Maricopa County elections: Here's who is running for supervisor, sheriff and more
This year's election cycle is expected to be a pivotal one for Maricopa County, the most populous in Arizona.
Its past decade has been dominated by a population boom, mounting costs from a landmark racial profiling lawsuit, several high-profile resignations and a wave of election denialism that has led to threats against sitting elected officials.
Now, all of its top seats are up for grabs.
Voters will weigh in on county supervisors, who serve on a five-member board responsible for setting a vision and direction for the region. The county recorder, who maintains voter registration records and administers early voting, will also be on the ballot.
But those aren't the only county races voters will decide. Here's who is running for control of the county's future.
Maricopa County supervisor
County supervisors directly control the county's $4.5 billion checkbook. That gives them authority over the resources of the Sheriff's Office, Attorney's Office and other departments with elected heads.
Additionally, they serve as the municipal body for those living in unincorporated areas of the county, who aren't residents of cities or towns and do not get the same amenities as those who are.
Supervisor spots are highly coveted by Arizona politicos, often serving as a stepping stone to higher political office. Supervisors are not term-limited, and all of the seats on the board will be up for election in 2024.
The Board of Supervisors has long been a Republican stronghold with a solid conservative majority. But demographics are changing in the Valley, which could give Democrats a chance to pick up seats on the board — and win a majority for the first time in decades.
Even some primary races for the seats are expected to be contentious. The county's sitting supervisors were hit with unfounded accusations of widespread fraud and a stolen election after Donald Trump's loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race.
The situation has only intensified in the years since, with conservative candidates and personalities launching challenges and criticism at Maricopa County before, during and after the 2022 election. It didn't help that the county experienced widespread technical issues on Election Day. Now, some GOP candidates are seeking to unseat incumbent Republican supervisors with conspiracy-focused platforms.
Here's who is running:
Jack Sellers, District 1: He was first appointed to the board in 2019 and currently serves as its chairman. Before joining the board, he served two terms on the Chandler City Council. He has lived in the county for more than 30 years and is a retired facilities manager for the General Motors Desert Proving Ground. Sellers is running as a Republican.
Mark Stewart, District 1: He has served on Chandler City Council since his election in 2016. A native Midwesterner, Stewart has lived in the county for about 25 years. He runs a consulting company that specializes in marketing and branding for Valley businesses. Stewart is running as a Republican.
Joel Navarro, District 1: A third-generation Arizonan, Navarro has served on Tempe City Council since 2008. He is a trained paramedic for the Phoenix Fire Department and says he ultimately hopes to become mayor of Tempe in 2028. He is running as a Democrat.
Thomas Galvin, District 2: He was first appointed to the board in 2021. Galvin was previously a policy adviser for an Arizona Corporation commissioner. He currently works as a land use attorney for Scottsdale-based Rose Law Group, a job he juggles alongside his board duties. Galvin lives in east Phoenix and is running as a Republican.
Michelle Ugenti-Rita, District 2: An Arizona native, she is a former state lawmaker and secretary of state candidate with a substantial track record of running election legislation. Before getting elected, Ugenti-Rita worked in commercial real estate. She lives in Scottsdale and is running as a Republican.
Julie Cieniawski, District 2: She currently serves on the Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board and is a former teacher. Cieniawski was raised in Minnesota and has called Arizona home for more than three decades. She is running as a Democrat.
Kate Brophy McGee, District 3: Brophy McGee is a third-generation Arizonan and former state lawmaker. Prior to serving in the Legislature, she spent nearly a decade on the Washington Elementary School Board. Brophy McGee currently serves on the board of the Maricopa County Special Health Care District. She lives in north-central Phoenix and is running as a Republican.
Daniel Valenzuela, District 3: An Arizona native, Valenzuela is a former member of the Phoenix City Council and works as a firefighter. He previously ran for Phoenix mayor in a hotly contested race marked by pricy ad attacks from independent groups. He lives in north-central Phoenix and is running as a Democrat.
Tabatha LaVoie, District 3: She is president of LaVoie Law Firm in Scottsdale, which specializes in corporate legal matters. LaVoie previously served as a board member for the Arizona-Mexico Commission under former Gov. Janet Napolitano. She is currently the secretary of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. LaVoie lives in Paradise Valley and is running as a Republican.
Debbie Lesko, District 4: She is a sitting congresswoman and former state lawmaker who served in the Legislature for close to a decade. While in the U.S. House, Lesko has been a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump, voting against his impeachment and voting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. She lives in Peoria and is running as a Republican.
