Peggy Judd is done. She sat on her last meeting of the Board of Supervisors earlier this month. She took a plea deal, putting an end to two hovering felony charges lodged against her for failing to certify the 2022 election. She leaves with around $70,000 in legal fees and a long legacy of public service.

As she reflects now on her career, Judd said she never wanted to be political, she just wanted to do her job. 

How did you first get involved in public service? 

I got invited to apply to be on the Parks and Recreation organization in our community, and that was the first time I’d really gone to board meetings and tried to get things done. We got Keiller Park – our main park where the swimming pool is, and the big ramada and all of our events are – we got that completely remodeled, and I got my name on a big stone plaque with all the other board members. 

And from that, our president was in charge of Rex Allen Days. And Rex Allen Days brings about 20,000 people into Willcox. Rex Allen was a great music star, a silver screen cowboy. We’re particularly close to their family because my dad was really good friends with Rex Allen. I helped on that committee. I took care of all the vendors, got people to perform at the park and all those things. And then I ended up being the president of Rex Allen Days … It’s a big festival with a rodeo and a parade and everything, so it was quite something. 

I wasn’t political. I was just really busy. I had my kids, and I volunteered at school, I went on every field trip. I did everything. I did everything, and loved it. And so I was really that kind of a person anyway. 

When did you become more political?  

One day, I had this lady come in. She and her husband had a little group called the Old Time Fiddlers in Willcox. Every year they performed for us at Keiller Park. And so she came in, she sat down, and she said, “Peggy, I’m so worried about our country. It seems like everything’s going wrong.” She says, “I’m just really upset. And my kids won’t talk to me about it anymore. Will you talk to me? I’m just so worried.” 

I had heard of this thing called the Tea Party. And so I said, “Why don’t I have a tea party, and we’ll let people come and bring signs and talk about the government, and talk about what they’re experiencing.”

So we had our first tea party. Now I didn’t know what a Tea Party was, I had to call Representative Griffin. At the time, she was the party chairman for the GOP in our county … this was my first political thing. And Representative Griffin said you have to invite both political parties, and I barely could get any Democrats to come. Every now and then a couple of interested ones would come … and they would say, “Oh, that wasn’t so bad.”

We had open mic time, and everybody talked. And I really did think it was important. It made me feel good. But I couldn’t make it non-partisan. I couldn’t make it be a balance, because we’re like, 80% Republican in Willcox. It was very one sided. 

What led you to the Legislature? 

Whenever Representative Griffin was trying to get someone to run for Senate, she was looking around our district, she thought of me, and I was like, “Oh, geez. Give me a couple of days to pray about this because this is not something I ever thought of in my future.” 

I said no. And she goes, “Well, you know what? I think I’ll just run then, and then you can come up to the Legislature and shadow me and learn what it’s about, and then maybe in the future, you can run for Legislature.” So I just went on about my merry business. 

For Mother’s Day, I was camping in San Diego. I was on the beach. I had my stupid little flip phone – I should have left it at camp – and I’m reading, and my toes are in the sand, like they’re supposed to be. I was against this rock, which was soft, actually, I was comfortable, and I got a phone call.

It was Representative Griffin, and she said, the lady who was going to run for House of Representatives cannot run. Her husband got sick. She cannot run. So I need you to do it. How do you feel on the beach? Because it’s like the whole world is my oyster. So I said, Sure, I’ll do it.

What was your experience like in the Legislature? 

I really loved being a representative. I loved that part, and because my district was about half Democrat and half Republican, I was very respectful of that …  I’m a representative, not just a tool of the party. 

I have wonderful, wonderful stories and experiences and memories, and made friends with a lot of people, including the governor (Katie Hobbs). She was right across the hall from me. Her kids sold Girl Scout cookies. I always bought Girl Scout cookies. 

Then, I needed support … A band teacher had abused me, like I was like a victim of sexual abuse when I was 10 and 11, and I really wanted to fix that. 

I had for the third time called the State Department of Education, and they’re like “Oh this guy, he’s teaching over here in this district, and he’s still a band teacher, and he’s still doing this and that.” And I was just so mad, and I needed to do something. And finally, a person at the state called me back, they asked me a bunch of questions, and then they said. “I think you need to just take it to your police department.” But they said forget it, the statute of limitations ran out. 

I worked on it every way I could at home, with my school. I worked everywhere I could, and they just got mad at me. And it ended up being ugly, like stupid, ugly. So, when I was in the Legislature, and I’m like, gosh, I can get on this bandwagon, and I can work on this. But the perfect partner for something like that was Katie, because that’s what she did. That was her job (social worker). 

I knew Katie was a partner in all those kind of things. And because I had half Democrats in my district, we became really good friends. And if you asked her right now, she would say that we’re really good friends still. I needed her, and we needed each other. And we were both brand new in the Legislature, and we just became friends. 

What brought you back to Cochise County? 

I was out for a while, and then I got a call from my county chairman. He said you could pick  representative or supervisor, but we want you to run for something. So I picked supervisor so I could stay home, and it was more money, and it was four years instead of just two.

Fast forward a lot of years, I am there. I’m in my second term. I’m wanting – because some constituents needed me to show them – that I did and I do care about election integrity. Everybody does, no matter what party you’re in. So when this election stuff came up, honestly, I said, there is one thing I can do … we can hand count the ballots. 

The next day, we got a letter from the secretary of state, from Katie, and she said, you need to follow the law. 

What was your view on elections at the time?

I was telling everyone in the meetings everywhere, our elections are fine. These people that call themselves, we the people, for whatever reason, really want to see that for themselves, to experience that. I don’t think this is gonna hurt anything. 

It wasn’t to change anything or create something out of nothing. It was to show those people that we have good elections, that our machines work. We have a good system. I talked to my IT people. I said, “You know, they’re saying that it could be broken into, it could be hacked,” And they said, “Not with what we’re doing.” It was very protected. It was very fine. I can’t say we had problems in our elections. I had watched them very closely. For several years I had already certified them. So literally, this was just about a simple hand count of as many ballots as we could, limited by what the secretary of state said. And it became ugly and stupid. 

What was the aftermath of the court-ordered vote to certify? 

The people that liked me and were supporting me so loudly started hating me. And it never got better. Then, I was getting hate from everyone, the Democrats and the Republicans, and that was ugly. 

What have been some milestones since taking the plea deal? 

I made up with Kris Mayes … I told her I don’t have any hard feelings … She goes, Peggy, I need you to know this isn’t personal. 

It was pretty personal to me. I was struggling all year long with my husband dying of cancer. And then I lost him, and it was pretty hard for me, and I still have this huge bill, but I said I understand. And I don’t fault you for it … it was kind of neat. I feel better. I feel lighter. 

I did tell Katie, now that my case is over, I need to call her and come see her. She needs to get my side of the story. It’ll be so much easier now that I’m not indicted anymore. 

Would you consider running for office again?

I might do public office. I doubt I would do the Legislature. I really need to be in something that’s not political …  I’m not political. I’m just here to do my job.