Early ballots are being packaged up to be sent out to Arizona voters by October 9th. This year is the big one. From contentious mayoral races to electing a new Maricopa County recorder, the local elections will come to define how the state runs.

On the national scale, Arizona has one of the most watched Senate races in the country and both Presidential candidates know how crucial winning Arizona will be to putting them in the White House. 

From now until your ballot arrives, The Gaggle, a politics podcast by the Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, collaborated with our politics team to connect with candidates so you can hear them make their case in their own words.

This is part of a series of bonus episodes featuring Q&As on the state’s most important races.

In this episode, reporter Maritza Dominguez asks Mark Freeman and Scott Smith about key topics and why they deserve your vote this November.

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