Progressive challenger targets Democratic incumbent in LD21 debate

Miranda Lopez, a self-described democratic socialist, criticized Democratic Rep. Consuelo Hernandez during her opening statement and didn’t let up — painting the two-term lawmaker as someone who has spent four years accepting money from “the utility companies raising our bills” and “developers pricing out our renters.”

Lopez and Hernandez are seeking their party’s nominations in the four-way primary race for two House seats in Legislative District 21, which goes from southeastern Tucson to the U.S.-Mexico border and covers chunks of Pima, Cochise and Santa Cruz counties.

The intrigue before the debate, which was sponsored by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, was that Hernandez chose to run as a team with newcomer Maritza Higuera, rather than her seatmate, Democratic Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton. Stahl Hamilton, who has been a lawmaker since 2021, is not running on a slate with Lopez.

But Lopez made it obvious that it’s Hernandez she’s trying to unseat.

Lopez said Hernandez’s support for a constitutional convention to enact congressional term limits could lead to the unintended consequence of President Donald Trump’s MAGA followers taking over the convention and stripping Arizonans of their abortion and voting rights.

“We just had to fight to put abortion rights back into our own state Constitution,” Lopez said. “We cannot afford a Democrat in Phoenix helping Trump take them away again.”

Hernandez didn’t respond to Lopez’s opening salvo.

But Lopez took another swipe at Hernandez when the debate moderator, Tucson Agenda senior reporter Joe Ferguson, turned the subject to Hernandez teaming up with Higuera over Stahl Hamilton.

Lopez said she jumped into the race because Hernandez has sided with Republicans many times, including when she helped ban encampments at the state universities last year.

Hernandez’s sister, Democratic Rep. Alma Hernandez, sponsored a measure prohibiting people from establishing or occupying an encampment on a university or community college campus, a direct reaction to a 2024 wave of campus protests related to the war between Israel and Hamas.

Consuelo Hernandez was a co-sponsor of that bill, along with one other Democrat and five Republicans. The Hernandez sisters are staunch advocates for Israel.

“(Hernandez) basically lost my vote, and I decided that I wanted to see somebody who was very progressive, very young, running for this office to really represent the best that this district has to offer,” Lopez said. “And I thought that that person should probably be me.”

Hernandez invited Lopez to the Capitol “just to give you an insight on how the system works.”

“Because if you were not aware, most of the bills that get heard are Republican bills, so with your tally that you have there, that is very telling of the reality of a Democrat in a Republican-led state,” Hernandez said.

Lopez, whose political experience is behind the scenes in campaigns and leading the Pima County Democratic Party, said she’s aware Republicans are the majority, but that doesn’t mean Democrats have to vote with them.

“Like, we can always say no,” Lopez said.

Hernandez said she decided to support Higuera because she fills a need for rural representation, and it’s a majority-Latino district.

“I’m really proud to have met her two years ago, and she decided she wanted to run,” Hernandez said.

Higuera, who unsuccessfully sought the appointment for the Santa Cruz County school superintendent last year, said Hernandez did not recruit her, but Hernandez showed her the ropes as she set out to run for office.

“I always think that those seats are for us, the people, the public, to elect. They don’t belong to anyone,” Higuera said.

Stahl Hamilton shrugged off Hernandez’s partnership with Higuera, saying she’s always run in competitive primary races. She said no one ever asked her to run, but she felt compelled to after spending 12 years “leaning in” at the grassroots level.

She said “two people of color and one Caucasian” have consistently represented the district, which is two-thirds people of color and one-third Caucasian. Democratic Sen. Rosanna Gabaldón has represented the district with Hernandez and Stahl Hamilton since 2021.

“I feel like … we do represent our district well between the three of us,” Stahl Hamilton said.

The candidates also fielded questions during the debate about campaign finance reform.

Hernandez survived a challenge to her candidacy this year after she racked up around $20,000 in unpaid fines for filing her campaign finance reports late. Pima County Superior Court Judge Cynthia Kuhn ruled in Hernandez’s favor, finding that Hernandez isn’t “liable” for the fines because the Arizona Attorney General’s Office has not made a formal attempt to collect them.

Hernandez said Wednesday that the delay in paying was because of her father’s death, but she has since paid them and has disclosed all of her contributors.

Stahl Hamilton said there should be more teeth in the law because many elected officials have overdue fines. She said she hired an attorney who understands campaign finance laws to be her treasurer because she felt people expected her to be a good steward of their money.

“He has always told me it is my job to keep all of us out of jail … that was the first thing he said. I thought, my gosh, but clearly, as we can see, there’s not a lot of recourse when finance reports go unfiled,” Stahl Hamilton said.

Lopez said she doesn’t think lawmakers are motivated to police themselves at the state or federal levels.

“That being said, that’s definitely something that I would focus on, is trying to create a system where lawmakers, whether they’re in the Arizona House or the Arizona Senate, will face actual real consequences if they do file late,” Lopez said.