Several statehouse candidates face questions about whether they live in the districts they are running to represent as the November midterm election nears.
The Arizona Constitution requires members of the Legislature to have lived in the state for three years , and in the county they seek to be elected in for one year before the election.
But residency requirements can be tough to enforce. In 2024, a judge dismissed a lawsuit alleging a candidate did not meet eligibility standards to run for office, even though he was registered to vote in North Carolina at the time he launched his Arizona candidacy.
Residency challenges boil down to two standards, said Phoenix-based elections lawyer Kory Langhofer: establishing that a home is a candidate’s “physical
residence” and that the candidate has an “intent to remain” there.
It’s a permissive framework that has led Arizona judges generally to side with defendant candidates, even when challengers contend that the evidence of residency is weak.
“The reaction of judges is, in Arizona at least, almost uniformly, ‘good enough,’” Langhofer said. "So they're really difficult cases to bring."
"It's a good news story," Langhofer said. "But legally, not really."
The issue is bipartisan. Several candidates running for the Legislature this year — Democrat and Republican — claim to live in properties that are owned by their campaign donors, records show.
Here are some of the candidates and lawmakers facing questions about where they live.
Tammy Caputi cites 'changing circumstances' for recent move
Democrat Tammy Caputi is a business owner and former Scottsdale city councilmember running on public education funding, tax incentives for small businesses and public safety.
Caputi lists her residence as a condo in Scottsdale. The property was listed for sale as of early October, according to Zillow and other real estate sites.
In campaign paperwork, Caputi said she had lived in the home for a year. One of her children lives there, too, she said in a financial disclosure.
But the property appeared sparsely furnished, according to photos and video footage obtained by The Arizona Republic from a person who toured the condo in mid-September.
One of the condo’s two bedrooms was empty except for a mattress leaned up against a wall, propped up by an armchair. A second bedroom and the living room were furnished, but the walls, closets and cupboards were mostly bare.
The kitchen countertops were empty except for real estate marketing materials promoting the property.
Caputi declined an interview with The Republic. She sent a brief written statement through a spokesperson: “Due to a change in circumstances, this is my current residence.”
She did not answer follow-up questions, only reiterating that she was currently living in the Scottsdale condo.
Caputi was previously registered to vote at a home in north Scottsdale for years. That property is located about a four-mile drive outside the district. She and her husband bought the home in 2012, records show.
Caputi registered to vote at the new address on Feb. 22, the day before she submitted paperwork to run for the Arizona House of Representatives.
The property is owned by Nestor and Susan Guzman, two Democratic donors who both individually gave to Caputi. The donations to Caputi were each $5,500, the maximum amount individuals can contribute to state legislative candidates during a single election cycle.
Caputi is running in District 4, one of the most competitive areas in the state and a key race for Democrats hoping to progress toward taking control of the House. She faces Republican incumbents Reps. Matt Gress and Pamela Carter.
Another Democrat, Karen Gresham, is running alongside Caputi in the district.
Janae Shamp’s Wickenburg ties draw questions
Sen. Janae Shamp, R-Surprise, is facing a formal complaint challenging her residency.
Citizens filed a “quo warranto” complaint with the Arizona Attorney General's Office, a type of action arguing she is unlawfully holding public office.
The complaint accuses her of living in Wickenburg, at a property owned by her husband’s investment firm.
The home is about 20 miles west of the district she represents.
Photos of the house on Google Maps show a sign in front of the property calling it “Shamp’s Hideout.” The sign also bears the names of the senator and her husband: “Skip & Janae.” The property is listed as her mailing address on her voter registration records, according to the complaint.
Her husband was also registered to vote at the Wickenburg address as recently as 2023. County officials did not immediately respond to a public records request seeking more recent information.
Shamp has said she lived in Surprise since she first ran for the Legislature in 2022. But she listed the Wickenburg address on a donation to then-gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake in October 2022.
The Surprise home is owned by one of Shamp’s donors, Lawrence Merritt, who, in his 2021 and 2022 donations to her campaign, claimed to live in Colorado.
“The available evidence suggests that a campaign supporter likely allowed Senator Shamp to use the Surprise Property as a physical or residence address without actually living there,” the complaint filed with the Arizona Attorney General's Office says.
Reached for comment, Shamp called the accusations “obviously political.”
“I live in the district, I’ve been at the same address for years now, and I get these questions right about this time, every two years, just before ballots go out,” she said in a written statement to The Republic. “Nothing has changed since the last time, everything is as it should be, so the outcome shouldn’t be any different this time.”
Merritt, the owner of the Surprise property, said Shamp rents the home and lives there. “I think anybody that’s going after her is full of baloney,” he said before ending the phone call.
His wife, Jo Ann Merritt, told The Republic that Shamp pays them to rent the home and, before disconnecting, called the allegations a “witch hunt.”
Wendy Rogers’ lawyer defends time she spends in Tempe
Sen. Wendy Rogers has faced questions about her residency for years and has swatted down inquiries from reporters and constituents.
Rogers represents a sweeping rural district that includes Coconino, Navajo, Gila and Pinal counties. She lists a Flagstaff mobile home as her residence on her current campaign documents and, in 2025, had her reimbursements delivered to a UPS Store in Flagstaff, which is in her district.
