For most candidates, qualifying for Arizona’s Legislature general election means collecting petition signatures. For Republican Paul Carver, the path was different. Instead of gathering the required 464 petition signatures, he needed at least 464 valid write-in votes in the Republican primary to qualify for November. He didn’t just meet the requirement. As of late primary night, Carver said he had received more than 1,200 write-in votes, demonstrating that an organized grassroots campaign can overcome one of the biggest challenges in Arizona politics.

His campaign offers the Arizona Globe a blueprint for how a write-in candidate can actually win. Legislative District 2 is one of Arizona’s more competitive Republican-leaning districts. Republicans hold a voter registration advantage, but Democrats remain competitive, and statewide races are often closely contested, making every House seat important heading into the general election.

Carver said the race was less about winning over voters than about educating them on the mechanics of a write-in campaign.

“The biggest challenge wasn’t convincing people to vote for me,” he said. “It was teaching people how to cast a write-in vote correctly.”

Because one Republican candidate withdrew too late to be removed from the ballot, voters still saw two printed Republican candidates for the district’s two House seats. Carver’s campaign focused almost entirely on educating voters that they could instead cast a valid write-in vote. The campaign distributed more than 8,000 palm cards throughout the district. The front briefly introduced Carver. The back featured a sample ballot that walked voters through the two critical steps required for a valid write-in vote: filling in the write-in bubble and writing his name legibly on the ballot.

Recognizing that many voters had never cast a write-in ballot, the campaign also produced a roughly 40-second instructional video demonstrating the process from start to finish (click for video)

“It was an educational piece because people always hear about write-in candidates, but nobody ever really hears about a successful write-in candidate.”

But printed material was only part of the strategy. Carver estimated that roughly 24 to 30 volunteers knocked doors and distributed literature across LD2. Another three dozen volunteers made personalized phone calls, sent handwritten letters, and texted friends, neighbors, and Republican voters throughout the district. The campaign also benefited from an independent text messaging effort by the House Victory Fund and from prominently placed signs throughout the district identifying Carver as the write-in candidate.

During the final two days before Election Day, approximately 18 to 24 volunteers staffed electioneering locations near polling places across the district, speaking directly with voters before they cast their ballots. The effort paid off.

Carver said preliminary numbers showed only eight voters accidentally overvoted by selecting both printed candidates and writing him in, evidence, he believes, that the educational campaign was highly effective.

“Apparently it paid off. We needed 464, and we’ve already pulled down over 1,200 votes.”

One of the more surprising takeaways was what Carver says mattered the least. Despite maintaining an online presence, he estimated social media accounted for only about 10 to 20 percent of the overall campaign.

“The greatest percentage of this whole ground game was really the in-person contact that we made face-to-face, via text messages and handwritten letters.”

Carver intentionally focused his social media efforts primarily on Facebook rather than X.

“X is more of a national or international platform. If you really want to stay local and relevant, Facebook accomplishes that a lot better.”

Instead, he credits old-fashioned grassroots politics, stating, “Nothing beats the ground game.”

The campaign also exposed a broader civic education challenge. While volunteers worked polling locations, Carver said many voters did not know what “LD” meant, what a precinct committeeman was, or even which legislative district they lived in.

“People don’t know what LD means. They don’t know what CD means. They mainly focus on the big national races.”

Volunteers frequently found themselves explaining Arizona’s legislative districts before discussing the write-in campaign itself. Carver believes years of building relationships within the district made the effort possible. He recently stepped down after more than 3.5 years as chairman of the LD2 Republican Committee and currently serves as president of the Deer Valley Unified School District Governing Board.

Ironically, he believes an unrelated controversy may have also increased public awareness of his name. When Deer Valley Unified School District Governing Board member Kim Fisher drew national attention after making a gesture widely criticized as a Nazi salute during a board meeting, media coverage frequently identified Carver as the board president presiding over the meeting.

While he described the incident as “ugly,” he believes the attention caused people to look beyond the headlines.

“I think that outburst, for as ugly as it was, brought to light the fact that people started asking, ‘Who is this Paul Carver guy?'”

“People started to dig into the kind of person I am and the way that I lead meetings, whether it’s at the legislative district or the school board,” he said, adding, “I think they got to see that I’m a very level-headed, even-handed person that follows the rules and follows policy and does his level best to make sure he’s doing what’s right for everybody involved.”

Democrats are employing a single-shot strategy in November, nominating only Rep. Stephanie Simacek to compete against Republican incumbent Justin Wilmeth and Republican Paul Carver for the district’s two House seats.