Sine Kerr is an American politician and a Republican member of the

Arizona Senate The Arizona State Senate is part of the Arizona Legislature, the state legislature of the US state of Arizona. The Senate consists of 30 members each representing an average of 219,859 constituents (2009 figures). Members serve two-year terms w ...

representing District 25 since January 2023. She was previously appointed to the District 13 seat in January 2018.

Background and business activities

Kerr grew up in rural

Buckeye, Arizona Buckeye is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, and is the westernmost suburb in the Phoenix metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census the population was 91,502, up from 50,876 in 2010 and 6,537 in 2000. It was the fastest-grow ...

, and graduated from

Buckeye Union High School Buckeye Union High School is a public high school in Buckeye, Arizona under the jurisdiction of the Buckeye Union High School District. History The first students in the town of Buckeye graduated in 1921. Regular graduating classes began the ne ...

. She owns a large dairy farm.

Political career

Appointment and elections

Kerr is the member for state Senate District 13, which covers the West Valley. In January 2018, she was appointed by the

Maricopa County Board of Supervisors The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is the governing body of Maricopa County, a county of over four million in Arizona. The five supervisors are each elected from single-member districts to serve four-year terms. Primary elections and general ...

from among a list of three candidates to fill the state Senate seat, which was vacated by Steve Montenegro who resigned to run for a special election for the seat in Congress vacated by

Trent Franks Trent Franks (born June 19, 1957) is a former American politician and businessman who served as the U.S. representative for from 2003 to 2017 (numbered as the 2nd district from 2003 to 2013). He is a member of the Republican Party. During his ...

. In August 2018, Kerr won the Republican nomination for a full term in office, defeating Brent Backus and Don Shooter.

Tenure

In 2021, Kerr proposed legislation that would ban nearly all abortions in Arizona, even in cases of rape or incest.Bob Christie
Arizona Senate proposal would ban nearly all abortions
Associated Press (March 30, 2021). The bill would subject physicians who perform abortions, and anyone assisting them, to prison terms of almost nine years. Kerr proposed the measure as an amendment to an unrelated bill on license plate designs. Abortion-rights groups said that Kerr's proposal was flagrantly unconstitutional. In 2021, Kerr, along with other Republican state legislators and Republican Governor

Doug Ducey Douglas Anthony Ducey (, né Roscoe Jr.; born April 9, 1964) is an American businessman and politician serving as the 23rd governor of Arizona since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, Ducey was previously the CEO of Cold Stone Creamery, a ...

, supported legislation to strip the

Arizona Corporation Commission The Arizona Corporation Commission is the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Arizona, established by Article 15 of the Arizona Constitution. Arizona is one of only fourteen states with elected commissioners. The Arizona Constitution expl ...

(the state utilities regulator) of its power to set renewable energy portfolio standards for the state.Bob Christie
GOP lawmakers fast-tracking bill blocking energy standards
Associated Press (January 28, 2021). The legislation was opposed by Democrats, environmental groups, and some business groups. Kerr supported legislation to make it easier to block statewide voter ballot initiatives by requiring initiative proponents to gain a certain percentage of signatures in each of Arizona's 30 legislative districts to get on the ballot; the proposal would essentially allow a single district to block a ballot initiative proposal that was broadly supported elsewhere. The legislation was pushed by Republican state legislators and business interests in 2019 after Arizona voters approved an 2016 initiative to raise the state's

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. B ...

and a 2006 initiative to ban the use of

gestation crate A gestation crate, also known as a sow stall, is a metal enclosure in which a farmed sow used for breeding may be kept during pregnancy.Wilson G. Pond, Fuller W. Bazer, Bernard E. Rollin (eds.), ''Animal Welfare in Animal Agriculture'', CRC Press ...

s in pigs and calves (a measure that angered

agribusiness Agribusiness is the industry, enterprises, and the field of study of value chains in agriculture and in the bio-economy, in which case it is also called bio-business or bio-enterprise. The primary goal of agribusiness is to maximize profit w ...

). The legislation was opposed by the League of Women Voters. As chair of the state Senate's Natural Resources, Energy and Water Committee, Kerr blocked legislation to protect Arizona's watersheds from being added to the committee's hearing schedule.Ian James
Attempts to protect Arizona's groundwater and rivers meet legislative resistance
''Arizona Republic'' (March 10, 2021).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kerr, Sine Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Republican Party Arizona state senators 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians Women state legislators in Arizona People from Buckeye, Arizona