Wendy Rogers | |
|---|---|
 Rogers in 2023 | |
| Member of theArizona Senate | |
| Assumed office January 11, 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Sylvia Allen |
| Constituency | 6th district(2021–2023) 7th district(2023–present) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1954-07-24)July 24, 1954 (age 70) Fort Knox, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Harry Lovejoy Rogers (great-grandfather) |
| Education | Michigan State University (BSW) University of Alabama (MSW) California State University, San Bernardino (MS) |
| Website | Campaign website |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Air Force |
| Years of service | 1976–1996 |
| Rank |  Lieutenant Colonel |
Wendy Rogers (born July 24, 1954) is an Americanfar-right politician of theRepublican Party. First elected in 2020, she is theArizona State Senator representingLegislative District 7.
Rogers was anU.S. Air Force officer from 1976 to 1996. Before winning election to the state Senate, she unsuccessfully ran for various state and federal offices between 2010 and 2018. In 2020, Rogers mounted a successfulprimary challenge against incumbent State SenatorSylvia Allen and went on to defeat theDemocratic nominee in the general election. Rogers was initially elected to representLegislative District 6, later re-elected to representLegislative District 7 due toredistricting.[1]
As a candidate and member of the Arizona Senate, Rogers has courted controversy with inflammatory rhetoric, support forDonald Trump and his attempts tooverturn the 2020 election, and her embrace ofwhite nationalism including variousantisemitic and racistconspiracy theories. She is a member of theOath Keepers, ananti-government militia group whose members took part in theJanuary 6 attack on theU.S. Capitol in 2021.
In March 2022, Rogers received a rarecensure by the Republican-controlled Arizona Senate for her remarks to the white nationalistAmerica First Political Action Conference, and was the subject of an ethics investigation after suggesting that the2022 Buffalo shooting was aU.S. governmentfalse flag operation.
Rogers was born inFort Knox, Kentucky, on July 24, 1954.[2] She holds aBachelor of Social Work fromMichigan State University, aMaster of Social Work from theUniversity of Alabama, and aMaster of Science in National Security Studies fromCalifornia State University, San Bernardino.[2]
Rogers served in theUnited States Air Force from 1976 to 1996, retiring with the rank oflieutenant colonel.[2] One of the first 100 female pilots in the Air Force, Rogers earned her flight wings in 1981 and went on to fly theC-141 Starlifter heavy military transport aircraft andC-21 "Learjet" transport.[3][4] Rogers was later stationed in Europe.[3]
Beginning in 2010, Rogers ran unsuccessfully for public office five times.[5] In 2010, Rogers ran for theArizona Senate in the17th legislative district, losing toDemocratDavid Schapira in the general election.[6] In2012, she ran for theU.S. House of Representatives inArizona's 9th congressional district, losing the Republican primary to Vernon Parker.[7] In2014, she ran again for the 9th district and won the Republican nomination, but lost to incumbent Democratic congresswomanKyrsten Sinema.[8] During that campaign, Rogers usedfootage of the beheading video of American journalistJames Foley byISIL terrorists in a campaign ad seeking to attack Sinema as weak on national security. Democrats condemned the ad as a "reprehensible" smear tactic, while Rogers's campaign defended it.[9]
In2016, Rogers unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination forArizona's 1st congressional district; she was one of a five-person field, along withPinal County SheriffPaul Babeu, former state Senator and Arizona Secretary of StateKen Bennett, rancher and businessman Gary Kiehne, and businessman Shawn Redd.[10] During her primary campaign, Rogers was the sole candidate to supportDonald Trump's proposal tobuild a wall on the border with Mexico.[10] She also supported increasing the number of U.S. military personnel deployed to foreign conflicts.[10] Rogers lost, coming in third place behind Babeu, who won the nomination, and Kiehne, the runner-up.[11] In2018, Rogers ran again and won the Republican nomination for the 1st congressional district, but lost to incumbent Democratic congressmanTom O'Halleran.[12]
