Former state senator Steve Kaiser argues that the most powerful influence on a politician is an informed constituent. He walks through how voters can build real civic relationships with the people who represent them.

The bipartisan town hall has all but disappeared from Arizona politics. A freshman legislator decided to hold three anyway, and found that civility still holds when voters get room to be heard.

I’ve spent more than three decades in Arizona’s public life — most of it in media, where the job is to observe, analyze, and, at times, amplify the noise. For a long time, that felt like enough. You cover the story. You move on to the next one. But something changed. In recent years, especially around our elections, I found myself less interested in the daily headlines and more drawn to what was happening underneath them. The arguments were getting louder, the lines sharper, the trust thinner.

“The strength of our nation depends on our ability to see ourselves—and others—as more than who we vote for. Our country needs you and me to be more than our political identities.”