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Endorses Crow

The race

The Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) — the ten Maricopa Community Colleges — elects three members of its Governing Board on November 3, 2026: one countywide at-large seat, one seat in District 3, and one seat in District 4. All three races are contested, and all three are nonpartisan. A story circulating from 2024, when the MCCCD board election was cancelled because incumbents ran unopposed, does not apply to 2026 — this year every seat has a real choice.

The ballot roster is verified against Ballotpedia's Maricopa County municipal elections page, corroborated by the Decent Ballot's Maricopa County guide and Maricopa County Elections' candidate Statements-of-Interest file. The field divides cleanly into two slates, and the endorsements tell that story:

District 4 has a third candidate, Jack Hastings, who runs on neither slate.

One roster note that matters: in District 3, incumbent Marie Sullivan and Derek McClintock both filed Statements of Interest with Maricopa County Elections — and neither is on the general-election ballot. They withdrew or did not qualify. Do not look for their names on your ballot.

### At-Large — one seat, countywide

Judy Schwiebert — Challenger. Schwiebert is a former Democratic member of the Arizona House of Representatives, serving January 2021 to January 2025 (the 20th District, then the 2nd District after redistricting); she lost a 2024 State Senate race. Before the Legislature she taught for 27 years in the Glendale Union High School and Peoria Unified districts, and she co-founded Theater Works, a Glendale nonprofit education organization. She is herself a former community college student. Her stated priorities, from her own campaign: maintaining affordable access, forging employer partnerships for the education-to-high-wage-job path, keeping programs current with the workforce, and supporting professional faculty. She is Faculty PAC-endorsed and is also endorsed by Linda Thor, the current MCCCD Governing Board president, and by Kelli Butler, a former state legislator and current MCCCD board member.

John Crow — Challenger. Crow, of Scottsdale, is the Change4Maricopa slate's business candidate: the slate describes him as a CEO focused on budgets, efficiency, and accountability. He played junior-college football — the experience he credits with getting him into college — and, in a published op-ed co-authored with Caracciolo, argues the district should bring back junior-college football (eliminated after the 2018 season) under a published financial model, with new taxes or student fees as a last resort, as an on-ramp that gets West Valley students through the college door toward careers. Crow and Caracciolo are also business partners of roughly 15 years: Caracciolo's firm, Striventa, lists Caracciolo as founder and president and Crow as partner. He is recommended on Turning Point PAC's 2026 Freedom Ticket.

### District 3 — one seat

William "Bill" Sandweg — Challenger. Sandweg is a lifelong Arizonan and Phoenix small-business owner — he owns Copper Star Coffee — with nearly 40 years in the restaurant and hospitality industry, from a first job at Taco Bell to managing restaurants and coffeehouses. He holds a psychology degree from Loyola Marymount University, earned college credit in high school, took classes at Rio Salado College and Phoenix College, and completed professional certifications through the district; his daughter earned an associate degree through Rio Salado. His campaign's fiscal note is pointed: students deserve a sustainable football program, not an expensive campaign slogan that disappears when the bills arrive. He is Faculty PAC-endorsed.

Susan Winder — Challenger. Winder brings the slate's education side: more than three decades as an educator and administrator, per the Change4Maricopa campaign. On her 2024 iVoterGuide questionnaire she listed as endorsers Shawnna Bolick, Walt Blackman, Alex Kolodin, and Abraham Hamadeh. She is recommended on Turning Point PAC's 2026 Freedom Ticket. No current-board incumbency applies — the incumbent, Marie Sullivan, is not on the ballot, as noted above.

### District 4 — one seat

Donna Davis — Incumbent. Davis is the sitting District 4 board member, marked as the incumbent on Ballotpedia's roster. She is Faculty PAC-endorsed, per Schwiebert's campaign mailings naming her as a fellow endorsed candidate. Beyond incumbency and that endorsement, no campaign platform or contested board record for Davis was retrieved in this pass — a gap we state rather than fill.

Ryan Caracciolo — Challenger. Caracciolo, of Peoria, is the Change4Maricopa slate's marketing candidate, focused on attracting students and growing enrollment. He is founder and president of Striventa and a business partner of Crow's (see At-Large, above). He co-authored the slate's published case for restoring junior-college football responsibly — published financial model, new taxes or student fees as a last resort — paired with workforce readiness for West Valley growth. He is recommended on Turning Point PAC's 2026 Freedom Ticket.

