Festival Ranch Coffee – Guest Speaker Deb Howard

Deborah Howard is a candidate for the Arizona State House of Representatives in Legislative District 27  – one of only seven competitive legislative districts in the state. And the hardest district to flip at that! She is joining Festival Sun City Dems to share information about her experience in 2024;  and a look at what’s ahead for 2026. 


Her professional career intersected the universes of public affairs, communications, and project management. In that universe she developed strong facilitation, negotiation, and communication skills which are used to foster and sustain collaborative, cross-functional teams. Skills she hopes will be useful as a member of the state legislature. 


Other than voting, her first political engagement started with campus-based voter registration as a college student in 1978. Voter registration remains her favorite act of civic engagement. She was introduced to redistricting 2011when she monitored California’s inaugural independent citizen’s redistricting commission. She found it to be a little like voter registration – on steroids.
 
She moved to Arizona in 2017. In 2021 she committed to monitoring Arizona’s independent redistricting commission which was one of the first “independent” commission in the nation when passed by voters in 2000.  In the end she led a team of almost 100 volunteers as part of the Arizona Indivisible Statewide Redistricting Team. That leadership experience with Indivisible, and her experiences with Swing Left, her local LD and advocating on behalf quality public education and expanding and protecting civil and voting rights are the foundation of her political support throughout the state – and beyond…