What Does It Mean to Be a 'Conservative' in Arizona Today?
Lessons from a dinner with two dozen conservatives across political and private life, in one of America's most politically divided states.
Editor’s note: Civic Writing is a platform for individuals who are helping cultivate a stronger civic culture in America, particularly from local and state perspectives. Naturally, given the timing of the Midterms and prior efforts of Civic Right, many, if not most posts will be about elections and the voting process — but that is still just one component of civic participation. Today, authors Don Henninger and Carlos Alfaro report back about another.
—
By Don Henninger and Carlos Alfaro
Not long ago, about two dozen Arizona conservatives gathered for dinner in Scottsdale to do something that has become increasingly rare in American politics.
It was not a rally. There were no cameras, no speeches written for social media, and no press releases waiting to go out the next morning. Instead, it was a closed-door conversation about values.
We invited conservatives from across Arizona’s political and civic life, including business leaders, community figures, lawmakers and policy thinkers, to reflect on a simple but surprisingly difficult question: What does it mean to be a conservative in Arizona today? The attendee list was kept private, but each of us trusts the value of rich off-the-record conversations, having facilitated many of them in our careers spent around VIPs in politics and public policy. We also both care about this particular topic personally: One of us has worked for free-market causes, and the other was a career member of the “mainstream media” but also a conservative.
The conversation we hosted revealed something reassuring and something challenging — though “challenging” doesn’t necessarily imply “bad.”
First, there remains a strong foundation of shared principles beneath the daily noise of politics.
One of the clearest areas of agreement was a renewed commitment to the Constitution. Regardless of faction, those around the table spoke about the importance of constitutional order, the rule of law, separation of powers, and institutional restraint. If conservatism stands for anything enduring — that word, “conservative,” suggests that it does — it is the belief that freedom survives only when government itself is limited by law.
Another theme was opportunity.
Participants returned again and again to a core Arizona belief: that public policy should focus on removing barriers that prevent people from finding success, whether in education, entrepreneurship, or the workforce. The goal of good policy is not to engineer outcomes, but to preserve a system where hard work, responsibility, and initiative still matter.
That belief has long been part of Arizona’s political culture, from the state’s frontier roots to its modern entrepreneurial economy.
Family stability also emerged as a central value. Many spoke about the aspirations that have long defined the American middle class and the Arizona dream: raising children, building a stable household, and achieving homeownership. These social foundations remain essential to healthy communities and a thriving civic life.
Finally, there was agreement on a principle that sounds simple but carries real discipline. Government should be smaller, but making government smaller should not require making government bigger in the process. In other words, reform should reflect the same restraint conservatives expect from government itself.
But if the dinner revealed shared values, it also revealed something else that deserves attention: real disagreements within the conservative movement itself. The conversation did not always end in consensus. And that was the point.
Participants differed over the direction of the conservative movement nationally, the tone of modern politics, and the balance between principle and pragmatism in governing. Some emphasized the need for sharper political confrontation. Others argued that conservatives must focus on rebuilding civic trust and institutional stability. There were also differences about how conservatives should approach policy priorities such as economic reform, education, and immigration.
In other words, the dinner reflected something many Arizonans already understand: Conservatism is not a single voice. It is a coalition.
Yet what made the evening notable was not the disagreements themselves. It was the willingness to engage them honestly. In today’s political climate, disagreement is often treated as disloyalty. But conservatism has always been a coalition of traditions, including constitutional conservatives, libertarians, faith leaders, and business-oriented reformers. During the last decade, populist-minded versions of these have come to define the right; the “sharper-elbows” crowd.
Yet even with this additional friction, the dinner reminded us that disagreement, when approached in good faith, can strengthen a movement rather than fracture it. That goes especially for where the disagreement is approached: in person, not online, where individuals are forced to address each other human to human, not username to username.
It’s not surprising, then, there was a tone in that room, specifically, as opposed to a social media thread, which can feel scarce in today’s politics: hope.
The dinner did not produce a manifesto. That was never the goal. But it did reaffirm something important. Beneath the surface divisions of modern politics, Arizona conservatives still share enduring values such as constitutional fidelity, opportunity, family stability, and a belief in principled debate. At the same time, the movement is wrestling with genuine differences about tone, strategy, and priorities.
Acknowledging both realities, shared principles and real disagreements, may be the first step toward a healthier conservative politics. It does not have to begin in Washington, D.C. Arizona has always been a place where independent thinkers shape the future. It can begin here.
Those conversations are worth having. Civilly. Honestly. And together.
Don Henninger is co-director of the Arizona Democracy Resilience Network and Carlos Alfaro is the founder of the Arizona Talks Foundation.