New lawmaker Q&A: Rep. Nick Kupper

How a ninja warrior became a legislator … On narcs and Stockholm Syndrome … And Rodney Glassman.

Nearly 20 first-time lawmakers were sworn into Arizona’s Legislature in January.

That’s a lot of newbies to get to know.

So we reached out to the freshmen to ask some of our most pressing questions, which range from the bills they’re backing to the music they’re listening to.

Up first, Republican Rep. Nick Kupper, representing LD25, which covers Buckeye, parts of Surprise and western Yuma County.

Kupper’s an Air Force veteran and a paralegal. Before his political career, he ran the television circuit.

He was an avid opponent of the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate and spoke about the policy on conservative media outlets, including appearances on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Newsmax and “Firebrand with Matt Gaetz.” He was about to get the boot from the Air Force for not getting the shot right before a court injunction rescinded the mandate.

But most importantly, he was a contestant on “American Ninja Warrior.”

And after running the obstacle course on that show, running some controversial bills is no big deal for him. His HB2112 would mandate people prove they’re 18 or older before viewing online pornography, which he modeled after a similar law in Texas.

He likened the age verification measure to existing systems to buy alcohol or marijuana, but acknowledged personal privacy concerns.

“I'm not going to look at pornography myself, but if I were going to, I sure as heck wouldn't use a government ID to access it,” Kupper said.

Other options, like using a webcam with age estimation technology, are also on the table, he told us.

And Kupper’s HB2113 would limit the kinds of flags that can be posted on government property. That bill immediately drew free speech concerns for its prohibition of LGBTQ pride flags. The lawmaker said his intent behind the bill is to keep politics out of government spaces.

“We can't ignore the fact that, more often than not, pride flags tend to be something you see more in leftist circles,” he explained.

You can learn a lot about a lawmaker through topics that have nothing to do with politics. So we threw some dumb questions his way, too.

Q: What are the best places to eat in your district?

A: Jim's Burgers & Eggs in Surprise and “pretty much any Mexican joint, especially if they're local.”

Q: What’s a fun fact most people don’t know about LD25?

A: “I think one thing that most people don't realize is Yuma is — we call it the winter salad bowl. The people in (agriculture) know this, but most people outside of (agriculture) don't realize that 90% of all of North America's leafy greens in the winter come from the Yuma area.”

Q: If House Republicans had a Spotify playlist, what song would you add to it?

A: Kupper said he’s been listening to a lot of music from Nick Hustles, whose top song on Spotify is “I Caught Santa Claus Sniffing Cocaine.”

“I think it's actually AI-generated music for the most part. I think the voices are AI-generated. And I guarantee you, if you look at the cover art, the man who's on the cover art, he looks a little different on every cover ... but it hits, it's got a real 70s vibe to it, all of them.”

Q: Besides yourself, who at the Capitol do you think has the best chance of winning American Ninja Warrior?

A: Republican Rep. Rachel Keshel.

Q: If you had to switch lives with another politician for a week, who would it be and why?

A: Donald Trump, because “it would just come from the greater good you could hopefully do.”

To hear more about why Kupper abandoned his dreams of living in the woods in Prescott, how he got on “American Ninja Warrior” and why he’s running legislation to prohibit healthcare providers from discriminating based on vaccine status, you can listen to the full interview here.

After perhaps one of the longest months to ever transpire, it’s finally February. Here are some key dates to know this month:

Today’s the last day Senators can introduce bills. Representatives have until Feb. 10.

House bills have to clear their committees by Friday, Feb. 21, and same for bills that originated in the Senate. That will be a busy week for committee hearings at the Capitol.

Monday, Feb. 24 marks the start of crossover week, when bills that started in the House should be voted out of that chamber and into the Senate, and vice versa. Lawmakers will take hundreds of rapid-fire votes on bills that they probably haven’t read before.

Hank explained the chaotic process in this podcast.

Narc on your friends: After ASU’s College Republicans United urged students to narc on “criminal classmates,” meaning suspected undocumented immigrants, hundreds of pro-immigrant protesters drowned out the group’s event on campus, the Mirror’s Gloria Rebecca Gomez reports. The atmosphere has many DACA recipients nervous even though they have a protected legal status, Arizona immigration attorney and DACA recipient Salvador Macias tells KTAR. Meanwhile, in Nogales, Sonora, the main migrant shelters are backed up with both asylum seekers who had appointments with U.S. officials that were abruptly canceled and new deportees, per Nogales International’s Daisy Zavala Magaña.

