John Backer has won the Republican nomination for Pima County's District 2 Supervisor race, unofficial results show.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Backer received 62% of the vote, unofficial results from the Pima County Elections Department shows. His opponent, Beatrice "Cory" Stephens, received nearly 38% of the votes in Tuesday's primary election.
Backer, reluctant to declare himself the winner "out of respect" for his opponent, told the Star that his chances are looking very positive.
He said it was unfortunate that the turnout was less "than everyone wanted," and will work to inform voters that their vote matters ahead of November.
"One of the things it tells us, either (voters) think their vote doesn't matter, perhaps," he told the Star. "I'm going to have one-on-one conversation to the largest extent possible, knocking on doors and having conversations. And every conversation is going to start with listening, what is important to the person I'm talking to."
Backer says that some of the top priorities he's heard from constituents in District 2 is the need for boosting public safety, as well as the state of roads and infrastructure.
"The businesses that we hear being vandalized, and people on the bus being victimized," he said. "People need to feel safe in their daily lives, with (others) and with their families."
Another concern Backer has heard is the need for improving the economy. And while he isn't sure of the capabilities of a single supervisor to address this, he said, he would look to squeeze "the life" out of every tax dollar collected.
"It's not a time to waste anyone's tax dollars. We need to get a positive return on every tax dollar we spend, and not every return will be monetary, but we need to measure what the expectations are for the dollars we spend... If we're doing something that's not accomplishing our goal, it needs to be re-thought."
BackerΒ was born and raised in Tennessee and is a lifelong Republican. He serves as chairman of the Sahuarita Planning and Zoning Commission. He was elected to be a precinct committeeperson for Legislative District 19. 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,Β according toΒ his campaign. He Β serves as chairman of the Sahuarita Planning and Zoning Commission. He was elected to be a precinct committeeperson for Legislative District 19. He entered the race with over 30 years of βtechnology experienceβ which included a decade-long stint with IBM.
According to his campaign, Backer has four priorities if elected in November: public safety and border security; improving βtransparency and accountabilityβ of board actions and notices; βlistening to residentsβ and not placing any further restrictions on speaking time provided during the call to the audience portions of board meetings; and developing Pima Countyβs economy βthe correct way.β
In November, Backer will attempt to unseat Democrat incumbent Matt Heinz, an emergency room doctor and former state lawmaker whoΒ defeated longtime Supervisor RamΓ³n Valadez in the 2020 Democratic primary. Heinz went on to win the seat byΒ defeating Republican Anthony Sizer in the November 2020 general election.
Backer says he's the right choice for the seat because he will be District 2's "full-time supervisor."
"I will be there, I will be their full-time supervisor. The kind of supervisor the people of District 2 in Pima County have always deserved. And secondly, I will listen," he said. "You've got a supervisor that isn't showing up consistently, or showing up late and not listening to you... It's one thing to go into a meeting and vote yes or no on different issues before them, but the meaningful work is all the preview work, understand the issues, raising the questions, organizing your thoughts and being able to have a meaningful discussion about those things prior to voting on them."
Backer thanked Stephens, his opponent, for throwing her name into the ring.
"I just want to thank any candidate, including her, that puts themselves in a position to run for office. It's a difficult road to hoe, and it's also difficult, difficult not to move forward from an election," he said. "I applaud her efforts and her running a very hard-fought campaign."
