Political Notebook: Tucson native, son of immigrants, now Arizona's GOP chair

Here's a quiz for you. 

The new chair of a major statewide political party is a 42-year-old son of immigrants from Mexico who grew up in Tucson. What party does he chair?

If you said "Democratic," you'd be wrong.

The state committee members of the Arizona Republican Party elected Sergio Arellano as the party's new chair during a meeting in Prescott Valley Saturday. 

It was a long, strange trip for the Iraq combat veteran to arrive at the position, which he nearly won five years ago in a contested election.

Arellano was born in Tucson and raised in a Spanish-speaking household, both parents from mountain towns in eastern Sonora. He left home at 17 to join the U.S. Army and ended up serving in combat in Iraq. 

After coming home, Arellano said, he called the Democrats but didn't get a response. He called a talk radio station and ended up getting in touch with Republicans. It was the time of the Tea Party movement rising. 

"I felt that the rhetoric was too extreme, but the values were in line with how I was raised as a conservative Latino," Arellano said.

He got involved organizing Republican voters in Democratic strongholds like Santa Cruz County, among other activities. In 2021, he ran against incumbent party chair Kelli Ward in what appeared to be a quixotic effort. But election irregularities marred the vote, and it was never clear who really won. 

"There is a sense of vindication because we feel that that election was stolen," Arellano said. "We know we won."

Arellano moved to the Phoenix area and has been working as a senior adviser to House Republicans in the state Legislature. He decided to give it another try for party chair this year. There was some dispute about whether Arellano qualified as a candidate, but in the end he was allowed to run, though that decision was highly disputed.

Another of the four candidates was Pima County Republican Party Chair Kathleen Winn, who has worked with Arellano before. 

"Sergio, before anything started, had come to me and said 'If I’m not on the ballot, I’ll throw my supporters toward you. And if after a round of voting, will you throw your supporters toward me?'," Winn said. "I said 'Sure.' I mean, because that was a fair deal."

As it turned out, Winn came in fourth place in the first round of voting, and Arellano was first. After she threw her support to him, he won in the second round. 

"We won because we built a coalition of Republicans that are tired of the shenanigans from leadership," Arellano said. "The infighting, the division, the pitting against each other, the name-calling, the factions. It all culminated to this point where I think the grassroots just had enough. I was able to bring people from all sort of ideologies together to push across."

All of this may sound like an achievement that marched ahead in linear progression, but it took place during a 13-hour meeting filled with twists and turns, factional disputes and arcane deployments of Robert's Rules.

"Sergio’s got a big lift right now," Winn said. "He was left with almost no money."

Arellano's top priorities are to help the GOP win the state's top three offices — governor, attorney general and secretary of state, all held now by Democrats — and to hold the two swing congressional districts. Those are CD1, now represented by Republican David Schweikert, and CD 6, now represented by Republican Juan Ciscomani.

"We have a big lift ahead of us," Arellano said. "We’re inheriting a divided party. I haven’t looked at the financials yet, but I have a suspicion we’re not going to be well-funded. My first act is to start raising the money we need to get through to be victorious."

RTA opposition group forms

A group opposed to the Propositions 418 and 419 has formed to campaign against the RTA Next plan. 

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

The group, known as Tucson Deserves Better, will serve as the counterpoint to Connect Pima, a well-funded political action committee campaigning in favor of the propositions.

If Pima County voters pass the propositions March 10, that will extend an existing countywide sales tax of a half-cent per dollar that funds transportation needs around the Tucson metro area. If voters reject the measures, the existing half-cent-per-dollar sales tax will end June 30.

The leaders of the opposition group are James Glock, a former Tucson transportation director, and Ruth Reiman, a former Regional Transprtation Authority employee and longtime critic of the agency. 

“Voters are being promised road repairs and improvements that simply aren’t in the plan,” Glock said in a statement. “Tucson deserves transparent, equitable, evidence-based transportation investments that actually improve safety, fixes our streets, and reflects the values and priorities of our community."

The new group's website is nortanext.com. The pro-RTA Next group's website is connectpima.com.

RTA discussion on AZPM

Two of the leaders of the Regional Transportation Authority took part in a discussion of the plan with a panel of journalists and a live audience for the upcoming episode of The Press Room on Arizona Public Media.

Star columnist Tim Steller was among the panelists who discussed the plan and questioned RTA Executive Director Michael Ortega and RTA board member Ted Maxwell.

A condensed version of the 90-minute discussion will air on KUAT Channel 6 at 8:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 29, and on KUAZ, 89.1 FM the same day at 8:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. The full video will be available online at Arizona Public Media's home page and on AZPM's YouTube page.

AZ senators demand Trump ousters

Early in the week, Democratic senators demanded a series of reforms of Immigration and Customs Enforcement before they would vote for a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security.

Those reforms include:

• Requiring ICE agents to get judicial warrants before making immigration arrests

• Mandating that ICE agents identify themselves instead of obscuring their identities

• Strengthening ICE-agent training amid a hiring surge

• Stopping Border Patrol from doing immigration raids in the interior

Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, both Democrats, have also introduced legislation called the Stop Excessive Force in Immigration Act. It would set new standards for the use of force and mandate other changes.

Now they want to see firings before they will vote for the DHS funding bill, passed by the House but hitting heavy weather in the Senate. Kelly called for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Trump advisor Stephen Miller to be fired. 

Gallego called for Miller to be fired, saying on X, "No funding DHS with that creep calling the shots."