Rep. Walt Blackman, R-Snowflake, speaks at a March 19, 2025, press conference about his legislation to criminalize some stolen valor claims. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror
Arizona lawmakers want to impose criminal penalties against people who falsely claim military service or honors to receive benefits, but the proposal is facing major hurdles from some Republicans because of a political dispute in last year’s elections.
The Arizona House of Representatives already unanimously passed House Bill 2030, which would make impersonating a veteran to obtain employment, government contracts or benefits a class 4 felony.
The bill is the brainchild of Rep. Walt Blackman, a Republican from Snowflake and U.S. Army veteran. Last year, Blackman was locked in a primary election contest against Steve Slaton, the owner of the Trumped Store in Show Low, a popular campaign spot for the MAGA faithful.
Slaton falsely claimed to be a Vietnam veteran, and even altered his DD214, a document given to veterans upon their retirement that includes a record of their service and awards, to show service in Vietnam. In reality, Slaton was stationed in Korea between January and December 1974 as a helicopter repairman and he was never deployed in Vietnam.
But Slaton was endorsed by Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, as well as Sen. Mark Finchem, R-Prescott. Blackman was critical of Slaton and Rogers during the campaign; Slaton lost in the primary election.
Rogers, a retired Air Force pilot, chairs the Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee, the panel that was assigned to hear Blackman’s HB2030. She has refused to schedule the bill for a hearing, and with the deadline for committees to consider bills coming March 21, the measure is effectively dead.
Rogers, Finchem and Senate President Warren Petersen did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Now, Blackman and supporters of the measure are pursuing other options and seeking to apply pressure to get the bill heard, whether that be in another committee or by using a strike-everything amendment on another bill to resurrect the proposal.
Sen. Shawnna Bolick, R-Phoenix, allowed Blackman to put a strike-everything amendment onto her bill, Senate Bill 1424, which has already been voted out of the Senate. That amendment was approved by the House Government Committee on March 19. The strike-everything amendment copies the text of HB2030 that is stalled in Rogers’ committee.
If the bill passes the full House, it would return to the Senate for a final vote. Whether that happens would be up to Petersen.
“We need to stop playing politics and start doing what’s right by our veterans,” Rep. Stacey Travers, D-Phoenix, said at a March 19 press conference with Blackman and veterans about Rogers’ refusal to consider the bill. Travers, an Army veteran herself, praised Blackman’s bill and said that it has bipartisan support, pointing to its unanimous passage in the House.
“That wasn’t a mistake, that was on purpose,” Rep. Quantá Crews, D-Avondale, said of the unanimous vote.
Blackman urged Petersen to have the bill either reassigned out of Rogers’ committee, urge Rogers to hear the bill or have the strike-everything version receive a vote by the full Senate.
“It is a shame, it is a sin,” said Jim Muhr, who served in the Army in Vietnam, adding that he did not understand why Rogers was blocking the legislation. He said he wants Petersen to move it to another committee.
“I’m not in her head,” Blackman said when asked why Rogers may be holding the legislation. “I would say there are some personal reasons.”
Blackman, without naming Slaton, said that he believes Rogers and Finchem may be trying to protect a “gentleman in Show Low” but he is unsure why. Rogers and Blackman have a history of butting heads, and Blackman was one of the few Republican lawmakers to condemn comments Rogers made in the wake of a mass shooting targeting Black shoppers in a Buffalo, New York, grocery store in 2022. Blackman is Black, while Rogers, who is white, has strong ties to white nationalists, including speaking at a white nationalist conference and calling attendees “patriots.”
In 2005, a similar bill was passed by Congress, though parts of it were found to be unconstitutional because it violated the First Amendment. Blackman said he aimed to avoid that by focusing solely on those who impersonate veterans for benefits that they would otherwise not be entitled to receive and adding that to existing state scam and fraud laws.
“I am asking Senator Rogers and Senator Finchem to either get on board or get out of the way,” Blackman said, eliciting cheers and shouts of “amen” from the veterans surrounding him.
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