Bob Branch, District 4: He is a professor at Grand Canyon University and previously ran for superintendent of public instruction. He currently serves on the Maricopa County Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission. Branch lives in Waddell, an unincorporated community near Surprise and Glendale. He is running as a Republican.
David Sandoval, District 4: He is the president of Blender Marketing Group, a marketing and advertising firm focused on multicultural populations, and clerk of the Peoria Unified School District Governing Board. Sandoval lives in Peoria and is running as a Democrat.
Ann Niemann, District 5: She is the director of Arizona for Election Transparency, a group linked to The America Project and Patrick Byrne, the founder of Overstock.com and a prominent voting conspiracist. Niemann also previously ran an international adoption agency. She lives in south Phoenix and is running as a Republican.
Steve Gallardo, District 5: He was appointed to his seat in 2014. A former state lawmaker, Gallardo represented a district in the southwest Valley in both the House and the Senate for about a decade before becoming supervisor. He also previously worked as a campaign finance administrator in the county's Elections Department. Gallardo is a fourth-generation Arizonan. He lives in west Phoenix and is running as a Democrat.
Maricopa County recorder
The county recorder manages public records, including property documents and governmental information.
They are also responsible for maintaining voter registration records and administering early voting, including mailing out early ballots, providing on-site early voting locations and verifying voter signatures on early ballot affidavits and petitions.
The recorder holds tremendous power over how elections are run within the county, and previous politicians in the position have pushed massive changes to the way the county votes.
Former Recorder Adrian Fontes eliminated the use of assigned polling places in favor of vote centers where anyone can cast a ballot and expand early voting options — decisions that spurred some errors, legal challenges and criticism that he disregarded the spirit of the law in favor of partisan priorities.
In more recent years, the position has been mired in election conspiracies. County recorders across the state have received threats stemming from false fears of a stolen election in 2020. Some have left their posts after continued, relentless harassment.
Here's who is running for recorder:
Stephen Richer: He was elected county recorder in 2020, beating out Fontes for the seat. Richer previously worked as an attorney. His background is in business management and public policy, with stints at think tanks such as American Enterprise Institute and the Cato Institute. Richer lives in Phoenix and is running as a Republican.
Justin Heap: He is a state lawmaker representing a legislative district that spans parts of east Mesa and Apache Junction. Heap is a member of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus. During his time in the Arizona Legislature, he has supported bills to remove the state from a multistate voter registration list maintenance effort and divide Maricopa County into several smaller jurisdictions. Heap is running as a Republican.
Don Hiatt: He is a software architect and information technology professional who has worked for Nationwide Insurance, Blue Cross Blue Shield and the Arizona Department of Education. Born and raised in Douglas, Hiatt is a fourth-generation Arizonan. He lives in Mesa and is running as a Republican.
Timothy Stringham: He is an attorney and Naval Reserve officer. Stringham previously served a tour in Afghanistan with the U.S. Army. In the Navy, he gave human rights training to foreign partners in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Stringham lives in Tempe and is running as a Democrat.
Maricopa County sheriff
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is one of the largest sheriff's offices in the nation, with upwards of 3,000 employees, including deputies, jail guards and civilians.
The office is tasked with patrolling unincorporated areas of the county, as well as municipalities without a designated police force. It also serves Superior Court orders and warrants, collects delinquent taxes, coordinates search and rescue missions and oversees the county's five jails.
Former Sheriff Paul Penzone, a Democrat, blew the race wide open when he unexpectedly announced that he would step down from his post a year early.
His time in office was largely spent grappling with the legacy of his predecessor, Joe Arpaio. The Republican's tenure was marked by multimillion-dollar lawsuits arising out of jail deaths, political prosecutions, racial profiling that led to criminal contempt-of-court charges and other scandals.
Penzone rolled back some of Arpaio's practices, including closing the outdoor jail known as "Tent City" and ending the use of pink underwear for incarcerated people. But he allowed others to continue. Under his tenure, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continued to screen people in county jails for potential immigration violations, allowing them to detain people they believed to be deportable as they were released from county custody.
Additionally, the Sheriff's Office remains under the cloud of the Melendres v. Arpaio court case and the resulting set of federal court orders that require the department to be watched by a court-appointed monitor.
While Penzone has consistently claimed the conditions that brought about federal oversight — civil rights violations, targeting people of color — are no longer present in his Sheriff's Office, some activists say the underlying attitudes that brought about those problems still exist. Costs related to the court case continue to mount, reaching $250 million in May.
Here's who is running for sheriff:
Russ Skinner: He was appointed sheriff by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in February after Penzone's departure. Skinner has worked in the Sheriff's Office for more than three decades and previously was chief deputy sheriff. He is running as a Democrat, but only recently switched his party affiliation from the Republican Party.
