State House candidate Terri Proud is asking primary election voters to give her a shot at a seat in Legislative District 26—even though Proud has never voted in a primary election, according to the Pima County Recorder’s Office voter database.

• Republican Terri Proud

Proud isn’t sure if she is on the state’s Permanent Early Voter List, but she says she plans to go to the polls and vote for herself in this year’s primary election.

Most of the people she talks to don’t know much about the primary, she says, but she tries to educate them about why it’s important.

“If we don’t vote … we are still kind of voting, we’re voting the other direction,” she says. “We’re giving the other side our voice when we don’t vote.”

Though she has a record of voting in general elections for a decade, she says she regrets sitting out all those primaries.

“I was busy with family stuff, and that’s not an excuse,” she says. “But here’s the thing—we all have to learn from our lessons. … So it’s something I’ve learned. I wish I would have been more active in the primaries.”