Republican Rep. Walt Blackman, who represents a huge swath of land across four counties east of Phoenix, is a man of many hats.
As a former U.S. Army tank commander during the War in Iraq, a member of the Mormon church, resident of rural Arizona and an African-American, Blackman’s multifaceted bio might be seen as a set of fascinating contradictions. But for the lawmaker, there’s no conflict between these identities — just the complex makings of a man who, above all, considers himself an American.
“I learned from an early age it was just people, not labels — and I think I brought some of that here,” he told us about his job at the Legislature. “That’s how I was raised.”
While he describes himself as a conservative, he’s become known down at the Capitol for a streak of maverick independence — occasionally teaming up with Democrats on criminal justice reform or ripping his own party’s “hard-right faction” on social media.
Perhaps his most recognizable moment in recent years was in sponsoring a bill last session to further criminalize making false claims about military service for personal benefit. After fellow GOP Rep. Alex Kolodin explained his lone vote against it, Blackman responded with a thundering diatribe as Kolodin hunched meekly over his desk.
But shortly thereafter, the Arizona Republic’s Ray Stern pointed out last May that Blackman himself had made several less-than-accurate claims — including that he was in the Arizona Military Hall of Fame. Stern also noted that the copy the Republic received of Blackman’s memoir, “From Iraq to the Statehouse,” contained prompts from artificial intelligence, like:
“Let me know if you’d like to integrate this into a larger narrative about your leadership style or campaign philosophy — I can help with that, too!”
Another passage about his military career reads, “At the heart of everything was integrity. Cutting corners or compromising values might have offered short-term gains, but I knew it would erode trust and morale in the long run.”
Blackman said he accepted accountability for the mistakes and admitted to — because of a traumatic brain injury suffered in Iraq — extensively using AI to write the book (and communications with constituents, as we previously covered).
But he also attacked the straight-forward Republic story as a “liberal” attack on him meant to silence his voice. 1
Looking past the episode, Blackman is still one of the most fascinating figures at the Legislature, and he’s respected for a willingness to work across the aisle on certain issues. He served two terms from 2019 to 2023 before running for Congress in 2022, when he finished in second place during the Republican primary. He returned to the Legislature in 2025 and is up for reelection this cycle.
His candidacy was challenged by previous opponent, MAGA acolyte and Trump store owner Steve Slaton — whose own claims of military service have been shown to be false. He filed that challenge incorrectly and it was subsequently thrown out by a judge. But lawyers noted that there may have been a case if the lawsuit was filed correctly; Blackman has hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid campaign finance violation fees, which he attributes to a clerical error made by the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office.
After weeks of friendly chit-chatting at the Capitol, I had the chance to sit down with Blackman for an interview. On the way into his office, his assistant looked at him as though he had a busy schedule to keep and didn’t have time.
“He’s my cousin,” Blackman deadpanned about me. “He’s visiting from Denver. It’ll take 10 minutes.”
Here’s that interview, edited for clarity and space.
I read that you grew up in a military family, on several bases. What was that upbringing like?
I was born in Portugal, lived in San Antonio, then went over to Wiesbaden in 1976 after my dad came back from Vietnam. I was in eighth grade. My mom and dad split, so my dad was a single parent back in the day — raised my brother and I.
When you grew up in a military environment, you’re in a revolving door. However, folks’ ethnic backgrounds are just so diverse and so different.
Everyone pretty much went through the same issues and problems because all our parents were in the military — deployments and so on and so forth. But what I got out of it the most, and I use it today, is just the fact that all the people I grew up around were from different backgrounds. Black, white, Hispanic, Native Americans, Asian Pacific Islander, just so many different backgrounds.
From 2016 to 2018, you were the founder and CEO of WB Inclusion & Diversity Consulting Firm. What was that venture like? What did you learn? What are your feelings on the MAGA anti-DEI movement?
The way that inclusion and diversity is being described today, that’s not what it is.
So, in the military, I had a primary job as a tank commander. You always have a secondary job they give you, and for me that was equal opportunity. Equal opportunity is what diversity is because for folks in the military — who come from different backgrounds and have the skills to do the job — it opens the door for them. So I took what I learned from there.
And then when this other stuff just started coming out and what they were talking about, that is nothing to do with it.
And how do you characterize that newer discussion of diversity?
It’s turned into a stigma. And I’ve been hit with that on campaigns. You know, “Walt Blackman founded diversity and inclusion, so he must be woke.”
