The Pitch
I'm Levario Ramirez. I grew up in Hayden — a smelter town where the soil had to be excavated because of contamination. A town that's lost 75% of its population. I've lived in Safford for 20 years.
I ran heavy equipment at Freeport-McMoRan's Morenci mine for six years. Perfect safety record. I know what it means to do the work that builds this state.
I'm running because the people who produce Arizona's wealth deserve their share of it. Not a handout — their share. We dig the copper, we grow the cotton, we teach the kids, and we deserve representation that fights for us instead of the shareholders.
Six Bills
Anyone can say they support workers or oppose poverty. That's meaningless without specifics. These bills are the specifics — what I would actually do in office.
Bill 1 · WaterFamily Well Protection Act
Your water before their profits. Protect residential wells from industrial drawdown.
- Residential priority for wells within 5 miles of industrial extraction
- Quarterly monitoring — industrial users above 100 acre-feet/year must report water table impacts
- Compensation fund paid by industrial users to cover well-deepening costs when residential wells go dry
- Impact assessment required before new extraction permits are issued near residential wells
Mine to Wire & Chip Act
$4 billion extracted, 6 cents stays. Keep value-add manufacturing in mining country.
- Raise severance tax from 2.5% to 5% — still below Montana, New Mexico, and Nevada. Generates ~$135M/year for mining communities
- Value-add manufacturing incentives — tax breaks for copper wire, rod, and component manufacturing built near extraction sites
- Community investment fund from severance revenue for infrastructure, schools, and healthcare in extraction counties
- The math: Freeport-McMoRan made $1.9B in profit. CEO made $23.9M. Profit per U.S. worker: $48,717 — sent to shareholders, not workers
Worker Privacy & Safety Act
Legal on Friday, fired on Monday. Fix the cannabis testing contradiction. Restore worker safety voice.
- Off-duty protection — employers cannot fire for legal cannabis use on personal time
- Impairment-based testing replaces metabolite testing — test for actual impairment, not what someone did 3 weeks ago
- Elected worker safety committees with binding authority to flag hazards and halt unsafe conditions
- Whistleblower protection — workers who report safety violations cannot be retaliated against
Rural Healthcare Access Act
Greenlee County has zero hospitals. The nearest ER is 40+ minutes from Morenci.
- Critical access hospital funding — state matching funds for rural hospitals in counties with 50%+ extraction GDP
- Telehealth expansion — broadband infrastructure grants for rural healthcare facilities
- Provider recruitment — loan forgiveness and housing assistance for healthcare workers who serve 3+ years in rural Arizona
- On-site emergency facilities required at mining operations with 500+ employees
Arizona Education Equity Act
I dropped out of Safford High because my physics teacher was the biology teacher — and he couldn't answer my questions.
- Fix the rural funding formula — account for transportation, facility costs, and smaller class pools
- Rural Teacher Recruitment Fund — housing assistance and loan forgiveness to bring qualified teachers to small towns
- Dual enrollment expansion with Eastern Arizona College — high schoolers earning college credit for free
- Personal: I went on to earn 120 credits at EAC and was named Engineering Student of the Year 2022. The system failed me. Not every kid can route around it.
Worker Housing Freedom Act
In Morenci, lose your job and you lose your home. Company-town feudalism, still running in 2026.
- Separate employment from housing — termination cannot trigger eviction. 90-day transition period guaranteed
- Fair-market rent and purchase options — workers can buy at appraised value, not company-set prices
- Tax incentives for non-employer housing in company towns to create real alternatives
- The history: Unions were broken in Morenci 1983-86. Greenlee County voted Democratic from statehood (1912) to 1996, then flipped. Politics followed economics.
Still Skeptical?
Good. You should be. Politicians lie.
Here's my offer: I'll be delivering DoorDash in Safford. I'll be at the county fair. I'll be knocking on your door. Ask me anything. Push back. Tell me I'm wrong.
I'd rather have an honest argument than a fake agreement.
— Levario Ramirez
Third-generation Arizona copper
DSA Graham County