Why groundbreaking lawmaker Jennifer Longdon left the Arizona Legislature
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It’s not quite a mass exodus, but the number of Arizona legislators fleeing the Capitol is climbing. From those who have left for better opportunities — both in and out of politics — to those who have been just about forced out, the number of lawmakers who have left just this session is up to five. And a few more have announced they won’t run again.
One of the latest is former state Rep. Jennifer Longdon, a well-known Democrat who had represented part of central Phoenix since 2018.
Longdon couldn’t escape identity politics if she tried. She’s used a wheelchair since 2004, when she was shot in the back during a drive-by shooting.
Longdon’s time at the Capitol is notable for the physical accommodations made to update meeting rooms, bathrooms and even the floor of the House of Representatives. But she is responsible for other changes, as well — many involving people with disabilities.
She left to take a job that allows her to continue working in public policy — chief external affairs officer for the Arizona Alliance of Community Health Centers. But, as she told The Show when she came into the KJZZ studio recently, it was about a lot more than that.
Full interview
JENNIFER LONGDON: So several folks have left because they're running for another office, higher office. And when those opportunities come along, you've got to take them. But for me, the issue came down to the ability to advance the policy positions that took me there. Did the sacrifices of doing that work outweigh the benefits? And for me, it didn't, it was difficult to move important legislation. Several of the issues I care deeply about will never be heard in this body. Gun violence prevention being number one.
And legislators make $24,000 a year. So I found myself working in essence three full-time jobs. My work at the Leg being one, I had two other jobs that paid a salary but for the concessions that those employers were willing to make so that I could be at the Leg when I needed to be there, the salaries were generous for what I was asking them to concede but not enough combined to allow me to live the lifestyle as a person with a disability. So an opportunity to take a better salary and still contribute to public policy in Arizona was a dream.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. Yeah. So it seems like this is a trend for maybe some other reasons. So you mentioned the salary, you mentioned the opportunity, but you talked also about this idea that you couldn't get the things that you wanted done, done. Why aren't more good people seeking and holding office? Like do you think that there is just something going on down there that makes it a little dysfunctional?
LONGDON: Well, certainly the extremism is playing into it more and more folks are being elected who are on the polar opposites rather than being a moderate, actually being a moderate and either party is now a dirty word and, and those folks are kind of being pushed out of their parties. And I think that we've also seen in the past several years, a growing trend of threats of violence and in some cases, although not here in Arizona, actual violence against elected officials and that has to play into it, especially when you're looking at our, you know, our working conditions.
GILGER: Yeah, I'm thinking of the board of supervisors. We saw several people step down from that body recently as well for the exact same reason, I know you have faced death threats. I know you've had to deal with vitriol. You've been the target of a lot of it for quite some time. Did that play a role in, in your decision to leave?
LONGDON: Oh, absolutely. So I was paralyzed almost 20 years ago in a random shooting. And I've been doing gun violence prevention advocacy pretty much ever since then. And with that work has come death threats, threats of violence, threats of sexual violence, because I had the audacity to ask for common sense measures to protect people from the same sort of gun violence that visited my family. That comes with death threats, as I said, threats of other violence, vandalism, and I kind of got used to it. You know, there's a difference between the, the guy who's eating Hot Pockets in his mom's basement east of the Mississippi and, you know, sending you death threats on DM, and someone who clearly lives in your area and is threatening you with more specificity.
And that change came into my life a couple of years ago. I talked to friends in law enforcement and asked them, you know, look at this, what do you think of these particular threats? They were alarming enough that I took out a home loan and made changes to my home, you know, defensive landscaping, lighting locks, windows, that sort of stuff, cameras, to protect myself in my home. And no one should have to fortify their own home in that way, simply for advocating for a common good.
GILGER: I mean, like, do you think there's a loss in that like this, if people like you who are trying to, you know, work toward legislation, honest kind of policy work, right, are, are being sort of threatened out of the work in a way? I mean, like, do you think that's a loss for a democracy?
LONGDON: Oh, absolutely. Extremism is silencing the voices in the middle and, and silencing important voices. And I didn't leave out of a sense of cowardice. I'm still going to be doing the work. But I had to make some changes in order to continue to do it.
GILGER: Let me back up and just ask you to think back five to six years, right? And talk a little bit about why you wanted to do this to begin with. Like, why, why did you run the first time you ran.
LONGDON: Oh, all that time ago. I tease with people that I'm often asked, why did you run? And I wake up, used to wake up every day and go, why did you run? And I am grateful that the people of my district, I am grateful and honored that they chose me to serve to represent them in the statehouse. I'm proud of the work that I was able to do. And it will be a part of my life, a chapter in my life that I will always be humbled and grateful and honored to have had. And when I ran, I ran because I was hoping that going down to the Legislature as a person with my particular lived experience, a gun owner who, you know, has had my life changed by gun violence, a person living with disability and trying to work to work myself off of the type of benefits that are required to survive.
I thought that I could add a perspective to those conversations down at the statehouse, and I think I did and that is why I was there. Right before I was sworn in, days before I was sworn in the incident, we call Hacienda happened. And I think my voice and my perspective through all of that work has made a difference in how the state of Arizona has addressed it. Now, we haven't done it fast enough, we haven't done enough, but I am proud of what I have been able to do. There's work still to be done.
GILGER: Yeah, this is of course, the incident in which a a severely disabled woman was found to be impregnated in an assisted living facility. What other accomplishments stand out to you in your time at the Legislature? What are you proud of?
LONGDON: Well, I'm certainly proud of the work that we did around that issue. I'm the first Democrat in 60 years to have been invited to chair an ad hoc committee. I think that's pretty significant, and I think we did good work. We did good bipartisan work on the issue of abuse and neglect in long term care facilities. And again, that work needs to continue.
