Laurie Bingenheimer is a lifelong Democrat who spent 38 years in Arizona public education. She started as an aide in a special education classroom and eventually spent the last 21 years of her career as a school psychologist. Her experiences in Arizona public schools, have shaped her into a staunch public education advocate. 

She first began volunteering with the East Valley Democratic Party in the ’90s. Laurie first became a Precinct Committee Member in 2010 and she’s renewed her PC status ever since. In her recent service, she’s served on the LD12 Executive Board for the past 4 years. As Chair, she hopes to build on the momentum her LD created in 2016 when they saw a 30% increase in Democratic voter turnout. Laurie is currently a member of the Arizona Education Association – Retired and she currently lives with her two dogs Dakotha and Bismarck.

The newly elected chair of Legislative District 16 is Sharon Stinard.  She is a long-time resident of the East Valley and was a candidate for the Arizona House of Representatives in 2016 and 2018.  She is a retired educator of 42 years with 22 years in the secondary school classroom and 20 years working at the community college level.  Her leadership skills have been developed through serving as an elected officer on various non-profit and service organization boards of directors.  The women’s domestic violence shelter program in the far east valley she founded recently celebrated its 20th anniversary.  She looks forward to building a team of Democratic activists in LD16 that will enjoy working together to elect Democrats and grow our party in Arizona for years to come.

Nancy has been a lifelong Democrat. She has a Master’s in Social Work and spent her first years working with children and families at the Department of Economic Security.  This included 5 years as the Director for the Food Stamp and Welfare Programs in Maricopa County. In the mid-1980s, the USDA decided it was time to move on from food stamp coupons and released several grants to test Electronic Benefits (EBT). At that point, Nancy moved to the private sector to use her experience in bidding, installing and supporting the fledging state programs. She is now retired from JPMorgan Chase and spends her time with good friends, her family and of course, the Democrats.

Devin began work as a Community Organizer in 2012. In that year alone, he helped register over 34,000 new minority voters that were engaged throughout the 2012 election cycle. That success continued in 2013 as Devin served as a community organizer throughout South Phoenix & West Phoenix working to increase civic engagement in communities of color. In 2014, Devin ran for a seat on Tolleson Union High School District Governing Board. In which Devin won his election and was voted Vice President by his fellow board members.  In addition to serving as a school board member; Devin was also elected in 2015 to serve as the Regional Pacific Director for the National Black Council of school board members. As a Pacific Regional Director, overseeing 5 states; Devin works to increase academic achievement from ethnic and racial minority groups. 

Eric Shelley has been active with the Maricopa Democrats since 2008. After getting his feet wet working as a volunteer and activist for several campaigns in 2008, Eric ran as a candidate for Arizona State Senate in 2010 and again in 2012. That experience helped Eric understand what works – and what doesn’t work – when trying to elect Democrats in Arizona. Between his two runs for the legislature he held the office of Chair of LD 7 in 2011 (North Phoenix/Scottsdale/Cave Creek).

Since 2012 Eric has begun helping various candidate & committees better understand their voter universe through data analysis and mapping strategies. Eric favors a numbers-driven approach to improving Democratic election success. Eric believes in helping PCs and other activists “build their army” of voters in their neighborhood to turn streets, precincts, LDs and communities blue everywhere possible.

Cathy (Cat) Fifer is the Chair of the LD 21 Democrats. She has lived in the district for almost 27 years and in the west valley for 46 years. She worked at Maricopa County for 13 years & the City of Phoenix for 16 years. After retiring, she became involved in political activism, especially in Greater Peoria Indivisible and on Twitter.

Cathy has been a Precinct Committeeperson since 2017 & also serves as a State Committee Member for the Arizona Democratic Party. She’s volunteered as a Deputy Registrar and poll observer and worked the 2018 elections processing early ballots. Cathy was elected Chair of LD 21 Dems in November 2018.

As the owner-operator of her own corporate and private event planning company, Patti O’Neil has facilitated a variety of events ranging from intimate community gatherings to corporate events with over 8,000 attendees. Her work in event planning required establishing objectives within a given budget and coordinating with a variety of vendors and customers. In the last two years, her passion has shifted to positively affecting our democracy through volunteering on campaigns and with the Legislative District 23 Democrats. In her six months as Vice-Chair, she recruited 31 PCs. Recently, she was recently promoted to chair of LD23 where she’ll continue to focus on flipping a reliably red district by engaging PCs, community members, and supporting local candidates.

Deborah’s role as president of an executive assistant company allows her to be fully submersed in Phoenix metro events and nonprofits. She is also an instructor for the FEMA Community Emergency Response Team training program and a certified trainer for the Department of Homeland Security Stop the Bleed program.

Deborah became involved with Legislative District 24 in early 2017 and quickly organized her precinct and the East region. Deborah accepted the Field Director position on the board in February 2018. Since then, Deborah has implemented a training series to ensure consistent and continuous training for new and seasoned PCs. Deborah enjoys her work on the board, striving to engage and remove barriers for all communities in LD24.

Iain Hamp has served in roles within the Democratic Party since 2017, first as a Precinct Committeeperson and then as First Vice-Chair of his Legislative District, before being elected as Chair of LD25 in November of 2020. He is a tenacious advocate and supporter of local Democratic candidates, and believes we are at our best (and give ourselves the best chance to win) when we drop our egos and serve whenever and wherever the work of electing Democrats needs us.

Professionally, Iain is a data analyst and business systems consultant. Prior to being involved in political volunteer work, Iain was heavily involved in non-profit leadership. He has served on the board of directors for Junior Achievement of Arizona, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arizona, and Arizona Forward, and in 2015 he was the founder and founding chair of the Phoenix Community ToolBank. Outside of the Democratic Party, his political volunteerism has also included board service with Save Our Schools Arizona and providing ongoing support to Civic Engagement Beyond Voting.

Iain resides in Mesa, Arizona with his wife, his dog, and his chickens. He loves the people of Arizona, he wants to help them have happier, healthier lives, and he believes the Democratic Party can help make that happen.

Patrick Brown is the Chair of Legislative District 27. As a lifelong progressive, the events of 2016 encouraged Patrick to leave the academic side of politics and get more involved in the process. This began by getting involved in Legislative District 27 as a Precinct Committeeperson, Social Media Chair, Board Secretary, and now as Chair.

When Patrick isn’t working to get Democrats elected to office, he spends his time volunteering, spending time with family, and playing video games.

Nancy joined Dr. Eric Meyer’s campaign in 2010 where she learned the value of volunteer recruitment, phone banking and knocking on doors for local candidates. In 2012, she became an elected Precinct Committeeperson in Solcito precinct and continued to educate herself on local races.  In 2014, she joined the LD28 Executive Board as secretary and in 2016 became the Chair. Nancy’s background in strategic planning became useful as she worked to strengthen the processes necessary to manage the army of volunteers that emerged after 2016. The election of two state representatives in LD28 was an incredible feat and the result of the mobilization of volunteers who knocked over 120,000 doors and phoned and texted thousands of voters. We are poised to work even harder in order to win all three legislative seats in 2020. LD28 is united, strong and focused on talking to voters, raising money and helping candidates up and down-ballot.