Jack Hastings — Challenger. Hastings is a member of the Surprise City Council running on neither slate. His campaign site's plan leads with transparency — pushing for an independent auditor for the district — and responsible budgeting to keep tuition low, and it supports bringing back junior-college football "the right way": a real cost plan with no new taxes or student fees. His site claims a Surprise record of helping cut the city's property tax rate in 2024 and again in 2025, adding 100-plus police officers and firefighters, leading the effort to put school resource officers in Surprise schools, and founding an Education & Workforce Subcommittee that awards scholarships. Those are his campaign's own claims — sourced to his site, not independently verified in this pass, and priced that way below.

Pros and cons

At-Large — Schwiebert: Pros: Deep education résumé — 27 years teaching, former community college student, four years in the state House; endorsed by the board's current president and a sitting board member who know the job. Cons: A Democratic legislative record and a Faculty PAC slate — her stated priorities center faculty support and access spending, with no cost-cutting or accountability agenda on the record retrieved. At-Large — Crow: Pros: A budgets-efficiency-accountability platform from a CEO; a published, costed case for restoring JUCO football with taxes and fees as a last resort; recommended on Turning Point PAC's Freedom Ticket. Cons: No prior elected or governing record to judge; his business partnership with a fellow slate candidate is a documented fact voters should weigh for board independence.

District 3 — Sandweg: Pros: Small-business owner and employer who hires district graduates; a district alumnus by coursework whose daughter graduated through Rio Salado; explicit fiscal caution on football costs. Cons: Faculty PAC slate; no governing record; his affordability-and-access framing comes with no retrieved positions on the district's tax levy or program cuts. District 3 — Winder: Pros: Three decades as an educator and administrator; a 2024 endorser list of prominent Arizona conservatives; recommended on Turning Point PAC's Freedom Ticket. Cons: Her detailed current platform is thin in the record retrieved beyond the slate's joint program.

District 4 — Davis: Pros: The incumbent; Faculty PAC-endorsed; voters can judge sitting service. Cons: No platform or contested record retrieved in this pass — incumbency and one endorsement are the whole file. District 4 — Caracciolo: Pros: Enrollment-and-workforce focus from a working marketer and business founder; co-authored the slate's costed football-restoration case; recommended on Turning Point PAC's Freedom Ticket. Cons: No governing record; the business partnership with Crow cuts both ways on independence, as noted above. District 4 — Hastings: Pros: The only candidate here with a claimed elected-office record that includes property-tax-rate cuts; an independent-auditor and no-new-taxes-or-fees football plan states its fiscal conditions up front. Cons: That record is campaign-self-reported and unverified in this pass, and he carries no vetted ticket recommendation comparable to the Freedom Ticket listing.

Record gaps

OUR CALL

At-Large — Our call: endorse John Crow. The basis is sourced and stated: Crow is recommended on Turning Point PAC's 2026 Freedom Ticket — a ticket whose published criteria for nonpartisan races are educational freedom, school-choice programs, and parental rights — and he runs on a specific, costed platform: budgets, efficiency, and accountability, plus a football-restoration plan published with a financial model that puts new taxes and student fees last. Schwiebert is experienced, and we price that honestly above; experience in service of the Faculty PAC's agenda is not the direction this district needs.

District 3 — Our call: endorse Susan Winder. Same stated basis: a Freedom Ticket recommendation, three decades in education and administration, and a self-filed 2024 endorser list — Bolick, Blackman, Kolodin, Hamadeh — that tells voters exactly whose judgment she sought. Sandweg's small-business and fiscal-caution notes are real, and they are the strongest points on his side; they do not outweigh a vetted ticket recommendation behind a career educator running on the reform slate.

District 4 — Our call: endorse Ryan Caracciolo. Stated basis: the Freedom Ticket recommendation and the slate's published, costed program, which he co-authored. Hastings is the serious alternative — if his Surprise tax-cut record verifies independently, he is a credible conservative choice — but a self-reported record does not outrank a vetted recommendation plus a written platform, and incumbent Davis offers voters the least record of the three.

Vote Crow (At-Large), Winder (District 3), and Caracciolo (District 4).

For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website.

Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Sources

Election result — November 4, 2026

Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.

AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.

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