Democratic House candidates in LD23 promise to deliver for southwest AZ’s rural communities

A current Arizona House representative and San Luis councilmember are uniting to keep the district a Democratic stronghold, while prioritizing local concerns. 

As Election Day draws near, Arizona House Rep. Mariana Sandoval and longtime San Luis councilmember, Matias Rosales, are fighting to beat Republican candidate Michele Peña to keep Legislative District 23 Democratic. 

LD23 covers the southwestern part of the state, all the way from west Tucson to Yuma County, a portion of Maricopa County’s West Valley, and a large chunk of the Tohono O’odham Nation. The district also encompasses a 230-mile long stretch of the US-Mexico border, including two ports of entry. 

There are more registered Democrats in the district than Republicans, but independents make up the largest share of voters — Peña surprisingly won a seat in the House in 2022, as a write-in candidate during the primary election.

Now, she’s running as a single-shot candidate. In Arizona, each state House district is represented by two candidates, but parties can also opt to run only one candidate — a “single-shot candidate” — in an attempt to dilute the opposing party’s political power. This is a strategy to get core supporters to only cast one vote for one candidate, and persuade other voters to split their ballots between the candidate and an opponent, ultimately maximizing the candidate’s numbers. 

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Sandoval, a paralegal, previously served on the Agua Fria High School Board and has worked at the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. She is endorsed by US Rep. Raúl Grijalva and former Democratic party chair and state Sen. Raquel Terán. 

Rosales, a realtor, currently serves on the San Luis City Council, and  as chairman of Yuma County’s Planning and Zoning Commission and the Arizona State Association of Realtors. He also volunteers on other committees addressing water, property rights, and fair housing. 

He has lived in San Luis for 21 years and served on the city council for 12, and he sees himself as an advocate for rural communities. Rosales says he wants to ensure that rural families have the same opportunities and access that people throughout the rest of the state do. 

“It doesn’t make a difference to me whether you’re a Democrat or Republican,” Rosales said. “The idea is you tell me, what are the issues that you think are important, that you feel are important to you and your family, and let me know, because if I get elected, I want to make sure I represent everybody.” 

At doors, people don’t often seem to know who Michelle Peña is, Rosales said. “That’s the question I get, ‘Who is she?’ A lot of people, even now, myself, people ask me, ‘Does she live in Yuma county? Does she live in Goodyear?’ She’s not very active here.”

Especially in those smaller rural communities, people want to see who wants to represent them, and ask them questions in person, Rosales said.

Peña did not respond to a request for an interview or comment from The Copper Courier.

What issues matter to the community?

For LD23 specifically, the lack of affordable childcare options is what Rosales wants to address. There are a large number of federal workers, law enforcement, and people who work at the port of entry who work overnight shifts, and for the single parents, there is nowhere for them to get childcare. 

It’s important to address the lack of child care to give people more options as the economy changes and more companies come into the district offering 24-hour shifts, Rosales said. 

Border security is not an issue for San Luis, which has been recognized as one of the safest cities in the state of Arizona in recent years, Rosales said, even though it is a border community.   

“We all live here, we all work here, our kids walk to the parks, and play,” Rosales said. “It is not something in our mind. Our residents’ mind is [on] how can we lower the cost of living, or how can we bring more of that American dream to our homes and make sure that we have the same opportunities.” 

The issues top of mind for people in the district are education, healthcare, and the economy—not border security, Sandoval said. “I think that as people start traveling north more, and you start hearing rhetoric in the news and from other folks, more fear is put into people’s minds, but the people that live right there don’t see that as an issue.”

Thousands of people cross the border every day in LD23 for work, school, or commerce—it’s just the way of life there, Sandoval said. It brings economic activity into the district’s communities, and it has never been an issue to the people living there. 

Prioritizing public education 

Public education goes beyond just the schools—it reflects the wellbeing of the state’s economy, Sandoval said. This is because when companies look to invest in Arizona, she said, they consider how good the public schools are, because that’s where employees will send their kids. 

For rural communities, especially in San Luis, the only choice parents have are public schools. It’s what people rely on, and where Sandoval is placing her focus and support.

Sandoval supports the original private school voucher system, where children with needs that are not being met by public schools can have another option, but says the current system is bankrupting Arizona’s public schools. Vouchers have cost the state roughly $332 million.    

Peña is a proponent of school vouchers, which shows that she doesn’t quite understand the community she wants to keep representing, Sandoval said.

Winning over Latino voters

For the Latino voters Rosales has talked to in the district, who make up 54% of the voting population, affordability is top of mind.

 “People are trying to survive and live as prices go up…everyone’s seeing the crunch,” he said.

For the younger generation, especially young Latinos, they want a better life and they want to see their financial situation improve—and the Trump campaign, among other conservative campaigns, are geared towards people’s hopes and fears, Rosales said. 

But, he said, the bigger question is how that’s going to happen, and how those candidates will provide that better life and financial situation.

Voter apathy, especially amongst the Latino community, tends to be what makes LD23 a competitive district, Sandoval said. 

In 2020, then-Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, prosecuted two San Luis residents, one of whom was the former mayor of San Luis, for collecting ballots from other people and depositing them in a ballot box in Yuma County on the day of the primary election. Brnovich cited a 2016 law banning third-party collection of early ballots in his prosecution.

Afterwards, people in the community became afraid to vote, and many are still afraid, Sandoval said. “They don’t want to touch ballots, they don’t want to engage because they’re scared…so that really frightened the community, and sort of suppressed the vote in that community.”

For many people, they are just focused on working and providing for their family—they don’t understand the power they are leaving at the table and how important their vote is, Sandoval said. 

The Latino community often feels ignored by politicians, she said, and rural communities in LD23 often lack services that other parts of the state take for granted. 

For example, there is no hospital in San Luis. The closest place for people to get care is in Yuma, about 30 miles away, or across the border in Mexico. Several months ago, Sandoval’s husband had an injury when they were in San Luis, and they chose to drive five minutes across the border to a hospital in Mexico, rather than 30 miles in the other direction. 

Peña’s support for HCR 2060—on the ballot as Prop 314, which would make illegally crossing the international border a state crime in Arizona and is estimated to cost $325 million a year—shows the night-and-day difference in priorities, Sandoval said.

It’s more important to deliver for the people of Arizona than to win a Democratic majority in the state Legislature, Sandoval said. But, she said, having that majority would make it easier to actually deliver, especially on funding for public education, expanding health care coverage, and protecting a woman’s right for her own medical decisions.

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