Local opinion: Alma Hernandez has record and experience to serve in Senate

What we should most wish for in our state senator is that they be ethical, intelligent, educated, and effective. Alma Hernandez embodies all these qualities and more. She is honest, hardworking and fiercely devoted to her community and constituents.

Alma truly cares about all of us and possesses excellent decision-making skills grounded in her discerning intellect, comprehensive education, astute judgment and common sense based on real-world lived experience. 

Alma is an accomplished legislator and professor who holds a law degree and two master's degrees. She fully understands the legislative process and has a strong record of getting the legislation she sponsors passed through the legislature and adopted into law.

She is highly adept and proficient with a proven track record of getting things done. During her years as a state representative, Alma has demonstrated exceptional success, and she is poised to do even more as our state senator. Despite serving in the minority as a Democrat she successfully sponsored and passed 10 bills, making her the most effective Democrat in the Arizona State Legislature in 40 years.

Her legislative reach is broad and extensive. She has served on the Health and Human Services Committee, as the Ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, and on the Regulatory Affairs Committee, the Legislative Audit Committee, the Criminal Justice Reform Committee and the Federal Relations Committee.

The legislation Alma has championed into law has made a tangible, positive difference for Southern Arizona. Her enacted bills include crucial new laws on inmate mental health services, appropriate penalties for sexual extortion, and enhanced due process rights for individuals court-ordered to receive mental health treatment.

Alma's priorities are our priorities. She has consistently fought to secure millions of dollars for our local community, strengthen labor unions, advance criminal justice reform, protect reproductive freedom and expand access to health care for all. She is also dedicated to delivering economic relief to working families, defending fundamental constitutional rights and protecting democratic values, including voting rights.

She is a dedicated supporter of union workers, the Jewish community, the LGBTQ community, the immigrant community, the Latino community and all people of color. Because she is the daughter of an immigrant, a Latina, a Jewish woman and a member of the American Federation of Teachers, she truly understands the myriad needs and interests of our diverse community. She is passionate about representing Southern Arizona because she is and always has been one of us. She cares about the people of this community.

Alma is not a rubber stamp who blindly supports policies based on partisan loyalty. Instead, she is an independent thinker who puts our well-being first, voting for what is right and in the best interests of her constituents.

Those of us who support Alma are in excellent company. She has earned the endorsement of many Democratic Arizona State Senators who see her as the strongest candidate to be their successful colleague in the Senate, including Senator and Assistant Democratic Leader Catherine Miranda, Senator Sally Ann Gonzales, Senator Flavio Bravo, Senator Eva Díaz and Senator Kiana Sears. She also has earned the endorsement of major LGBTQ organizations, including Stonewall Democrats and Equality Arizona, as well as powerful labor unions, including the American Federation of Teachers Arizona; Teamsters; Laborers’ International Union of North America; Arizona Carpenters Union; and International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers.

If you live in Legislative District 20, we need your voice and your vote. Please join me in supporting and voting for Alma Hernandez for Arizona State Senate.