Tyler Kamp: He previously worked as a shift commander, gang enforcement sergeant and homicide detective for the Phoenix Police Department. Kamp is a fifth-generation resident of Maricopa County with more than two decades of law enforcement experience. He is running as a Democrat.
Jerry Sheridan: He worked for the Sheriff's Office for 38 years, retiring as a deputy chief. This won't be his first run — he defeated Arpaio, his former boss, in the 2020 Republican primary, but lost to Penzone in the general election. He is running as a Republican.
Mike Crawford: He is an Air Force veteran and a former Glendale police officer. Born and raised in New Mexico, Crawford also served as a volunteer firefighter in high school and worked as a deputy in the San Juan County Sheriff's Office. Like Sheridan, this isn't his first run — he lost a primary race for the sheriff's seat in 2020. He is running as a Republican.
Frank Milstead: He was appointed as director of the Arizona Department of Safety in 2015 by former Gov. Doug Ducey. Milstead held that position until he retired in 2020. He also previously worked as chief of the Mesa Police Department and an officer with the Phoenix Police Department. He is running as a Republican.
In their words: We asked the candidates five questions, including why they want to be sheriff. Here's what they had to say.
Read more coverage about the race and the candidates.
Maricopa County attorney
The county attorney serves as the head of the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, one of the nation's largest prosecutorial agencies.
The office reviews and determines charges for felonies occurring in the county, and misdemeanors occurring in unincorporated areas. The office also provides legal services for the Board of Supervisors and county departments and agencies.
The seat has a long and controversial history. Former Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery was a hardline, law-and-order politician who critics described as overall punitive. He spent $400,000 building up an arsenal of semi-automatic rifles that were hidden around his downtown Phoenix office building. Later, former Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel resigned from her position amid questions about her sobriety and absences from office.
The office continues to grapple with questions about racism in the criminal justice system, the conduct of some of its prosecutors and enforcement of Arizona's new abortion law.
Here's who is running for county attorney:
Rachel Mitchell: She has served as county attorney since 2022. Before taking on the role, she served as a bureau chief at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office overseeing teams of prosecutors, most notably the sex crimes bureau. That experience led her to be tapped by the Senate Judiciary Committee to question witnesses during the hearing involving Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. Mitchell is running as a Republican.
Gina Godbehere: She is a former bureau chief and trial attorney who handled juvenile, gang, homicide and repeat offender cases at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. She was the designated bias crimes prosecutor for more than a decade and retired from serving as a municipal prosecutor in Goodyear in 2022. She previously lost to Mitchell in the 2022 state primary. Godbehere is running as a Republican.
Tamika Wooten: She currently serves as a judge pro tem and previously announced her candidacy for county attorney in the 2020 election but failed to get enough signatures to get on the ballot. Wooten has been an attorney for more than 30 years. She has practiced defense law, served as a chief prosecutor in Glendale and as a municipal judge in multiple jurisdictions. She is running as a Democrat.
In their words: We asked the candidates about abortion, fentanyl and more. Here's what they had to say.
Read more coverage about the race and the candidates.
Maricopa County assessor
The assessor is responsible for identifying, mapping and assessing all properties in Maricopa County.
It's a job that is little known but vitally important. The assessor determines the value of properties, which dictates how much a property owner pays in taxes. They work with other county offices to maintain records and provide valuation information.
In Maricopa County, the office is responsible for keeping track of roughly 1.8 million real and personal properties with a combined value of more than $700 billion.
The usually sleepy position last saw heat when former Assessor Paul Petersen was arrested on human trafficking and fraud charges in three states over adoptions he facilitated through his Mesa law firm. Petersen ultimately resigned from his position and pled guilty to some of those charges, receiving a total of 11 years in prison in Arizona and Arkansas. He also was convicted in Utah.
Here's who is running for assessor:
Eddie Cook: He was appointed assessor in 2020. Prior to taking the position, Cook served on the Gilbert Town Council for nearly a decade. He also sat on the Arizona State Information Technology Authorization Committee, which reviews some of the state’s largest IT projects, and led a technology company that provides cloud-based data services to other businesses. Cook is running as a Republican.
Gregory Freeman: He is a commercial property manager at MPB Realty and touts a decade of experience in the real estate industry. Freeman, a native of Phoenix, has worked as an escrow officer, notary, residential leasing agent and construction manager. He is running as a Democrat.
Maricopa County treasurer
The treasurer acts as the county's tax collector and safeguards the county's money.
They are responsible for disbursing money from the county treasury and pursuing those who have not paid their county taxes. They receive all county revenues, manage credit accounts and invest county funds with guidance from county supervisors.