But that’s a narrative our folks have turned it into. It’s more equal opportunity — and not just for people of color, we’re talking about white men, we’re talking about Caucasian women, we’re talking about Latinos.
And my work coupled with the prevention of sexual assault and harassment.
What do you make of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth intervening to stop the promotions of two Black and two female would-be generals?
I think it’s inappropriate for the Secretary of Defense to take someone off the promotion list. That’s not his lane to dabble in the everyday workings of that branch.
Where did he figure that they were not qualified for the job? It would have been on their officer evaluation reports that they weren’t ready for promotion, and they wouldn’t have even been on the list.
Why he took them off, I don’t know. But it looks like he took them off for a reason that was nefarious. And that is coming from someone who has written these evaluations and been promoted based on these evaluations.
A map of Blackman’s Legislative District 7
How do you manage to represent a district of such large geographic proportions?
I put a lot of miles on my truck. I try to get to as many places as I can and that’s kind of tough. So I try to do a lot of social media to get the word out.
I spend a lot of time away from home, just trying to listen to people and hear people. If you do this job the way it’s supposed to be done, everyone would be on the road all the time. This isn’t just a halfway job or a four-month job.
The reason why I believe I’ve been successful at it is when somebody comes to me with a problem, that’s the most important thing in the world to them — doesn’t matter what the problem is — so it has to be the most important thing for me. And I’ve been able to capitalize on that by service and helping people.
On that note, do you support a reform of pay for state lawmakers?
Bring it to the people to vote for, and if they want to give us a raise, then they will. But people really should be doing this full-time, not part-time.
When did you get involved with and become a member of the Church of Latter-day Saints (LDS)?
Wow, yeah. It was 2006.
My wife grew up LDS — she was born in Salt Lake. When we got married, I went to her and said, “Hey, we probably need to bring our kids up in some sort of religion.” I was Baptist and she was LDS and she had kind of left the church for a little bit. And I said, “Well, what about your church?”
And then that’s when I started going to church and learning about our church. I converted, we got married in the church, and it’s been a foundation of our family.
(As a Mormon), you don’t drink. But you know, I used to drink. I was a knucklehead before I got into this, being an army guy. But I wanted to show an example to my kids by not doing that. Now they can do what they want to, as long as it’s legal. I didn’t want to be a hypocrite to my kids.
How many kids?
I have five. Hers, mine and ours. So she had three. I had one, and I was a single parent for a while too. And then we have one together, our daughter.
What’s your favorite spot in the White Mountains?
Backyard of my porch — that’s my favorite spot.
Where my backyard is, if I’m sitting out on my porch, I can look out and kind of see Snowflake, because we’re kind of up on a hill.
I like to sit out there when I’m not here (at the Capitol). It gives me time to decompress, reset and spend time with my family.
Favorite thing to cook?
Chili. It’s meat and beans and all kinds of stuff. My wife calls it a goulash, but I call it chili.
What historical figure did you admire while growing up?
General Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. He was an Air Force fighter pilot, one of the Tuskegee Airmen who flew missions in Korea and then Vietnam. He’s not a figure that I admire just because of the military. It’s his background.
You work hard. You don’t ask for a handout. You help others come up. Be responsible. And my dad was like that also, and I really turned to him. So when I was younger, I would just read everything I could get my hands on about James.
What were you thinking when you laid into Kolodin for being the lone vote on the stolen valor bill?
When you are talking on a subject and kind of downgrading it, but you’ve never been in those shoes or rode in that humvee or been shot at — you might just want to be quiet for a little bit. If you want to vote no, vote no, okay? But don’t comment.
You got press coverage for calling Black Lives Matter a “terrorist organization.”
I sure did.
Do you still feel the same way? And what makes them a “terrorist” group?
The way they started out was different than how they ended up. My understanding is that there was a young lady who wanted basically all lives to matter. And then it morphed into something else when we had the shootings, we had the riots during that time.
They turned, in my opinion, from what she wanted it to be to an ideology. That’s where I came to that opinion that Black Lives Matter, being an ideology, is a terrorist organization.
You gotta understand, being in the military for 21 years and being deployed so many years, I know the difference between a group of folks or an ideology. For example, LDS is not only a religion, it‘s an ideology. If someone said to me or a member, “you can’t baptize anymore,” do you really think people are gonna stop baptizing in the church? They’re gonna dig a hole in their backyard and baptize. That’s an ideology, that’s a mindset.
What’s the deal with the outstanding campaign finance fees? You’ve said this was a clerical error.
It was — it wasn’t on our part.