In2020, Rogers ran for theArizona Senate in the6th legislative district, which encompassesRim Country and theWhite Mountains, and extends fromFlagstaff to the Arizona–New Mexico border.[13] Rogers unseated longtime Republican incumbentSylvia Allen in a bitterly contested primary election,[14] and defeated Democratic nominee Felicia French in the general election.[15] During the campaign, Rogers made few public appearances, did not participate in debates, and avoided taking positions on local political issues, such asforest management, education funding, orArizona's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[15]Dark money organizations on both sides spent large sums to support and oppose the two candidates.[15] Rogers raised $1 million in campaign contributions, a record for the district.[15] As a candidate and official, she has espousedfar-right views and cultivated ties to far-right political causes.[16][17][18][19]
Rogers took office in January 2021.[20] Now serving her second term, she currently serves as Chair of the Arizona Senate Elections Committee, Vice Chair of the Government Committee, and member of the Military Affairs, Public Safety & Border Security Committee and Judiciary Committee, and as a member of the joint legislature's Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Study Committee.[21][22]
In March 2021, during theCOVID-19 pandemic in Arizona, Rogers sponsored legislation to declare gun shops "essential businesses" permitted to remain open during emergencies; the bill passed the Senate on a 16–14 party-line vote.[23] In February 2021, Rogers sponsored legislation seeking to rename a portion ofArizona State Route 260 as the "Donald J. Trump Highway"; State SenatorMartín Quezada, a Democrat from Phoenix, described Roger's proposal as "a desperate attempt" to pander to Trump supporters.[24] In 2021, Rogers introduced a bill to ban abortions on the grounds of disability and make performing abortions for this reason a felony.[25]
In January 2021, Rogers introduced legislation to create a special license plate and charitable fund for veterans of overseas conflicts, which passed after being signed into law by the governor.[26]
In January 2022, Rogers proposed a bill that, if accepted, would make Arizona the first state to acceptBitcoin aslegal tender, though doubts were raised about its compliance with theContract Clause of theUnited States Constitution.[27] Rogers subsequently introduced legislation to allow state agencies to accept cryptocurrencies in the payment of debts, and to exclude cryptocurrencies from Arizona taxes.[28][29]
In 2024, Rogers sponsored several bills focusing on property rights, child safety, and mental health services. HB2408 amends the Arizona Revised Statutes to assist property owners who experience destruction of their property after the county assessor has closed the property tax rolls.[30] It allows the county assessor to adjust the property’s value and maintain the property’s classification for up to five years, depending on usage.[30]
Rogers also sponsored HB2473, a bill that limits the maximum licensing fees for mental health professionals and provides fee waivers for individuals transitioning between associate-level and independent-level licensure.[31]
HB2479 requires the Department of Child Safety to notify law enforcement when a child in its care goes missing, is abducted, or runs away. The bill imposes new training and reporting requirements on the department to improve the response to these situations.[32] Rogers also sponsored SB1280, a bill that seeks to prevent individuals who are registered sex offenders from serving on school district governing boards.[33] The bill increases transparency by requiring county school superintendents to publish candidate statements and photographs for school board elections.[33]
On December 16, 2024, Wendy Rogers made a second attempt to designate SR 260 as Donald J. Trump Highway with Arizona Senate Concurrent Memorial 1001.[34][35] Results for this effort are pending.
