Charles Eakins

Charles Eakins' career experience includes working as a software engineer.[1]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I was born in Phoenix and raised in Pine, a town of about two thousand under the Mogollon Rim. I started working at fourteen on job sites with my dad, then apprenticed under my grandfather hanging drywall — he built houses up and down the Verde Valley. I'd been writing software since I was twelve, and I've spent more than twenty-five years building backend systems, test automation, and hardware firmware.

I also wrote GridWalker, a free open-source app for wilderness search and rescue that works offline, with no cell signal. I gave it away rather than sell it.

I'm running because I tried to talk to my state representative and he blocked me — on accounts where he posts his committee agenda and the bills he sponsors. A seat where a constituent can't ask a question shouldn't go unchallenged. So I didn't only complain: I wrote a bill, and anyone can read it at charlieforld1.us.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

The law should apply to all of us the same.

Threatening and harassment are already crimes in Arizona, and those laws protect everyone equally. My opponent introduced HB2412 to change that — the same words would stay a misdemeanor said to your neighbor but become a felony said to a politician, a government employee, or their family. I don't want a state where the people who work for us are harder to criticize than the people who don't.Being pro-Second Amendment means more than the day you buy the gun.

Arizona protects you at trial but does nothing to protect you from the trial. Defend yourself lawfully here and you can still be arrested, charged, and taken through a full jury trial before a judge ever rules you were justified. You win — after the legal bills, the lost job, and a year of your life. Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and South Carolina all give you a pretrial hearing. I wrote the bill that would give Arizona one.A representative you can actually reach.

I tried to talk to my state representative and he blocked me, on accounts where he posts his committee agenda and the bills he sponsors. District 1 deserves someone who answers constituents instead of locking them out. My name won't be printed on the ballot — find State Representative, write in Charles Eakins, and fill in the oval next to it.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Free speech and assembly. Not abstractly — my own representative blocked me for saying something he didn't like. Nobody should face a special penalty for criticizing an official.

Due process and self-defense. Arizona gets the trial right and everything before it wrong. Someone who lawfully defends themselves shouldn't be ruined by a prosecution they'll win. I drafted a pretrial immunity bill rather than just talking about it.

Digital privacy. I've built software for 25 years. Bills like HB2920 would demand age verification to open an app — even a calculator. You can't confirm a user is a minor without checking everyone.

Accountability. Public business on an official's account is public.