In 2020, I started to run for Congress, so we had to change our accounts. The site which would always crash, sort of like what it’s doing now, so we contacted the office. “Hey, we can’t get in to close this account. We need to switch accounts.”
The response was, “Don’t worry about it. We got it. This is going on with a lot of folks.”
Filed my financials several times since then. Filed to run, got on the ballot no problem. I had a new committee. I didn’t even know about it until this lawsuit came up.
How are they doing things over there (at the Secretary of State’s Office)?
$168,000 — I can’t even fathom that number. So if systems were working right over there, then it should be like, “Hey, this guy’s got these fines that are racking up. We probably need to talk to him.” Did it fall through the cracks, is it a clerical error or is this par for the course? If it’s par for the course, then we need to fix that.
Crazy times, crazy people: Arizonans reacted to this weekend’s attempt on President Donald Trump’s life at the White House Correspondents Dinner, per the Republic’s Rey Covarrubias Jr., who rounded up the online thanks to law enforcement and thoughts and prayers tweets.2 Republican Congressman and gubernatorial contender Andy Biggs and Republican Congressman Abe Hamadeh were both at the dinner, as were Erica Kirk and two-time loser Kari Lake, who used the shooting to spit fire and blame at the media.
“When you consider you are entering a roomful of fake news media — 90% of whom hate the President you would think they would have better security. … On the way out, I called-out a bunch of the disgusting Media who have been pushing hatred toward President Trump for years. They are a big part of the discord in this country,” Lake ranted on Twitter.
Signatures adding up: Activists attempting to rein in Arizona’s school voucher program with an initiative — the real initiative, not the version designed to muddy the waters — say they have collected more than 150,000 signatures so far, or more than half of what they’ll need to qualify for the ballot, Arizona Public Media’s Noor Haghighi reports. If they can collect 255,000 signatures from qualified Arizona voters by July 2, the initiative will qualify for the November ballot.
Still at square one: Republican lawmakers are finally anteing up in the budget stalemate with Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. Republican Sen. John Kavanagh tells Capitol Media Services’ Bob Christie that they plan to send her a budget — backed by only Republicans — this week. It will almost certainly get vetoed.
“We don’t negotiate with the Democrat legislators and make compromises and then go to the Democrat governor and make more compromises,” Kavanagh said. “Besides, this is not a compromise budget.”
Help ensure the Agenda’s proposed budget doesn’t get vetoed by becoming a paid subscriber today!
Cheaters sometimes prosper: Glendale City Council candidate Michael Calles, a former Phoenix cop, will remain on the ballot for an open seat on the council after admitting that he did not personally witness more than 140 people signing his petition for office, despite signing paperwork swearing that he did witness them sign, the Republic’s Elena Santa Cruz reports. And while those 140 signatures were invalidated after the outgoing incumbent spotted the red flag and filed a lawsuit, Calles still had enough valid remaining signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Yá’át’ééh: Crystalyne Curley, the speaker of the Navajo Nation, filed paperwork to run against Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, whom she once tried to remove from office amid a string of scandals that have rocked his presidency, per the Navajo Times’ Krista Allen. She’s one of several challengers to the incumbent, who is seeking reelection.
“I had high hopes working with the president,” Curley said. “And now we see the shortcomings.”
There are a lot of videos going around of the national press corps swiping bottles on their way out of the White House Correspondents Dinner after it was cut short by a failed assassination attempt against President Donald Trump.
Here’s a good example.
For the record, any time a gunman has just been subdued in a room you were in, we think drinks are in order.
And yes, that rule even applies to FBI Director Kash Patel.
Also, perhaps nobody explained that drink-your-way-through-the-shooting vibe better than one-time Gen-Z Arizona congressional hopeful Deja Foxx, who was at the unofficial Correspondents Dinner afterparty.
“I think it speaks to something really weird that’s happening in the U.S., which is that there can be an active shooter, the president can be involved, so can all of the press, and people get back to normal,” she told the New York Times. “I’m not sure what that means, but it doesn’t feel great.”
1 Blackman gave us a copy of the book, which he self-published and printed last August following the Republic story. While it contains plenty of grammatical and copy errors like random cuts to new paragraphs in the middle of sentences, at least the AI prompts have been deleted.
2 Weirdly, two former Agenda reporters were also in the room when shots rang out. Original cofounder Rachel Leingang was there for her employer, the Guardian US, while former Agenda intern Alysa Horton was on the scene after scoring a scholarship from the White House Correspondents’ Association. Both are fine, and we hope they stole some booze on the way out.