2026 floor speech, she defended library policy on equity, diversity, and inclusion grounds and cited the American Library Association.