Two Pima County supervisor seats have Democratic, Republican primaries

A Democratic supervisor faces a primary challenge and two Republican candidates are facing off in the July 30 primaries for eventual challenges in the Nov. 5 general election.

Each of the five Board of Supervisors’ seats is up for election this November. Supervisors are elected to four-year terms.

Those who win in the July 30 primaries will move on to compete in the Nov. 5 general election.

District 1

District 1 spans the north side of the county, including Oro Valley, Marana, Casa Adobes and the Catalina Foothills.

The winner of the July 30 Democratic primary will face Republican Steve Spain in the Nov. 5 general election. Robert Reus, an Independent, and Libertarian candidate Pendleton Spicer, have also filed to run for the seat in November.

Incumbent Rex Scott

Scott, a former long-time public educator and councilman in Athens, Ohio, narrowly won the 2020 election to become District 1’s first Democratic supervisor to win the seat since Ron Asta in 1972.

He serves as vice chair of the board and chair of the Pima Association of Governments (PAG) Regional Council and has been the county’s representative on the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) Board since 2021.

For his re-election bid, Scott has been endorsed by former U.S. Rep. Ron Barber, state Sen. Priya Sundareshan, state lawmakers Chris Mathis and Nancy Gutierrez, and Pima County Assessor Suzanne Droubie.

Scott’s accomplishments include leading the charge in creating Pima Early Education Program Scholarships (PEEPs) in 2021. He led the effort to eventually pass a prohibited possessor gun law for Pima County, which seeks to prevent “straw purchases” of firearms, and also took charge in developing a vacant position policy that the board passed earlier this year.

Scott, via his campaign website, also touts his support of bringing additional funds to the county’s road repair and maintenance program, introducing the resolution that called on the city of Tucson to not impose higher water rates for unincorporated county residents, voting for adoption of The Prosperity Initiative and introducing the measure “that led to the creation of the Pima County Transition Center,” among other actions.

Jake Martin

Scott faces a July 30 primary challenge from Democrat Jake Martin, a 21-year-old who is a full-time student at the University of Arizona.

He has been endorsed by Moms Demand Action, the National Organization for Women Arizona PAC and March For Our Lives, a Catalina Foothills High School student group.

As an 18-year-old freshman, Martin founded the Survivor Shield Foundation, which provides “emergency relief financial aid to survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence,” according to his campaign website. Survivor Shield was started by Martin in October 2021 and focuses on two areas: direct financial donations to survivors and lobbying for increased governmental support and services, the Star previously reported.

Through its programs, Survivor Shield lobbies local officials, offers free support groups, and through its Grow Back Program provides direct donations to survivors who aren’t able to work or are in need of medical care. In 2023, the nonprofit “directly impacted” more than 80 people through its programs, provided over 150 “free clothing items” to survivors and families, and dispersed over $10,000 to 68 survivors “in need of assistance,” the nonprofit says.

The organization is “one of the first nonprofits” in the state to provide such services and has become “of the highest rated sexual assault service providers in Arizona,” the campaign says.

If elected, Martin says he would prioritize reforming county social services and “fixing our community’s safety net,” addressing the homeless crisis through actions such as rapid re-housing initiatives, and boosting health-care services at no charge to recipients within Pima County. He wants to “champion things like free vaccination clinics, free health checkups for low-income residents, and ensuring that hospital patients understand their rights after medical treatment,” according to his campaign site.

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Martin’s campaign says he would also look to incentivize small business growth in Pima County, strengthen zoning regulations to protect District 1’s wildlife and environment, and support tenants’ rights in Pima County by making it easier to report abuse by landlords and for tenants to get out of their leases.

District 2

District 2 stretches from midtown Tucson to Sahuarita.

The winner of the July 30 Republican primary will challenge Democratic incumbent Matt Heinz in the Nov. 5 election. Heinz, an emergency room doctor and former state lawmaker, defeated longtime Supervisor Ramón Valadez in the 2020 Democratic primary and went on to win the seat by defeating Republican Anthony Sizer in the November 2020 general election.

John Backer

Backer was born and raised in Tennessee and is a lifelong Republican. He moved to Tucson in 1984, where he has spent most of his adult life, to serve as an aircraft electrician at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, according to his campaign.

He has been endorsed by Sahuarita councilmembers Bill Bracco and Diane Priolo, as well as Sahuarita Mayor Tom Murphy. 

Backer serves as chairman of the Sahuarita Planning and Zoning Commission. He was elected to be a precinct committeeperson for Legislative District 19.

He comes into the July 30 primary with over 30 years of “technology experience” that includes a decade-long stint with IBM “on a world-wide visual analytics team” which helped clients fight terrorism and fraud and “make sense of our large amounts of data,” according to his campaign. Those clients, over the last 15 years, have been “all levels of law enforcement and intelligence analysts,” Backer’s campaign says.

Backer lists four priorities if elected to the Board of Supervisors: public safety and border security; improving “transparency and accountability” of board actions and notices; “listening to residents” and not placing any further restrictions on speaking time provided during the call to the audience portions of board meetings; and developing Pima County’s economy “the correct way.”

“The current economic development strategy is to leverage incentives to attract businesses, but relying on incentives alone is not a viable economic development strategy,” Backer says on his site. “Incentives to businesses have their place, but incentives must be tied to short and mid-term goals and must make sense financially to our taxpayers. County government must do a better job of working with businesses — understanding that being business friendly while consistently applying reasonable standards, provides opportunities and hope to our current and future residents and businesses.”

Beatrice Cory Stephens

Stephens is a founding member of Saving Our Kids SUSD, a parental advocacy group that has campaigned for “better education and parental rights,” according to her campaign.

She has been endorsed by the Latinos United For Conservative Action (LUCA) organization and the Tucson Crime Free Coalition.

Stephens serves as precinct committeeman for Legislative District 19 and as the sergeant at arms for the Pima County Republican Party, and a frequenter of county supervisors’ meetings for more than the last year, her campaign says.

The handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on county residents was an “essential” deciding factor in her run for office, Stephens’ campaign says.

“In Pima County, schools were closed, businesses were shuttered, and many jobs were lost in critical first responder fields due to forced vaccination. All too many lives were lost,” she says on her campaign website. “During the past four years, I watched the (Board of Supervisors) and the District 2 Supervisor make some of the worst decisions regarding finance, public health, and safety. ... Having personally witnessed the attacks on our freedoms, I cannot sit idly by and not try to make a change for the better.”

If elected, according to her campaign, Stephens would seek to “support and empower” local law enforcement agencies to reduce crime and fight against the “homeless/drug crisis”; demand a “complete fiscal audit” of the county; and prevent any future lockdowns or vaccine mandates by the county due to COVID-19.

Stephens would also work to cease funding of non-governmental organizations “to secure our border”; sell off excess county-owned properties “to reduce liability and pay off accumulated debt”; focus any road or transportation funding towards road repairs; and “fight to reinstate” three-minute allotments for speakers during the call to the audience portions of board meetings, according to her campaign.