Key Points:

• Sen. Wendy Rogers wants to rename a state road as the Donald J. Trump Highway

• Proposal sparked debate over life and actions of the President

• Legislators are also considering honoring slain activist Charlie Kirk by naming a highway

What’s coming out in the Epstein files spilled over to the state Senate on Tuesday.

And it’s all because Sen. Wendy Rogers wants to rename a state road as the Donald J. Trump Highway.

The 193-mile stretch of State Route 260 from Cottonwood to Eagar is now designated as the General Crook Trail, named after the original dirt road built in the 1870s as a military supply wagon road. Now, the Flagstaff Republican wants the Arizona State Board on Geographic and Historic Names to replace that with the name of the president.

Her SCM 1001 lists a host of reasons she believes Trump deserves the honor, ranging from the construction of additional border walls, his role in enacting tax relief, and his withdrawal from the United Nations Paris Climate Agreement.

But when the measure came to the Senate floor on March 3, Sen. Analise Ortiz, D-Phoenix, had questions.

Rogers wouldn’t agree to respond. So Ortiz laid out her case for why such an honor is misplaced.

That specifically includes reports from the New York Times claiming the president’s name appears more than 38,000 times in the Epstein files. And she specifically mentioned Trump’s name appearing in an FBI tip sheet with what she said was an allegation that Epstein years ago introduced a 13-year-old girl to Trump who, in turn, was accused of trying to force the girl to perform a sex act.

There has been no independent corroboration of that incident, and Ortiz’s comment was ruled out of order by Sen. Frank Carroll, who was presiding. 

But that did not stop Ortiz from saying that there’s more in the files that should make lawmakers question whether the state should honor him with a road.

“These files … dictate horrific sexual abuse, the most heinous sex trafficking ring possibly in history,” she said.

“President Trump has been hiding these documents,” Ortiz said. “His Department of Justice has been scrubbing these documents from the law that he passed to make these public.”

What’s needed before the state takes any action to honor Trump, she said, is the full disclosure of what else is in the Epstein files, “and the truth about his involvement in this ring of pedophiles.”

“We should not even be entertaining or talking about this right now,” Ortiz said.

But given Republicans’ support — and their control of the Senate — none stood up to defend the move. The measure gained preliminary approval on a voice vote.

While Rogers did not defend her measure on Tuesday, she did rise to its defense when the proposal first went before a Senate panel in January.

“Needless to say, our president is bigger than life,” Rogers told colleagues. 

That, in turn, provoked a response from Sen. Mitzi Epstein.

“We should name our public places after people who have led exemplary lives, not after a person who has led a disgraceful personal life,” said the Tempe Democrat. And she said this isn’t partisan, saying there are many Republican politicians who could be honored in this fashion.

“But not this one,” Epstein said.

She also said it’s not just about what’s in the files.

Epstein also mentioned the 34 convictions of falsified business records which prosecutors said were designed to conceal payments made by Trump to cover up an extramarital affair. And he was found liable in a civil trial for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll and then defaming her when he denied the allegations, and was ordered to pay $5 million in damages.

And then, Epstein said, there was the overheard comment about how he could “grab women by the, you’ve heard of it.”

But her objections gained no traction.

Sen. Mark Finchem, R-Prescott, responded with just two words: Bill Clinton, a reference to issues that the former president faced about his own sexual activities when he was in the White House.

Sen. Vince Leach had his own reason for supporting this designation for Trump. Consider, the Tucson Republican said, President Lincoln whom he called perhaps “the most divisive in our history.”

“And yet he is recognized all over this country,” Leach said, including his name on roads.

And Senate Majority Leader John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, called Epstein’s comments an “unjustified and untrue slandering of our president.”

SCM 1001 still requires a final roll call vote in the Senate before going to the House.

Because of the way the measure is worded, it would not require the approval of Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.

It also offers no guarantee that the State Board on Geographic and Historic Names will honor the request.

It has independent authority to decide what names are appropriate, and the board has a policy of not naming geographic features after individuals until they have been dead for at least five years.

That differs from the proposal by Senate President Warren Petersen to designate a highway in Maricopa County as the Charlie Kirk Loop 202 in honor of the slain co-founder of Turning Point USA. That one simply directs the Arizona Department of Transportation to erect signs with the name along the 78-mile road.

SB 1010, which has been approved by the Senate on a party-line vote, awaits action in the House.

But as a bill, it would need Hobbs’s approval. She has yet to comment on the issue.