Arizona secretary of state candidate Reginald Bolding looks to jump from House to top elections job

Reginald Bolding's first political job was a humble one: holding purses and coats for guests at a candidate event in Ohio.

But it was a game changer. The candidate was Barack Obama, who was making his first run for U.S. president.

“I don’t think I understood the magnitude of the position I was in, being next to someone like that," Bolding recalled.

But as he juggled winter coats and collected business cards while guests posed for photos with the candidate, Bolding saw the excitement Obama created. He was inspired.

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Now, 15 years later, Bolding is running for the Democratic nomination for the state's top elections job, Arizona secretary of state.

The post is an extension of the work he has done through the network of nonprofit organizations he runs. The groups work to involve people in their communities by registering to vote and then turning out for elections.

One of those nonprofits, through its political action committee, has endorsed Bolding in the Aug. 2 primary. That has raised questions about the propriety of such a close association between a candidate and a political donor.

Bolding said there is a "firewall" separating him in his role as co-executive director of the political nonprofit Our Voice Our Vote and his role as a candidate. He said he is on a leave of absence from his nonprofit leadership role while he runs for state office.

His eight years at the state Legislature have also given him a platform to focus on election issues.

As Democratic minority leader in the House of Representatives, Bolding, 36, has consistently spoken out on election-related bills.

Most of the time, it's been a voice of dissent against the bills introduced by his Republican colleagues, casting the measures as voter suppression. But he has found the infrequent middle ground, such as this year when he, along with almost every other Democrat, supported a GOP bill that increased the threshold for automatic recounts in elections.

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'Things will be greater later'

Bolding was born in Akron, Ohio, and raised there by a single mother. The middle child of three boys, he grew up in a household of little means, although that fact was lost on him.

He didn't realize his family was poor until he filled out the forms for college financial aid and saw his mother reported her income as $19,000. But lack of money didn't diminish her drive, he said.

"Growing up, my mom would literally teach us and push us to have dreams, big dreams about things," Bolding said.

"She had this phrase: 'Things will be greater later,'" he said. "She trusted the system, she trusted democracy, she trusted that when her kids went to school, teachers would give them the education they needed. She demanded As and Bs.”

In high school he got his first taste of elective office: He ran for class president and won.

Television legal dramas fed his dream of a career as an attorney. He loved watching the lawyers grill witnesses on the stand, but wasn't sure how to make his dream a reality.

"I was always afraid to tell people I wanted to be a lawyer because I didn’t know how," Bolding said, explaining he was a first-generation college student. "I thought you could go from high school to law school. I would stay up at night and watch 'Law and Order' and 'The Practice' every night.”

A switch to teaching

Bolding earned an undergraduate degree in criminal justice and international security from the University of Cincinnati, then landed a full-ride scholarship to law school at Ohio State University.

But by then, his ambitions had switched. He decided to pursue teaching, inspired in part by his younger brother, who had special needs. He had taught his brother to read, an experience that showed how one person can make a big difference in a life.

"That just really touched me," he said.

Bolding applied for a post with Teach for America and was assigned to Percy Julian Elementary School in south Phoenix as a special-education teacher. He worked beyond the obligatory two-year assignment so he could stay with the same group of students as they moved through sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

In 2014, he won a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives, pushing increased support for public schools a key issue. For the past two years, he has served as House minority leader, a position he won because he could bridge some of the divides in a split caucus.

One Democrat described Bolding as "the man in the middle," not offensive to either end of the caucus. Others said he was likeable and didn't alienate people because he didn't take rock-hard positions on issues.

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Support from nonprofit organization

On the campaign trail, Bolding touts the ability to bring people together as a key credential for the secretary of state. He says he has done that for years, both at the Legislature and through the nonprofits he runs. Expanding access to voting is a key theme in both his legislative and nonprofit work.

In June, his nonprofit Arizona Coalition for Change screened the documentary "Suppressed and Sabotaged: The Fight to Vote," which focused heavily on Georgia in the 2020 election cycle. There were a few references to Arizona laws, including the ban on so-called "ballot harvesting" that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. The film closed with a follow-up question from Our Voice Our Vote, another Bolding nonprofit, asking viewers to rate the movie.

Election guide: 2022 primaries

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He has raised $364,000 as of April 15, according to the latest available report. Most of his donations are small dollar, a mix of out of state and local contributions.

His endorsements include the gun-control group Moms Demand Action, Planned Parenthood and Move On, a national progressive group.

He's also been endorsed by the Our Voice Our Vote PAC, as well as Activate 48, a coalition of local organizations led by people of color, including the Our Voice Our Vote nonprofit.

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He is married and is the father of three young girls.

He'll face former Maricopa County recorder Adrian Fontes in the Aug. 2 primary election.

Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com and follow her on Twitter @maryjpitzl.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona secretary of state 2022 candidate: Reginald Bolding