Arizona’s dirtiest Democratic primary

In late January, former Tucson City Councilmember Rocque Perez officially launched his campaign for the Legislative District 20 Senate seat on the patio of a brewery just south of downtown Tucson.

Surrounded by friends, former councilmembers and other political supporters, Perez kicked off what has become one of the ugliest political campaigns of this election cycle as he faces Democratic Rep. Alma Hernandez in the Democratic primary next month.

Hernandez is part of a larger political dynasty that includes her sister, Democratic Rep. Consuelo Hernandez, as well as her brother, former Democratic Rep. Daniel Hernandez. All three are involved in the political consulting group they formed, Hernandi Group LLC.

It isn’t clear who cast the first stone in this messy political fight between the two Democrats vying for the LD20 Senate seat, although some blame Perez for penning an op-ed in the Arizona Daily Star last December, announcing his run for office while leveling criticisms of Alma, Consuelo and Daniel.

Democrats (and independents) who don’t live in LD20 have largely been spared the text messages and letters sent out by the campaigns. But the race — and the attacks — have spilled over district boundaries into social media and multiple op-eds in the Star penned by their supporters.

It’s perhaps the hottest, and meanest, Democratic primary in Arizona.

The political back-and-forth has included the usual scrutiny of old social media posts, voting records, campaign donations, political speeches and associations.

Perez took Hernandez to court in an attempt to get her thrown off the ballot for outstanding fines tied to late campaign finance reports. Another resident filed a nearly identical challenge to get both Alma and Consuelo thrown off the ballot, but multiple judges sided with the Hernandez sisters.

But more than political mudslinging or legal warfare, the race has been defined by allegations of political violence.

Each candidate has accused the other of employing heated political rhetoric that has emboldened their supporters to cross the lines of acceptable political disagreements into the realm of stalking, harassment and intimidation.

He has called her a supporter of genocide.

She has called him an “antisemite.”

And with early voting underway, Tucson voters have a choice to make about the temperament, qualifications and policies of these two candidates.

Because at the end of the day, one of them is going to represent Tucson at the state Capitol.

In late May, the Arizona Republic reported on a series of deleted tweets Perez made in 2020, as well as allegations that he previously ran an OnlyFans account.

In one tweet, preserved by Archive.org, Perez said he wished someone had thrown Ivanka Trump off the Capitol building.

Perez wouldn’t discuss the tweets specifically with the Republic, saying only that they were “material put out without my consent.” Perez also said he never had an OnlyFans account.

He has taken no action against the California Globe, a right-wing news website that posted images purporting to be from his Twitter referencing his OnlyFans account. And some of the tweets from his account referencing an OnlyFans account are still preserved on the internet archive service, Wayback Machine.

And Hernandez — unsolicited — sent us pornographic images that appear to be Perez that he has refused to comment on.

Several days after the Republic story ran, Perez addressed the article in another op-ed in the Star and on Instagram.

Perez never addressed the OnlyFans accusation and never apologized for his violent remarks, saying only that he directed his anger at the Trump administration online when he was in college.

Perez has declined to discuss the issues raised in the Republic publicly, including by turning down our request for an interview on the subject.

In addition to Perez’s lawsuit over her unpaid campaign finance fines, Hernandez got slapped with a reprimand from Democratic activists in her own LD20 earlier this year, which she accused Perez of orchestrating.

The rebuke centered on two major criticisms of Hernandez’s voting record. LD20 Democrats argued that between 2023 and 2026, Hernandez cast more than 100 votes splitting with her caucus and joining Republican lawmakers.

She is consistently among the most conservative Democrats in the Arizona House.

She also drew criticism for co-sponsoring and voting for HCR2043, a resolution calling for an Article V convention to consider a constitutional amendment imposing congressional term limits. Critics argued that, once convened, an Article V convention could propose constitutional changes beyond its stated purpose.

A self-described “proud Zionist,” Hernandez has publicly discussed facing discrimination within her party for years for her faith.

Earlier this month, Hernandez told Jewish Insider that “I consider (Perez) to be an antisemite, and someone who is so obsessed that this is all he talks about... He hasn’t told voters what he would do differently from me. He is just telling voters that I support genocide.”

But Hernandez has steadfastly met any criticism of her support for Israel — including her voting record, contributions from political PACs and a legislative trip she organized to Israel during the legislative session in 2024 — as an attack on her identity and faith, rather than a criticism of her policies and priorities.

We’ve spent a lot of time on the political attacks and the toxicity of this race.

But the race is also about policy.

And on that front, too, the two candidates have very different takes.

Big picture: Perez has said he would support his Democratic colleagues in the politically divided Senate, while Hernandez has refused to apologize for her voting record, even when it meant siding with Republicans.

Hernandez has long argued on the campaign trail that she is one of the most effective Democrats in the House, passing more bills than her Southern Arizona Democratic colleagues.

To better understand where the candidates differ, we turned to the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections debate between Perez and Hernandez, which Joe moderated last month.

Both Perez and Hernandez were asked if they would support imposing a pause on data center approvals. At the time, the three-year moratorium on tax breaks for data centers, which was signed into law in the state budget, was not yet part of the deal.

Perez, who was a member of the Tucson City Council when it unanimously rejected the $3.6 billion Project Blue in August, took a hard stance against the centers, while Hernandez argued they’re important job creators.

Hernandez says she’s a proud union member who wants to work with the unions while protecting water.

Perez said he sat across from stakeholders when Project Blue was under consideration, and he felt some were either misleading or had been misled about the project.

And Perez said that massive data centers like Project Blue don’t create a significant number of union-paying jobs, and there’s no guarantee the developer would use union labor to build it.

Hernandez took exception to his comment.

The two had different perspectives on whether short-term rentals should be taxed more to help pay for affordable housing.

Perez said he would vote to raise taxes on short-term rentals since companies like Airbnb yield large profits. He argued the Legislature needs to consider “how we’re yielding back benefits to our communities.”

Hernandez said that while corporations that own many short-term rentals contribute to Arizona’s housing affordability crisis, they should be treated differently from people who have only one or two rentals and rely on the extra income.

The candidates also disagreed on whether lawmakers should get raises — at least right now.

Perez said he would have voted against the measure because the timing is not right since the state is in a budget and housing affordability crisis, but he’s for the idea of better-paid legislators. He says the current pay of $24,000 a year is keeping younger people, working people and people without wealth from serving and may be leading to corruption.

Hernandez is dead set against it.

Registered to vote in LD20 and still undecided? The next LD20 debate is scheduled for Sunday evening at Pueblo High School.

The last day to mail back your primary ballot is July 14. Voters can also drop off their ballots in person through Election Day on July 21.