“I’ve described (this fear) as like Stockholm Syndrome; it’s falling in love with a country that doesn’t love me,” Macias told KTAR.

It’s not a glitch: Reporters got their first look at the report from the audit commissioned by Gov. Katie Hobbs into the “glitch” in Arizona’s Motor Vehicle Division database that caused thousands of voters to not actually have to verify their citizenship status (though the vast majority are citizens). The report showed it wasn’t quite as simple as a “glitch,” as Votebeat’s Jen Fifield reports again. The investigation also found a handful of other problems in the system that need to be resolved, including a loophole in state law that could allow people from American Samoa to vote even though they’re not full citizens.

Where’s Bruce Babbitt?: Hobbs threw her weight behind Democratic legislation creating new groundwater regulations, saying the bill would "finish the job" started by the monumental 1980 Groundwater Management Act, the Arizona Republic’s Ray Stern reports. The Rural Groundwater Management Act would set up a five-person council in thirsty rural areas like Cochise County which could set limits on how much groundwater can be pumped. Meanwhile, Republican Sen. TJ Shope is reviving his “ag-to-urban” legislation incentivizing farmers to sell their land (and water rights) to developers, per the Capitol Times’ Jamar Younger. Hobbs vetoed that measure last year, but signaled she might be open to a more limited approach. Finally, the Trump administration’s decision to cut federal funding for “green” projects means cuts to water conservation projects throughout the West, the Arizona Daily Star’s Tony Davis reports.

"Disruptions like this will cause more uncertainty and less interest from states in committing one way or the other to projects, leading to more and more confusion," David Wegner, a retired Reclamation official and a member of a National Academy of Sciences advisory board, told Davis. "There's nobody in charge. They're just throwing this stuff out there to find out where it lands.”

Still at square one: Republican lawmakers unveiled their plans to extend Prop 123 and send the roughly $300 million per year that it draws from the state land trust exclusively to teacher salaries. But they acknowledged that it’s really just a placeholder for another plan that they haven’t quite nailed down yet, the Republic’s Mary Jo Pitzl reports. It’s not materially different from the plan they proposed last year. Meanwhile, the governor still has her own plan, which also doesn’t seem to have changed since last year, per Capitol scribe Howie Fischer.

Our plan to save local news hasn’t changed either, and it involves you clicking this button.

No free rides: Nogales Mayor Jorge Maldonado had to return his keys to a city-owned truck after he kept taking it home and to his other job, the Nogales International’s Daisy Zavala Magaña reports. Maldonado complained that his $46 per month stipend isn’t enough to fill his personal tank and he doesn’t get reimbursed for a lot of the miles he drives for the city. He can still drive the vehicle, but he has to ask permission first.

The truck in question.

Here’s one of the many bills we’re tracking with Skywolf, our legislation tracking service.

SB1002: pronouns; biological sex; school policies

Sponsor: Republican Sen. John Kavanagh from Legislative District 3 in Fountain Hills

Summary: Prohibits school district and charter school employees from using a name other than the student's first or middle name and from using pronouns that do not align with a student's biological sex without parental permission, with exceptions for nicknames associated with a student's name and students who are 18 years old or older. School districts and charter schools cannot compel employees to use pronouns inconsistent with an individual's biological sex if doing so conflicts with the employee's religious or moral convictions.

Upcoming: The bill is on today’s Senate Rules Committee agenda.

Notes: Kavanagh has sponsored several versions of this idea over the years. A similar proposal failed in the Senate last year after Republican Ken Bennett voted against it. But with Bennett gone and Republicans’ expanded margins, the idea could reach the governor’s veto stamp this time.

Who supports it: Arizona Free Enterprise Club, Center for Arizona Policy and about 200 individuals who signed in on the state’s Request to Speak System.

Groups that oppose it: American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, Arizona Center for Women’s Advancement, Children’s Action Alliance, Human Rights Campaign, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona, Save Our Schools Arizona and other groups, as well as about 300 individuals.

There are a lot of jokes in Arizona politics that end with the punchline “Rodney Glassman.”

And say what you will about the one-time progressive Tucson City Council member turned Republican candidate for more offices than we care to write down — but he’s a showman through and through.