Democrats Consuelo Hernandez and Stephanie Stahl Hamilton have a strong lead over Republicans Damien Kennedy and Deborah McEwen in state House Legislative District 21, early votes showed Wednesday morning.
Hernandez received 33.77% of the vote and Hamilton received 30.62%, compared to Kennedy with 17.70% and McEwen with 17.91%, according to unofficial results.
Arizona House District 21 encompasses western Pima County, about half of Santa Cruz County and the city of Bisbee in Cochise County.
Hernandez of Tucson serves as president of the Sunnyside Unified School District Governing Board, and she attended Sunnyside schools. She has lived in Pima County for 29 years and in District 21 for one year. Hernandez received a bachelorβs in global health from Arizona State University, and a masterβs in legal studies with a concentration in economics from the University of Arizona. She has hosted free citizenship clinics in Tucson and has raised money for students to pay for their DACA renewals. She said she learned the importance of community service and public service from her parents.
She has campaigned on her commitment to restoring funding for education by providing monies for the classrooms and paying teachers competent salaries so they do not have to work up to three jobs to pay their bills. She does not believe public education dollars should pay for school vouchers. She is a pro-choice candidate and said abortion is a health-care issue and the matter should be between the woman and her health care provider.
Hamilton of Tucson is an ordained minister and serves as parish associate at St. Markβs Presbyterian Church. Hamilton was born in Flagstaff and during her childhood she spent years on the Navajo Nation. She received her masterβs degree of divinity at Princeton Theological Seminary. She was elected in 2020 as a state representative, and last October she was appointed to replace District 10 Sen. Kirsten Engel who resigned to run for Congress.
She has campaigned for higher pay for teachers and to fully fund education and said she has seen as a substitute teacher, a coach, a coordinator of after school programs and a member of a parent teacher organization how the lack of investment in public education has adversely affected communities. She has worked to reverse the voucher expansion law passed in 2017, and worked in 2018 to stop the expansion and the lack of regulation in the voucher expansion system. She said higher education and job training must be more available for youth to keep them in the state workforce.
Republican Kennedy of Amado has lived in Pima County for 15 years and in District 21 for one year. He received a master certificate from Cannabis Training University, a college in Denver. He also has an associate of arts degree in design and visual communications, and a bachelorβs in web and multimedia from Collins College in Phoenix. He is a contract employee of Amado Management. The business is a medical marijuana production complex and Kennedy works to provide genetic acquisitions and analytical analysis to create βmedical cannabis strains that will better help patients across Arizona and beyond,β he said.
Republican McEwen of Rio Rico has lived in both Santa Cruz County and District 21 for five years. The native of Howell, Michigan, is a retired federal and state criminal justice employee. βRepresentatives are defenders of your civil rights and guardians of constitutional rights for every American,β said McEwen. βAs a conservative, I will defend the right of every parent to have access to school choice, for Arizonans to freely practice their religion and follow their convictions.β She advocates for veterans and supports law enforcement and border security.
See how election ballots are sorted, secured, processed and counted in Pima County after you vote.
