Candidate announcements for state and local races

Rep. Daniel Hernandez Jr., a Democrat who represents District 2 in the Arizona Legislature, has announced that he is running for Congress in District 2.

Hernandez was called a hero when, as an intern for Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, he helped administer first aid to the Congresswoman after she was shot Jan. 8, 2011.

The seat for which he is running was once held by Giffords when it was District 8.

Website: Daniel Hernandez for Congress

Dr. Randall Friese, who currently represents District 9 in the Arizona Legislature, is running for Congressional District 2 as a Democrat.

As a trauma surgeon in 2011, he assisted Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords after she was shot Jan. 8.

Website: Randall Friese for Congress

Kirsten Engel has announced her candidacy for Congress. She will run as a Democrat for Congressional District 2.

Engel is currently an Arizona State Senator representing Tucson.

Website: Kirsten Engel for Arizona

PHOENIX — A member of the Arizona Board of Regents, Karrin Taylor Robson, wants to try her hand at politics. And she wants to start at the top, at least as state offices go.

Taylor Robson cited the November election results as a reason she wants to be governor.

“In just a few months we’ve seen the direction that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want to take this country,’’ the Republican candidate said in a video news release on Monday. “And as Arizonans we need to fight back. We need to fight for Arizona values.’’

Taylor Robson did not return repeated messages seeking clarification of those values or to answer any questions about her views on state issues, ranging from tax policy to education. Instead, she promised in her video to travel around the state to hear from people on “how we can stand together and fight the radical Biden-Harris agenda.’’

In a separate statement on her campaign website, she said she is “committed to do whatever it takes to defend Arizona from the radical left.’’

Her announcement points up what could be a crowded race for the seat that Republican Gov. Doug Ducey has to vacate because he is constitutionally limited to two four-year terms in the office.

It came just hours after state Treasurer Kimberly Yee made her own declaration of interest. And Yee, like Taylor Robson, is staking out an anti-Biden position, though, unlike Yee, Taylor Robson did not profess any particular loyalty to Donald Trump and his ideas.

Taylor Robson’s highest public policy profile is as a regent. She was tapped for that position in 2017 and just reappointed this past year.

Her day job is as founder and president of Arizona Strategies. which is involved with development. She previously worked with DMB Associates, a Scottsdale-based master-planned community developer.

Before that she was an attorney where she practiced in the areas of land use, development and zoning laws representing large landowners.

In her bio, she highlighted that role, saying she “fought on behalf of economic growth and projects that have enabled thousands of new jobs for Arizona families.’’ Taylor Robson also said she wants to protect property rights, create “value in real estate,’’ foster civic engagement, support those in the military and develop “a world-class education system with options for all types of learners.’’

While she has never held political office, her father, Carl Kunasek, was a president of the Arizona Senate who later went on to serve on the Arizona Corporation Commission. Her brother Andrew Kunasek served as a member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.

PHOENIX — State Treasurer Kimberly Yee is hoping to ride the same political path as the current governor.

In a video Monday, Yee announced she wants to be the Republican nominee for the state’s top executive post in 2022.

Yee, the first Asian-American elected to Arizona statewide office, provided little in the way of details of what she intends to do. Instead, her video twice mentioned her loyalty to former President Donald Trump and his border and economic policies, and lashed out at, among others, “the corrupt press’’ she said is attacking “our way of life.”

She did not return a call seeking an interview with her on specifics of her platform or whether she supports current moves at the Legislature that would have an effect on whoever becomes governor, including efforts to enact a flat state income tax rate that could end up being one of the state’s largest tax cuts ever.

Yee, first elected to the Legislature in 2010, became the first Asian-American woman to be the Senate majority leader.

She had a few legislative pieces of note. A 2017 measure she sponsored was intended to guarantee free speech to student journalists, by requiring college and high school administrators to take a hands-off approach to student newspapers published with the guidance of teachers and advisers. Administrators would have been allowed to intercede only under several narrow circumstances.

Yee said the bill was based on her experience as a high school journalist in the 1990s whose stories and cartoons were censored by administrators.

But it never became law, as Republican Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed it, saying he believes there are limits on constitutional rights of free speech of students. “These are minors,’’ he said.

Yee was elected treasurer in 2018.

Ducey showed that it is possible to move from the nearly invisible office of treasurer to governor. But Ducey had built a public profile by taking the lead in fighting a 2012 ballot measure that would have made permanent a temporary one-cent sales tax increase.

In her video announcing her gubernatorial run, Yee first appears on the Arizona border, echoing what has lately been a GOP talking point.

“Washington is simply not going to protect Arizona,’’ she said, saying the Biden administration is refusing to enforce law and is opening the state to drug cartels and human traffickers. The video features clips of the triumvirate of people Republicans love to criticize: Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“I’ll continue President Trump’s fight to secure our southern border,’’ Yee said.

The video then shifts to the Colorado River where Yee promises to protect Arizona from the “socialist policies’’ coming from California.

“President Trump’s America First agenda had our economy booming like never before,’’ she said. “But now, our way of life is under attack by the corrupt press, reckless corporate leaders and politicians who put socialist ideals over people, our freedom of speech and our elections.’’

Yee becomes the first Republican elected official to announce for the race; Ducey cannot run for a third term because of term limits. Regent Karrin Taylor Robson also announced her candidacy on Monday. On the Democratic side, former Nogales Mayor Marco Lopez is running.