Becoming an Educated Voter
Do you know the difference between your local, state and federal representatives? If not, it’s okay! While the elected officials that represent you in D.C. might get more name recognition, local and state leadership tends to impact your life more directly!
Each state elects two U.S. Senators, and depending on the population, a variable number of U.S. Representatives. In Arizona, there are 9 Congressional Districts, which means 9 U.S. Representatives are sent to Washington, D.C. to represent YOU. U.S. Senators and Representatives are paid to represent the interests of you and your family at the federal level. So to simplify it:
- 2 Senators per state
- The amount of representatives vary per state population and Arizona has 9
Find your U.S. Representative here! https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
The current Arizona U.S. Senators are Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly.
Meanwhile, each state has its own legislature. This legislature handles things like state budgets, and state policy that impact our cities and counties. Citizens vote to send a certain number of State Senators and State Representatives to the state capitol to advocate for your interests at the state level.
In Arizona, there are 30 legislative districts (or “LDs”); each. LD’s elect two representatives to the Arizona House of Representatives, and one State Senator for a total of 60 State Representatives and 30 State Senators.
If you don’t know who your state reps and senators are, you’re not alone! But it’s easy to find out:
- Figure out your legislative district here – just type in your home address
https://redistricting-irc-az.hub.arcgis.com/pages/official-maps
- Then, you can look up the roster of elected:
○ Arizona State Senators
○ Arizona House of Representatives
https://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster/?body=S
Once you know who your state reps are, look them up on social media and follow them! It’s an easy way to get smart on what they care about – then you can decide if that matches what is important to you. We will be sharing nonpartisan voting guides in the 9 coming weeks as well.