Rogers was reelected to the Arizona Senate in the7th legislative district in 2022.[36] During the precedingredistricting cycle, Rogers' district went from leaning Republican to heavily Republican.[37] She benefited from a "last-minute change" by theArizona Independent Redistricting Commission, which altered 7th district boundaries to shift more Democratic-leaning voters to a neighboring district.[38][1] Rogers was drawn into the same legislative district as fellow incumbent Republican senatorKelly Townsend fromApache Junction.[37] Former presidentDonald Trump endorsed Rogers, and by January 2022, Rogers had raised a record $2.5 million for her reelection campaign.[39][40][41]
On July 4, 2022, Donald Glenn Brown, a formerTucson middle school music teacher, sent adeath threat to a store inShow Low where Rogers was attending the city'sIndependence Day parade. Brown's email, sent from afake account, threatened tofatally shoot Rogersand others at the store.[42] Brown was charged with attempting to make aterroristic threat, a Class 4felony. He pled guilty in April 2023 and was sentenced on June 6, 2023, to two and a half years in prison byNavajo CountySuperior Court Judge Joseph Clark.[43] Reacting to the sentence, Rogers praised the ruling for protecting the interests of her constituents.[44]
Rogers defeated Townsend in the Republican primary on August 22, 2022, having received 59.7% percent of the vote (24,023 votes) to Townsend's 40.3% (16,185).[45][46] Rogers went on to defeat Democrat Kyle Nitschke in the general election, where she received 63.6% of the vote (63,019 votes) to Nitschke's 36.4% (36,030 votes).[36]
In 2023, Republican state representativeDavid Cook, widely considered to be more moderate than Rogers, announced that he would challenge Rogers in the 2024 Republican primary election.[47] Cook, term-limited from seeking re-election to the Arizona House, claimed that he decided to enter the race after Rogers retweeted a video containing sexually-explicit content fromHunter Biden's laptop.[48] Rogers unsuccessfully sued in an attempt to block Cook from the primary ballot.[47][49] In the primary election, Rogers defeated Cook with 55 percent of the vote.[50]
During the general election, Rogers faced Democrat Haley Creighton, a former student activist and self-described "queer...nerd" who previously managed the campaign of Rogers' 2022 opponent Kyle Nitschke.[51] In the general election, Rogers easily won re-election to a third term, earning 65% of the vote to Creighton's 35%.[51]
While running for Congress in 2018, Rogers ran ads referring to her Republican primary opponentSteve Smith as a "slimy character" and linking his employer, a modeling agency, to "websites linked tosex trafficking".[52][53] The modeling agency and its owner sued Rogers for defamation.[54][52] In a 4–3 decision issued in February 2022, theArizona Supreme Court ruled that Rogers's ad was protected by theFirst Amendment, and that allowing the case to proceed would "inevitably and intolerably chill political speech." The three dissenting justices criticized the decision as "unnecessary for protecting political speech," claiming that the decision would enable the weaponization of the First Amendment "against innocent bystanders".[55][56]
In January 2021 a former legislative aide to Rogers filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee accusing Rogers of workplace abuse, claiming that Rogers subjected him to verbal abuse, removed and damaged his belongings, demanded that he perform campaign work on government time, and demanded that he work while onsick leave forCOVID-19.[57] An investigation by a Senate attorney found "little evidence" to corroborate the claims, and the complaint was dismissed in March 2021 after the Republican-led Ethics Committee found noclear and convincing evidence of an ethics violation. Both Democrats on the Committee disagreed with the decision.[58][59][60]
In June 2022,QAnon conspiracy theoristRon Watkins filed an ethics complaint against Rogers with the Arizona Senate. In support of his complaint, Watkins cited Rogers' request on the instant messaging serviceTelegram for theGroypers to "hit" Watkins after he alleged that Rogers had cut a "backroom deal" to prevent election equipment from being examined.[61]
Following the May 2022mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, Rogers suggested on a social media site that the shooting was afalse flag operation perpetrated by U.S. federal government agents.[62][63] The Republican-controlled Arizona Senate decided two days later, by a 24–3 vote, to open an ethics investigation of Rogers over the comment. Rogers was one of the three Republicans who voted against the investigation.[64][65] In June 2022, the Senate Ethics Committee counsel issued its report, which made no determination as to whether Rogers violated Senate rules, and concluded that the full Senate was responsible for deciding whether to take any further action with respect to Senator Rogers' remarks."[66]
Following the2020 United States presidential election, Rogers promoted the false claim thatDonald Trump had won the election.[67] As Arizona's slate ofelectors met inPhoenix to formally cast the state's electoral votes for Biden, Rogers tweeted "Buy more ammo," drawing condemnation.[68] Later, Rogers falsely claimed that theJanuary 6 U.S. Capitol Attack, in which a mob of Trump supporters attempted to halt the electoral vote count, had been conducted byAntifa groups.[67][69]