She lists several other properties owned by her and her husband in her financial disclosures, including a home in Chandler and a timeshare in Sedona.
Rogers previously owned a home in Tempe, which was sold in 2023. She included the property in her financial disclosures for several years before its sale.
In a Sept. 29 phone call with The Arizona Republic, her lawyer defended the time she spent at a residence in Tempe.
"It doesn't really, frankly, matter that she might have a home in Tempe as well," attorney William Fischbach said. "There's nothing that requires them to live in their district year-round."
Fischbach told The Republic that Rogers is at her home in Flagstaff "more than frequently" and denied any accusations of wrongdoing.
In previous years, she had thousands of dollars in campaign reimbursements sent to her Tempe address, and said she had been living in Tempe in a document connected to the purchase of the Chandler home in 2023.
Rogers is running for reelection in District 7, a safely conservative district. She said she and her husband chose to retire in Flagstaff's Wildwood Hills because of the area's rural lifestyle.
Rogers, a former Air Force pilot, said she is uniquely capable of serving her large district because she's "able to pilot her own aircraft into many of the short-field runways in remote rural areas."
Rachel Keshel disputes claims involving husband's home
Rep. Rachel Keshel, a member of the Arizona Freedom Caucus, is running for reelection in a competitive southern Arizona district.
An X account that bears the name William Coffin and goes by the handle @coffinitup online has repeatedly accused Keshel of unlawfully living outside the Tucson-area district in which she was elected.
Her husband, Seth Keshel, is a nationally known election conspiracy theorist whose home in Vail is not in Legislative District 17, which his wife represents.
The Keshels claim they've been harassed and doxxed in dozens of posts over the past several months, though William Coffin does not appear to have posted their exact addresses online.
A Pima County judge dismissed an injunction against harassment filed by Keshel and her husband, saying they failed to prove the man they named was the online critic they wanted to target.
Keshel shared a copy of her lease for a property in Legislative District 17. She also shared photos of her voter ID card and driver's license with The Republic, both showing a Tucson address.
Keshel represents the district alongside incumbent Democratic Rep. Kevin Volk. She is facing a challenge from Democrat Holly Lyon, a former Air Force pilot, and came in second in the July Republican primary election to newcomer John Winchester.
Laurin Hendrix challenges residency accusations
Rep. Laurin Hendrix, a homebuilder, challenged questions about his residency raised during primary season.
The Arizona Daily Independent, a right-leaning publication, raised questions about Hendrix’s residency in a report published a week before the primary election. Hendrix and fellow Republican Tyler Farnsworth were running as part of a slate against Jedidiah Lyons, a 27-year-old tech entrepreneur. Lyons lost.
The article noted Hendrix had recently sold his home in Gilbert, bought a home in Queen Creek outside the district and updated his voter registration address to a Mesa condo where his son had lived for several years.
Hendrix, a licensed real estate broker and residential contractor, works in home construction. He owns a real estate investment firm and attested in a recent financial disclosure that his wife also owns upwards of $600,000 worth of commercial and residential property across Arizona and California.
In an interview with The Republic, Hendrix said the idea that he was moving to Queen Creek was unfounded.
“I probably own 50 homes,” he said. “Sometimes I live in them, sometimes I don’t.”
Several members of his family, including himself, have lived in the Mesa condo while they’re “between houses,” he said. The property is within his district.
Hendrix said his move was “not a secret” and he notified local party leaders when it happened. Andrew Adams, GOP chairman for Legislative District 14, confirmed in an interview with The Arizona Republic that Hendrix re-applied for his post as a precinct committeeman earlier this year, the typical process when someone moves into a different part of the district.
“I ran against, I don’t know, a 15-year-old,” Hendrix said of the campaign trail attacks. “I wouldn’t expect a whole lot more.”
Lawmakers move to reform residency laws
While Arizona law remains vague on when and why a person can challenge a candidate’s residency, judges consider certain facts when deciding such cases.
Those include where candidates sleep, where they’re registered to vote and what address is listed on their driver’s license. But none of those factors individually can determine whether a candidate is acting outside of the law, Langhofer said.
No rules bar lawmakers from owning property in other areas, like second homes or vacation property.
In recent years, politicians across the U.S. have raised concerns about the safety of having their addresses published. Several lawmakers in Arizona, citing a rise in politically motivated violence, said the requirement puts them and their families at risk.
This past session, lawmakers passed a bill that allows candidates to list a mailing address on their campaign documents instead of a residence if they have a protected address. It was signed by Gov. Katie Hobbs and took effect in September.
Lawmakers in support of the bill referenced the killing of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband and the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Both Republicans and Democrats detailed threats and attempted attacks they faced in office.
No lawmakers in the Senate voted against the bill, sponsored by longtime Republican Sen. John Kavanagh, but the vote divided conservative members in the House.
"What will happen if this bill is enacted is that only individuals who are willing to disregard the law will have the privilege of running outside of their district," Republican Rep. Alexander Kolodin said. "It will magnify the tendency of our political system to select for the worst possible people instead of public servants that our constituents deserve."
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Do these Arizona candidates live in their districts? (Does it matter?)
