AZ GOP Legislators Struggle on TPAction Scorecard

Turning Point Action (TPAction), a conservative grassroots organization, has a comprehensive scorecard designed to evaluate legislators based on their adherence to key conservative principles. This tool aims to provide constituents with transparent insights into their representatives’ voting records on issues deemed critical by TPAction.

The scorecard assesses legislators across eight primary issues: American Culture, Big Tech & Free Speech, Border Security, Election Integrity, Medical Freedom, School Choice, Second Amendment rights, and Taxes and Spending. Each legislator’s score is calculated based on their votes on legislation related to these topics, with points awarded for alignment with TPAction’s positions. A perfect alignment results in a 100% score, indicating full adherence to the organization’s conservative benchmarks.

Austin Smith, former State Representative and current TPAction Scorecard Director, emphasized the organization’s commitment to transparency:

“Turning Point Action Scorecard is the most transparent and comprehensive rating system in the conservative movement. All of this is publicly available information on our website. Even more so, we do our best to send out a tweet from the Scorecard X regarding the bills we’re scoring. That adds another layer of transparency. Our team reads the same bills that these lawmakers do. Scorecard is a great accountability measure that our legislators are doing what they said they’d do. We do not need more rubber stamping big government and special interest legislation ran by lobby mules.”

The scorecard evaluates legislators based on their votes on selected bills that TPAction deems significant to conservative values. Notably, this session has seen a general decline in scores, even among members of the Freedom Caucus. Smith cautioned that these numbers are subject to change as not all bills have been scored yet, and the evaluations will continue until the legislative session concludes.

Currently, Arizona is ranked as “losing freedom” at 66.03% federally and “erratic state” at 44.36% statewide.

It’s important to note that the scorecard does not encompass all legislative activity but focuses on specific bills chosen by TPAction. This selective approach means that the overall scores reflect positions on particular issues prioritized by the organization.

Austin also said, “Turning Point Action scorecard’s policy shop is always open to anyone in elected office who has questions on policy or proposed issues. We are happy to talk and meet whenever.” He continued to stress that this is “another layer of transparency. Some lawmakers have done that this session.”

In the current Arizona State Legislature, several state senators have received low “patriotism” scores. Scores are categorized into labels such as “Patriot,” “Losing Patriotism,” “Erratic,” and “Tyrant.”

Arizona State Senator Shawnna Bolick received an overall score of 82.46% from Turning Point Action (TPAction), placing her in the “Losing Patriotism” category according to their scorecard. Notably, during this session, her performance in the “Medical Freedom” category was particularly low, with a score of 16.67%. This category assesses legislators based on their support for policies promoting individual autonomy in healthcare decisions, opposition to vaccine mandates, and resistance to government-imposed health restrictions.

The “Medical Freedom” category proved challenging for many Republican legislators during this session, reflecting the complexities and divergent views within the party on health-related mandates and individual rights.

The Arizona House is performing notably worse than the Senate in this year’s TPAction legislative scorecard. A sample of three representatives reveals that some have fallen into the harsh category—”Betraying America.” One striking example is Representative Tony Rivero, whose voting record shows he opposed TPAction’s recommendations on nearly every key bill. His scores suggest a consistent departure from the conservative principles the organization prioritizes.

While several organizations rank Arizona legislators, TPAction claims to offer the most comprehensive and detailed evaluation. In contrast, groups like AZRA provide rankings that are generally more simplistic and noticeably more generous. Critics of TPAction argue that its scorecard cherry-picks bills and fails to capture the full context of legislative decisions. Still, among the various tools used to assess elected officials, TPAction’s scorecard stands out for its depth and unapologetically strict criteria, offering a clear window into how lawmakers align with a specific brand of conservative values.