I am proud to have participated in a strong bipartisan budget when I was a member of the leadership team. Bills, I'm particularly proud of the work to allow for supported decision making that allows individuals with cognitive disabilities, for example, to allow them to be a prime mover in their decision making and to have a strong support system around them so they're not under a guardianship. That was really important. That was work I'm very proud of. That's if I have a legacy that, that's a piece I'd like to be a part of it.
GILGER: The last time I talked to you in your office at the Legislature, your former office at the Legislature, it was about a piece of legislation that you had tried to get heard many times about regulating guns, the possession of guns, locking them up in homes. Did you ever make any progress on that type or any type of gun legislation that you went to the Legislature to address?
LONGDON: Gun violence prevention has never moved in the years that I've been there. And it is, you know, it is a strict party line issue. My biggest regret in leaving the House is that Christian's Law, which would be child access prevention to firearms, safe storage, that we didn't get that over the finish line, but that will never be done until we have a Democratic majority in both chambers and a Democratic governor.
GILGER: Let me ask you about that because there's a lot of talk and there has been in years past and it's never come to fruition, but there's still a lot of talk this year as we head into another election that the Democrats might finally take control of one chamber or the other. They now have control of the governor's office. Why not wait around and see if you might get control, right?
LONGDON: Well, and that certainly played into my decision making. You know, I am honored to have the opportunity to serve while Gov. [Katie] Hobbs is on the ninth floor. And not being there to support her and the work that we're doing weighed heavily on me, but again, part of it had to be personal considerations. I had, I had a health scare and along with it came significant medical debt and as I looked at it with my current income, I realized that I was looking at probably a five year plan to pay that off and, and I have medical coverage. But as a person with a disability, it came with a lot of additional costs. So that issue of income played strongly. And I believe that I have done, in the six weeks I've been in my current position. I believe that I have done more to move health-care policy forward in Arizona than I did in my term, this term.
GILGER: That says a lot, I, I want to talk about your, your new position in a moment, but you've also been at the Legislature and just in the state for, you know, the last five years or so, a real voice for people with disabilities. I think you've been relatively accepting of that responsibility, right. I wonder though, like, did it ever bother you? Like, there's got to be a little bit of tension in always being the person who has to say the thing, right? Even when it came to making changes, like physical changes to the building, to the House floor, you know, to, to, to just having somebody like you be able to exist in this space.
LONGDON: I think that I am the only elected official who's been in every restroom in the building as we were working to make some changes. I had the opportunity to work with the sergeant at arms and, you know, certainly under the speaker's office, the chief of staff, they were open to making sure things were as accessible as possible. But I had one summer, I spent a lot of time in the restrooms. And while that's not like a sexy thing to do, the idea that we have extended this dignity and autonomy to everyone who would come to their house, the people's house in Arizona is really important to me. And so that's something that I'm proud of as well.
But yeah, I got calls, letters from around the state, people who didn't know who to reach out to or lawmakers who would say, "I talked to a constituent and I don't know exactly how, how does this work? What should I do?" Taking that on has been, it's been important. It's, it's exhausting it. It really is. And the most frustrating part is when my own colleagues had opportunities to recognize moments that they could be strong advocates and in the end chose not to, or would invoke people with disabilities as an ideal in bill arguments without having ever spoken to individuals who, you know, that might impact.
GILGER: From your own party?
LONGDON: Yeah, both parties but yes, from my own party.
GILGER: Yeah. I wonder what still needs to change, like in the, the Capitol, in general, in, in our society, you think, to support people with disabilities, like a change to the building or a policy change? What, what would you really like to see happen?
LONGDON: Well, I think the first thing I'd like to see is for folks to understand that at any given moment of any given day, they too could become a person with a disability. That people they know and love live with disabilities. I, I'd like to see us do more work around the stigma of being a person with a disability and recognize that we live common everyday lives, full lives, we want full participation and I think the rest falls into place when you do that.
GILGER: So let's talk about your new position, which you seem really excited about. Tell us, you know, what was, what was so good that you, that you left your work at the Leg?
LONGDON: Well, I had a really exciting opportunity. We are the largest primary care network in Arizona. I think one in five folks who receive access are treated at community health center. That's more than 800,000 Arizonans and I, I think it's an amazing model and I just couldn't be more honored to be part of this.
GILGER: I want to hit on something you mentioned earlier because it reminds me of another interview I did with a different former lawmaker, Steve Kaiser, not that long ago, who left last session after not being able to do the work he wanted to do in the Legislature. I mean, do you, do you really feel like you can do more on the, the issues that matter to you on the outside?
LONGDON: I do.
GILGER: Wow.
LONGDON: I do. And you know, and so this was a, this wasn't a, a snap decision that I made. It was folks like Kaiser leaving and saying the same thing. Hearing, hearing this from lawmakers who are still serving. A number of folks who left last year after the election, you know, who either didn't run or weren't re-elected, listening to them and how they have landed at different nonprofit organizations. It was wondering if I should run for re-election and having that internal discussion, you know, with myself and then with my own circle because the people in my life, you know, when you serve your circle serves with you, your family, your friends and you know, they make sacrifices alongside of you while you're doing it. And so all of that played into this along with the extremism, the gridlock, the death threats, the, you know, lack of income, all of it kind of came together in a place that said, why wouldn't I?
So I go into my office now and the people I work with, all of them want to see me succeed. That's quite a radical change as a lawmaker when you go into the House. I mean, half of your colleagues are actively working to make sure that you are unsuccessful and that's the nature of the work and you accept it. So it's just a radical new environment.
GILGER: Yeah. Well, would you ever run again?
LONGDON: No. And, and I say that with the caveat, you know, I never thought I'd run in the first place. So I, I cannot at this time ever imagine that I would run for another elected office.