They also serve as treasurer for all schools and special districts within their county.
Here's who is running:
John Allen: He was elected county treasurer in 2020. Allen is a former state lawmaker and has worked in construction, airline ground operations, sales and as a small business owner. He lives near Scottsdale and is running as a Republican.
William Lichtsinn: He is an accountant who has worked in a variety of corporate finance roles. Lichtsinn also served in the U.S. Navy. He lives in Phoenix and is running as a Republican.
Maricopa County school superintendent
The county school superintendent provides services to support school governing board elections and bond and override elections, as well as manage school board appointments, oversee school finances and maintain home-school and private school records.
The superintendent also appoints new members to school board vacancies. That can give whoever holds the position great influence over the makeup of school boards countywide.
In Maricopa County, the office operates an accommodation school district, which is made up of alternative schools for students facing specific educational challenges and barriers.
Here's who is running:
Steve Watson: He has served as the county school superintendent since his election in 2016. Watson previously worked as a career and technical education teacher in the Deer Valley Unified School District. He recently found himself in hot water with county supervisors, who accused him of financial mismanagement and commissioned an audit of his office. Watson lives in Phoenix and is running as a Republican.
Nickie Kelley: She is a math teacher at Tolleson High School with a background in politics. Kelley worked on Capitol Hill and for Phoenix City Council before becoming an educator. She has taught in private, charter and public schools. Kelley is running as a Republican.
Shelli Boggs: She serves on the governing board of the East Valley Institute of Technology. Boggs previously worked as a cosmetology instructor at the Mesa-based school, which provides career and technical training. In 2020, she ran for a seat on the Maricopa County Community College District governing board. She lives in Queen Creek and is running as a Republican.
Laura Schaffer Metcalfe: She serves on the governing board of the East Valley Institute of Technology and has worked as a high school teacher and district administrator. She also previously worked in the Maricopa County School Superintendent's Office as a grant coordinator. She lives in Mesa and is running as a Democrat.
In their words: We asked the candidates about school board appointments, managing tax dollars and more. Here's what they had to say.
Read more coverage about the race and the candidates.
Justices of the peace
Justices of the peace preside over limited-jurisdiction justice courts and hear cases such as small claims, evictions, orders of protection, misdemeanor crimes and some traffic infractions.
They serve four-year terms and receive an annual salary of about $100,000. Candidates do not need to be attorneys or have any specific education.
All races except Maryvale, Moon Valley, North Mesa and San Tan are uncontested.
Arcadia Biltmore justice of the peace: Leonore Driggs, Democrat
Country Meadows justice of the peace: Anna Huberman, Democrat
Desert Ridge justice of the peace: Cathy Riggs, Republican
Dreamy Draw justice of the peace: Frank Conti, Republican
Highland justice of the peace: Jordan Ray, Republican
Maryvale justice of the peace: Andy Gastelum, Democrat; and Francisco Sobampo, Democrat
Moon Valley justice of the peace: Mireya Arroyo, Democrat; Deborah Begay, Democrat; and Michael Irish, Republican. Read our candidate questionnaire.
North Mesa justice of the peace: Kyle Jones, Republican; and Kiana Sears, Democrat. Read our candidate questionnaire.
San Tan justice of the peace: Sherwood Johnston, Republican; and Blake King, Republican. Read our candidate questionnaire.
Read more coverage about the race and the candidates.
Constables
Constables act as representatives of local courts. They are considered peace officers in the course of their duties, and are tasked with serving paperwork, such as warrants, writs and notices, on behalf of their courts.
No law enforcement training or background is required to be elected constable.
Only one candidate will appear on ballots for all constable primary contests though a write-in candidate is running in the Highland precinct.
Agua Fria constable: Michael Flores, Democrat
Arcadia Biltmore constable: Christopher Wible, Democrat
Country Meadows constable: Pedro Lopez, Democrat
Desert Ridge constable: James Rich, Republican
Dreamy Draw constable: Rhys Torres, Republican
Highland constable: Thomas Ray, Republican, and write-in candidate Gregory Scott Hardy, Republican
Maryvale constable: Denice Garcia, Democrat
Moon Valley constable: Matthew McRae, Republican
North Mesa constable: Jon Curtis, Republican
San Tan constable: Carlos Gastelum, Republican
Read more coverage about the race and the candidates.
Sasha Hupka covers county government and election administration for The Arizona Republic. Do you have a tip to share on elections or voting? Reach her at [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @SashaHupka. Follow her on Instagram or Threads: @sashahupkasnaps.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Maricopa County elections: Supervisor, sheriff, recorder candidates
