Candidate David Gowan is led the Republican primary for Arizona's Legislative District 19 state House race Tuesday, taking 44% of the early vote, unofficial results released Tuesday night showed.
Lupe Diaz trailed with 32% of the vote, and Cheryl Caswell fell last with 24%.
Diaz told the Star after initial results dropped that going forward into the general election, he plans to preserve foundational “principles that preserve our constitutional rights and freedoms.”
“We're living in a very rural community with very rural values, and I don't think that the progressive socialism that the opposing party is really pushing are the values of the rural communities,” he said. “We'll be continuing to take care of our ranchers and farmers, and pushing the issues that our constituents have relied on us to continue to promote, like critical access hospitals, our roads and bridge projects.”
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Gowan, currently a state senator, is seeking to return to the House, where he served from 2009 to 2017. His time in the House was scorched by $12,000 in wrongful reimbursements for trips he took in state vehicles and for per diem pay for days he claimed to work but did not. The state attorney general did not pursue criminal charges but found there was "substantial disregard for determining whether state funds for per diem, mileage, and official travel were paid pursuant to proper authority," the Arizona Agenda reported.
Gowan left the Arizona House in 2016 to run for Congress but dropped out before the primary. He returned to the Arizona Legislature in 2019 to serve in the state Senate, where he has been since.
Diaz, a firm believer in election integrity, border security and school choice, is seeking his third term in office, according to his campaign website.
He told the Star Monday his contributions to historic tax relief, budget balance, water defense, public safety and agricultural protection differentiated him from the other Republican candidates.
“We've been able to deliver results,” he said of the state Republican caucus. “The thing that sets me apart is that I'm trusted in the in the rural community … I think communication with with our constituents is really important.”
Newcomer Cheryl Caswell told the Star Monday that her top priorities were addressing affordability, improving education, and serving on the military affairs and elections committees because of her personal connection to veterans and grassroots experience.
“It's time for some new leadership in our legislative district,” she said Monday. “With long term incumbency, we just don't see a lot of the newer future leaders rising up, and so it's time to rise up some new leadership due to our aging incumbents.”
Two seats are open in LD19's state House race, so the top two candidates will advance to the Nov. 3 general election, where they will face Democrats Jackie O’Donnell Anderson and Aiden Nicholette Swallow, who ran unopposed in their primary.
LD19 covers a large part of southeastern Arizona along the U.S.-Mexico border, including Sierra Vista and Douglas in Cochise County; Green Valley, Sahuarita and Vail in Pima County; and Safford in Graham County, plus parts of Greenlee and Santa Cruz counties.
