Dem seeking LD24 Senate seat used to be a Republican, but it's not who you think
One of Arizona's leading progressives used to be a registered Republican and has attacked her opponent for his ties to Republicans.
Rep. Analise Ortiz has swiftly become one of Arizona’s leading progressive voices, achieving this status after just one term representing the Maryvale area west of Phoenix in LD24 for the Arizona House.
Now, Ortiz is vying for the open Senate seat in the same heavily blue district, following Sen. Anna Hernandez’s decision to run for Phoenix City Council.
What stands out about Ortiz, a prominent Democrat in the state legislature known for her willingness to collaborate across party lines to accomplish her goals (and her readiness to confront Republicans even at the risk of ethics complaints), is her attacks against her primary election challenge, Mario Bustos Garcia, a previously unknown candidate.
Garcia remained relatively obscure until Ortiz and other progressives highlighted his connections with Kari Lake and other likely MAGA Republicans, despite his recent registration as a Democrat. He registered under Mario Bustos for the first time in January 2024.
In contrast, before Ortiz was one of Arizona’s most progressive lawmakers, she was a registered Republican who voted in the 2014 Republican primary election. (More on that later.)
Despite his initial obscurity, Garcia managed to gather enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, posing a challenge to Ortiz, who enjoys broad appeal, particularly among young voters through her TikTok videos, which have garnered over one million likes.
The extensive coverage of this primary election in deep blue LD24 is noteworthy. Typically, a contest between a popular incumbent like Ortiz and an unknown first-time voter like Garcia would receive minimal media attention, yet several stories have been written about this race. Plus, I would be genuinely shocked if Ortiz doesn’t win this race handily and it won’t be because of her attacks on Garcia. It likely would have been the case regardless.
Neither Ortiz nor Garcia responded to questions for this story.
Ortiz has criticized Garcia across various social media platforms, leading to his campaign consultant's resignation. Garcia has struggled to raise funds compared to Ortiz, who has raised over $160,000 and has nearly $60,000 on hand, whereas Garcia's claims of raising $120,000 were contradicted by reports showing only $25,000, all self-funded.
Garcia's spending has exhausted his campaign funds, and his new consultant, Sergio Arellano, a former Trump Latino advisory board member who ran against Kelli Ward for AZGOP chair in 2021, further complicates his perceived Republican ties.
Unreported until now is Ortiz’s own history with the Republican Party. Her voter file shows she initially registered as a Republican in 2011, switched to independent in 2012, selected a GOP primary ballot in 2014, and finally registered as a Democrat in 2018. She did not vote in the 2016 primary or general election.
Now there’s nothing wrong with switching your party registration. Views can change over time and Arizona has elected plenty of Dems who were former Republicans (Attorney General Kris Mayes for example or Amish Shah1, who Ortiz endorsed for CD1) and Republicans who were former Dems (former Rep. John Fillmore comes to mind), but when this primary race should have been – and likely still will be – a landslide victory for Ortiz, her drawing attention to Garcia’s alleged ties to Lake acts only as a Streisand effect for her.
Ortiz did not respond to questions about her voting record in the 2014 Republican primary election of whether she voted for former Gov. Doug Ducey or who between Tom Horne and Mark Brnovich she voted for in the AG race that year.
It’s an important question because Ortiz’s seatmate, Sen. Anna Hernandez, was crucial in getting the Legislature to repeal the state’s territorial era abortion law – something which Ortiz became the de facto face of due to her screaming “shame!” at Rep. Matt Gress on the House floor – and it would raise some questions if she had voted for Ducey,2 who signed the 15-week abortion ban in 2021, or Brnovich, who supported the law and defended it in court3 and also strongly supports the death penalty; something Ortiz’s previous employer, the ACLU, is avidly against.
I was curious why she was putting so much energy into her unknown opponent (I even asked her, but she did not respond), that I decided to request her voter file and found her status as a former Republican.
Ortiz's efforts to highlight her opponent’s connections might seem hypocritical given her own bipartisan interactions and fundraising, which includes accepting campaign contributions from Republican lobbyists. Garcia, despite suspicions of being a "wolf in sheep’s clothing," has only ever registered as a Democrat, making Ortiz the only candidate in the LD24 Senate race with a documented history of Republican affiliation.
Other notes:
Ortiz has moved around a lot over the years, which makes sense since who can even afford to own a home? But she moved into LD24 from a different district seemingly in order to run for the House in 2022. If she ran in LD5 she would have been up against three incumbents after redistricting.
Fourth Estate 48 was the first publication to report on Shah’s previous registration status and further reporting by the Arizona Agenda showed Shah’s reluctance to mention whether or not he voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential preference election. Shah’s Republican status has been a top talking point in that heated Dem primary.
Gress was Ducey’s Budget Director from 2017 to 2023.
To be fair, it is the AG’s job to defend the state in court, but several attorneys general have declined to defend in some cases.