Rogers was a strong supporter of Arizona Senate Republicans'2021 Maricopa County presidential ballot audit and similar efforts in other states to decertify the election results, gaining significant attention onsocial media.[70][71] Following criticism of the audit by theMaricopa County Board of Supervisors, Rogers called for their imprisonment along with that of unnamedelectronic voting machine company executives.[72] The audit ultimately found that Biden's margin of victory was larger than originally tabulated.[73]
In 2018, Rogers claimed to be a "charter member" of theOath Keepers, amilitia group known for its promotion ofconspiracy theories and violent, extremist, and separatist rhetoric.[74] During her 2020 campaign for the Arizona Senate, she again promoted her membership in the group.[13] After more than two dozen members of the organization were criminally indicted for their role in the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack, Rogers praised the group's "dedication to our Constitution and to our country," including a photo of her speaking to theCottonwood chapter of the organization.[74]
In December 2020, as a state senator-elect, Rogers praisedConfederate generalRobert E. Lee as a "great patriot and a great leader".[75]
In June 2021, Rogers appeared on thestreaming channelTruNews on a show hosted byChristian nationalist commentatorLauren Witzke. TruNews, along with its founderRick Wiles, is known for its promotion ofantisemitic conspiracy theories, including a claim Trump'simpeachment was orchestrated by "seditious Jews" and that Americans are "oppressed by Jewish tyrants".[76][77] Rogers appeared onTruNews a second time the next month; during this appearance, Witzke called Rogers her "favorite state legislator" and said that the TruNews crew were "really big fans" of hers.[77]
In a Twitter post in July 2021, Rogers claimed that "Americans who love this country" are "being replaced and invaded," echoing the racist and populistGreat Replacement conspiracy theory popular among Republicans.[78][79] Rogers later doubled down, claiming that "communists" were using "mass immigration, education, big tech, big corporations & other strategies" to carry out the replacement.[80] Rogers has embracedwhite nationalism and promoted various antisemitic conspiracy theories about Ukrainian presidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy,George Soros, and theRothschild family.[81][82][83][84][85][86] In February 2022, she gave a pre-recorded speech to theAmerica First Political Action Conference in which she referred to the event's white nationalist organizerNick Fuentes as the "most persecuted man in America" and called for the public hanging of unspecified "traitors".[38][85][87] Following the conference, Rogers praised white nationalist Vincent James Foxx, suggesting he run for office.[87]
On March 1, 2022, In response to her speech, Republican Arizona Senate Majority LeaderRick Gray moved to censure Rogers for "conduct unbecoming of a senator, including...encouraging violence."[85] On the Senate floor, Rogers refused to apologize and accused Senate Republican leadership of "colluding with the Democrats".[88] The final censure resolution (which passed 24–3) criticized Rogers for "encouraging violence" and threatening the "political destruction of those who disagree with her views".[82] Rogers was the first Arizona senator to be censured in at least four decades.[89]
In September 2024, in celebration offar right German partyAfD's victory in the2024 Thuringian state election, she tweeted the first stanza ofDeutschlandlied, commonly associated with theNazi Party.[90]
Members of the Arizona legislature are required to live in the districts they represent.[38] In filing papers to run for state Senate, Rogers listed her residence as the 708-square-foot mobile home in Flagstaff.[38] However, atrust document signed by Rogers and her husband in January 2023 stated that they were "currently residing" in Tempe.[91][92] Rogers and her husband, Hal Kunnen, previously owned three residences: a single-family residence inTempe, a single-family residence in theStellar Airpark inChandler, and a mobile home in Flagstaff's Wildwood Hills.[91] As of 2024, Rogers and Kunnen had sold their homes in Tempe and Chandler.[92]
In 2023, while investigating Roger's residence,Arizona Capitol Times reporter Camryn Sanchez rang a doorbell at Roger's home and asked her questions on the floor of the Arizona Senate. Rogers obtained arestraining order against Sanchez,[38] which the Flagstaff Justice Court grantedwithout notice to the reporter.[91] The order was criticized by theFreedom of the Press Foundation,[93] and theCapitol Times challenged it as a baseless and unconstitutionalprior restraint infringement upon thefreedom of the press.[94] The order was later dissolved after a different judge ruled that Sanchez was engaged in "legitimate" news-gathering activity, and that the reporter did not engage in activity that would cause a "reasonable person to be seriously alarmed, annoyed or harassed."[91]
Rogers married Hal Kunnen in 1978; they have two children and own a home inspection business.[10] Like Rogers, Kunnen is a retired Air Force officer.[95]
57th Legislature (2025-present)
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