Russell Keith Pearce (June 23, 1947 – January 5, 2023) was an American politician who was a Republican (GOP) member of the Arizona State Senate.

He rose to national prominence as the primary sponsor of Arizona SB1070, a controversial anti-illegal immigrant measure that was signed into law in 2010.

[1] He served as Vice-Chair of the Arizona GOP, but he resigned the position in September 2014 after controversy over a eugenicist comment about forced sterilization of poor women on Medicaid.

[14] Pearce claims credit for one of Arpaio's more publicized and controversial actions, that of housing jail inmates in tents.

[7] Two notable changes during his tenure were: 1) bringing in IBM to create the first version of servicearizona.com, an online resource for Arizonans to update their Motor Vehicle Department information and 2) more controversially, Pearce enrolled Arizona in the then optional (at the federal level) National Drivers Registry program, making collection of social security numbers for drivers' licenses mandatory at the state level to comply with the (then optional) federal program.

[20] Republican anti-tax activist Grover Norquist's group, Americans for Tax Reform, named Pearce a "Hero of the Taxpayers" for 2003.

Proof of citizenship includes an Arizona drivers license issued on or after October 1, 1996, the date from which AZ DLs were required to contain SSNs on the DL data file.

[24] He also sponsored Arizona SB1097, also debated in the legislature during the 2010 term, which sought to quantify the impact of illegal immigration on the state's K-12 education system.

[25] The text of the bill states that:[26] CNN announced on June 15, 2010, that Senator Pearce was proposing a measure that would deny U.S. citizenship to children born in this country to illegal immigrants in an effort to thwart so-called "anchor babies".

Pearce addressed these accusations by reaffirming that he supports the principles in the Utah Compact such as the importance of the family and showing respect to immigrants.

"[31] Pearce told reporters he did not agree with the antisemitic and racist statements in the article, and that he had copied it from an email forwarded to him by someone else after "the title and the first paragraphs about media bias appealed to him".

[36] As lead sponsor of Arizona SB 1070, Pearce received assistance from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in drafting the text for the legislation.

[39] In October 2010, the SB 1070 bill, which Pearce sponsored in the legislature, came under criticism for benefiting the for-profit prison industry.

[40] In November 2010, Pearce launched a push to reject US$7 billion in federal funding for Arizona's Medicaid program, which serves more than one million people.

[42] On July 8, the Arizona Secretary of State's Office officially verified that the recall petitions had sufficient signatures.

On July 12, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) issued an order calling a special recall election in November.

[48] Pearce, Pearce’s brother, Lester, top GOP strategists Chuck Coughlin and Doug Cole, with other Tea Party supporters, selected and supported Tea Party Republican Olivia Cortes to run in the recall election, as a straw or decoy candidate in order to split the anti-Pearce Republican vote.

She was accused by Republican Mary Lou Boettcher of having no election committee, no volunteers, and was being supported and funded almost entirely by friends of Pearce, who had gathered enough signatures to place her on the ballot.

[51] Several members of Pearce's campaign effort were accused of Class 5 felonies for their role in aiding and funding the sham candidacy.

"[57] On August 28, 2012, Pearce lost his comeback bid in the Republican primary for the nomination for a state senate seat to businessman Bob Worsley, by 56 to 44 percent.

[61] Pearce's son Justin resigned from the Arizona Motor Vehicles Division in 1999, after he produced counterfeit driver's licenses for himself and four friends with false ages in an effort to avoid alcohol prohibition laws.

[62][63] Justin Pearce subsequently pleaded guilty to tampering with a public record and received a suspended sentence.