You have great taste.
The Arizona Agenda is an independent, journalist-owned newsletter. It lands in your inbox every weekday at 6 a.m. with the news, context and behind-the-scenes details you need to understand Arizona government and politics.
The roads you drive, the schools your kids attend and the taxes that come out of your paycheck are all shaped by a small circle of people running Arizona and its cities, towns and counties.
But the network of elected officials, bureaucrats and political insiders who run things is often confusing, inaccessible and hard to follow.
Our job is to bring you into the fold.
We make Arizona government make sense — and have a damn good time doing it. We dig past the talking points to show you who's driving the decisions, why — and what it all means for you.
We follow the facts wherever they lead and hold powerful people accountable, regardless of political party. Think of us as equal-opportunity harassers. Some politicians just give us more material than others.
Our reporting has uncovered:
An eyebrow-raising conflict of interest in the governor’s tourism office, which led to its director’s resignation.
How a far-right lawmaker forged a dead person’s signature to qualify for the ballot.
How a far-right lawmaker forged a dead person’s signature to qualify for the ballot.
And because Arizona’s politics is as absurd as it is consequential, we embrace the spectacle — and occasionally create a little of our own.
That’s included:
How a Democratic lawmaker tried to claim a free replacement for $1,500 worth of lobbyist-funded chicken.
Making a Kari Lake deepfake video to show how convincing the technology can be — and how little regulation surrounds it.
Experimenting with smoke shop shrooms to talk about substance regulation.
The Arizona Agenda began its life in 2021 as a Substack newsletter. Its founders were two veteran Capitol reporters, Hank and Rachel Leingang, who — after years inside corporate-owned newsrooms — we’re looking to build something that was starkly missing from Arizona’s media landscape.
Through the intervening years, a lot has changed in the Agendaverse. We launched the Tucson Agenda to cover the politics and policies impacting Southern Arizona, moved to a new publishing platform and grew our team of Arizona-obsessed reporters.
What started as a partnership between two media renegades has become a team of five sharpened journalists who came up through legacy local newspapers, watched ownership consolidate, newsroom budgets shrink and reporters disappear — often taking decades of institutional knowledge with them.
But we won’t let the flame burn out.
The public still needs to know what’s going down in the halls of power.
With social media feeds being flooded with alarming headlines, it’s easier to ignore the news than to untangle it.
Consider us the untanglers.
But independence isn’t cheap, and financially speaking, we’re running pretty lean.
We don’t have corporate owners, an advertising network or a paywall. We make our work available to everyone and trust that enough readers will find it valuable enough to pay for — and keep us around.
And we’d be thrilled to have you on board.
Alright you guys got me. No one else does what you do, and you do it well.
Your reporting is insightful, direct, and hits all the areas of Arizona politics and current events that I want to read more about. Your skills as journalists is clear and makes wanting to read the updates worth my time. Thank you for your continued reporting.
I feel like it’s the one thing keeping me sane in the current state of politics.
I don’t consider I ‘know’ something until I’ve read it in the Agenda.
Failure to comply with this demand within 24 hours after receipt of this letter will leave us no choice but to pursue all available legal remedies against Arizona Agenda and any individuals involved, including seeking injunctive relief, monetary damages, and legal fees incurred as a result of this matter.
Alright you guys got me. No one else does what you do, and you do it well.
Your reporting is insightful, direct, and hits all the areas of Arizona politics and current events that I want to read more about. Your skills as journalists is clear and makes wanting to read the updates worth my time. Thank you for your continued reporting.
I feel like it’s the one thing keeping me sane in the current state of politics.
I don’t consider I ‘know’ something until I’ve read it in the Agenda.
Failure to comply with this demand within 24 hours after receipt of this letter will leave us no choice but to pursue all available legal remedies against Arizona Agenda and any individuals involved, including seeking injunctive relief, monetary damages, and legal fees incurred as a result of this matter.
Alright you guys got me. No one else does what you do, and you do it well.
Your reporting is insightful, direct, and hits all the areas of Arizona politics and current events that I want to read more about. Your skills as journalists is clear and makes wanting to read the updates worth my time. Thank you for your continued reporting.
I feel like it’s the one thing keeping me sane in the current state of politics.
I don’t consider I ‘know’ something until I’ve read it in the Agenda.
Failure to comply with this demand within 24 hours after receipt of this letter will leave us no choice but to pursue all available legal remedies against Arizona Agenda and any individuals involved, including seeking injunctive relief, monetary damages, and legal fees incurred as a result of this matter.
Alright you guys got me. No one else does what you do, and you do it well.
Your reporting is insightful, direct, and hits all the areas of Arizona politics and current events that I want to read more about. Your skills as journalists is clear and makes wanting to read the updates worth my time. Thank you for your continued reporting.
I feel like it’s the one thing keeping me sane in the current state of politics.
I don’t consider I ‘know’ something until I’ve read it in the Agenda.
Failure to comply with this demand within 24 hours after receipt of this letter will leave us no choice but to pursue all available legal remedies against Arizona Agenda and any individuals involved, including seeking injunctive relief, monetary damages, and legal fees incurred as a result of this matter.
Thank you for deftly covering our state legislature so that many of us have a better idea of what we're walking into, or can avoid the place all together.
Simply the best for statewide news with some humor added which we could use in these times that try our souls. They may be in the running for a modern day Thomas Paine award if there was one.
This is the best news source for AZ politics, plus you're funny
There’s a lot going on at the Capitol, and I don’t have the time or ability to find out everything on my own. I’m grateful you do it for me.
Thank you for deftly covering our state legislature so that many of us have a better idea of what we're walking into, or can avoid the place all together.
Simply the best for statewide news with some humor added which we could use in these times that try our souls. They may be in the running for a modern day Thomas Paine award if there was one.
This is the best news source for AZ politics, plus you're funny
There’s a lot going on at the Capitol, and I don’t have the time or ability to find out everything on my own. I’m grateful you do it for me.
Thank you for deftly covering our state legislature so that many of us have a better idea of what we're walking into, or can avoid the place all together.
Simply the best for statewide news with some humor added which we could use in these times that try our souls. They may be in the running for a modern day Thomas Paine award if there was one.
This is the best news source for AZ politics, plus you're funny
There’s a lot going on at the Capitol, and I don’t have the time or ability to find out everything on my own. I’m grateful you do it for me.
Thank you for deftly covering our state legislature so that many of us have a better idea of what we're walking into, or can avoid the place all together.
Simply the best for statewide news with some humor added which we could use in these times that try our souls. They may be in the running for a modern day Thomas Paine award if there was one.
This is the best news source for AZ politics, plus you're funny
There’s a lot going on at the Capitol, and I don’t have the time or ability to find out everything on my own. I’m grateful you do it for me.