Tim Steller's column: Tucson senate race a microcosm of Dem battles

Three candidates endorsed by New York City's Democratic Socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, won Democratic congressional primaries June 23, while Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros ousted a 15-term incumbent Democratic congresswoman in Denver on Tuesday. 

The question for Tucson is whether the reverberations will reach the shores of the Santa Cruz River. 

Those races in other states were for congressional seats, but the divide is similar in Legislative District 20 on Tucson's west side, even if most of the issues are different.

The Senate race in Legislative District 20 pits a Democratic Socialist of America-affiliated candidate, Rocque Perez, against centrist Democrat Alma Hernandez. Here too, even though these are state-level offices, support for Israel is also a big fracture line. 

"I think the dynamic we’re seeing in LD 20 is absolutely connected to the national dynamic of the Democratic Party, the big tent version coming to grips with an ascendant younger version of Democrats," Eric Robbins, chair of the Pima County Democratic Party, told me. 

In LD 20, both Democrats are relatively young. But Perez, 27, has served less than a year as an appointee to the Tucson City Council, while Hernandez is 33 and has the air of an incumbent, because she served the last eight years in the state House of Representatives. 

Since these are seats in Democrat-dominated districts, the primary election on July 21 will almost certainly decide who is sworn into the office in January. 

The results of these primary elections are crucial in a county where almost all the higher elected offices are occupied by Democrats, as seen in Brian Johnson's election as Pima County treasurer in 2024. 

Johnson's resignation 18 months into his term, in the wake of a sexual-harassment investigation, shows how crucial it is for the whole community that Democrats get these decisions right.

Hernandez: 'They should start their own party'

The heart of the race has been Hernandez's performance in the House. Hernandez describes herself as an unusually accomplished Democrat, one of the few who has been able to get bills passed in the Republican-controlled Legislature over her eight years in office.

In a debate hosted by the Arizona Clean Elections Commission, Hernandez said she has had 11 bills passed, though when we talked, she acknowledged that one was vetoed by then-Gov. Doug Ducey. 

But Democrats in her district have accused her of taking too many votes against Democrats in the process of compiling that record — breaking with the caucus 151 times over the last four years. The LD 20 Democrats passed a statement of concern over those votes in a May meeting. 

Perez said he "absolutely" would commit to voting more consistently with the Democrats than Hernandez has if he wins. That's perhaps a surprising stand considering that Perez also said he is a DSA member, but he described himself as "just a Democrat running for a Democratic race."

He added, "I have not gotten hung up about 'I'm a progressive Democrat,' or 'I’m a DSA Democrat.'"

Hernandez dismisses that entire concept.

"I'll be honest," she told me. "I don't consider the DSA as part of the Democratic Party. I mean, it's a movement, and I think that quite frankly they should start their own party."

If you look at how the Green or Libertarian parties have fared, you can probably see why they haven't. Being part of a small party means losing over and over. 

When I asked Robbins about the issue, he said that, as an individual, he views the DSA-affiliated Democrats as part of the party's future. 

"The Democratic party needs to embrace issues more than asking people to identify as purist Democrats," he said.

Israel becomes a top issue 

Across the country, no issue has animated the DSA-affiliated candidates so consistently as opposition to Israel's wars in the Middle East and U.S. support for Israel. You would think that would be far from a top issue in a state legislative race in Arizona, but that's not the case.

Hernandez, who is Jewish, accuses Perez of being so obsessed with Israel that he's veered into antisemitism by, for example, calling her an "Israel-first" candidate. She considers that wrong and offensive. 

"If that is your entire campaign against me, to unseat a Zionist, I don’t know how productive or how anyone can expect it to be a clean and friendly primary. I don’t go to the (voters') doors and say, 'Hey I’m Jewish, vote for me.' I go to the doors and talk about the issues and everything I’m working on."

But Perez didn't pluck Hernandez's Zionism and avid support for Israel from obscurity. It's something she wears on her sleeve and brings into her work as a legislator.

In her social media bios, she describes herself first as a "proud Zionist." Her pinned tweet on X is of her holding an Israeli flag, apparently after landing at an airport in that country. 

And this preoccupation has entered her legislative life in ways that Perez objects to. In 2025, she co-sponsored a bill that would have opened teachers and university faculty up to personal liability if they taught materials that could be viewed as antisemitic. Some pointed out that criticism of and even factual statements about Israel could have led to liability for teachers under the bill.

Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed it.

This year, Hernandez authored a bill that outlaws protest encampments on Arizona campuses — a direct response to the pro-Palestinian camps that popped up at the U of A and ASU in 2024. Hobbs signed that one. 

"I want to repeal a lot of these measures that are rooted in the belief that anti-Zionism is antisemitic," Perez said.

A harsh campaign

It's been a harsh campaign, just like some of the recent Democratic primaries in other parts of the country. Deleted posts by Perez showed him to have called for political violence when he was a University of Arizona student, something he acknowledged and regretted in conversation with me, but which Hernandez said disqualifies him from the post. 

Hernandez has compared Perez to the expelled and criminally convicted former New York Congressman George Santos, claiming he's lied about his past. In his campaign announcement, Perez described Hernandez as an "Israel-first Dem tied to big money." 

The phrase "Zionist bitch" was written on at least one campaign sign for Hernandez, while others have been cut up. Perez says he's been accosted more than once by one of Hernandez's top supporters. 

"At numerous turns, she’s gotten personal in a really disappointing way. But to be frank, it was to be expected," he said.

Said Hernandez: "It’s something new to me, and I hope this isn’t what our Democratic Party is turning into."

As this increasingly powerful left wing rises across the country, challenging traditional Dems, it may well be.