This summer, many Southern Arizona voters are going to receive a pretty boring ballot.
That’s because a number of our local federal, statewide, county and state legislative primaries are uncontested, giving voters little say in who will be on the November ballot.
We reviewed dozens of candidates who filed on Monday, and here is our short list of the races to watch, and which to skip, ahead of the July 21 primary.
Keep in mind, things could change as candidates begin challenging their opponents’ nominating petitions in court over the next few weeks. (More on that in today’s Arizona Agenda.)
We are also keeping the list short on purpose, so we are not listing third-party candidates in uncontested races or local council races today.
No primary fights in CD6, CD7
There are no contested primaries for Southern Arizona's two congressional districts this year.
No Democrats have signed up to challenge Democratic Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva in Congressional District 7, and no Republicans are taking on Republican Congressman Rep. Juan Ciscomani in CD6.
And the challengers to those two incumbents in November also have a clear path through the primary.
Democrat JoAnna Mendoza will be the unopposed Democratic nominee to challenge Ciscomani in his highly competitive district after scores of Democrats jumped into, then dropped out of, the race in recent months.
And Republican Daniel Butierez is running unopposed in his third consecutive run to unseat a Grijalva from office in the deep blue CD7.
So you can sit out the local congressional races until November.
A few interesting state legislative primaries
Just a reminder: There are two House seats and one Senate seat in each legislative district.
Legislative District 17 — Oro Valley, Marana and northern Tucson
Several Republican candidates failed to turn in their petitions for LD17, which we wrote about a few weeks ago, labeling it the “Spicy Seventeenth.”
In the Senate race, Republicans will choose between Chris King and Anthony Dunham.
Democrats won’t have a choice — Edgar Soto is the only Democrat running for that district’s Senate seat.
On the House side, neither party has a contested primary.
Republicans John Winchester and Rachel Keshel are running unopposed for nominations to the two House seats. In November, they will face off against Democrats Holly Lyon and Kevin Volk, who are also running unopposed in their Democratic primary.
Legislative District 18 — Tucson’s north and east sides
Neither party has a choice in the primary in LD18.
Democratic Sen. Priya Sundareshan is running unopposed in the primary for the district’s Senate seat, as are Democratic Reps. Chris Mathis and Nancy Gutierrez.
To have a say in who represents you, you’ll have to wait until November, when they’ll face Republican Senate candidate Douglas Everett and Republican House candidate Bob Dohse.
Legislative District 19 — Cochise County, Vail and Green Valley
In LD19, which is anchored in Cochise County, there will be a three-way primary fight for the two Republican nominations for the House. Cheryl Caswell is challenging incumbent lawmakers Lupe Diaz and David Gowan for the district’s two House seats. (Gowan is hoping to switch from the Senate to the House this year.)
Democrats don’t have a choice in that district’s House primary: Adian Swallow and Jackie Anderson are the only two Democrats running for the two seats.
In the district’s Senate race, neither party has a primary. It’ll be Republican Gail Griffin vs Democrat Ryan Slawson in November.
Legislative District 20 — Flowing Wells, South Tucson and Drexel Heights
In LD20, former Tucson City Councilman Rocque Perez is taking on term-limited Rep. Alma Hernandez in the Democratic primary.
And four Democrats are fighting for the district’s two House seats. Lawmakers Betty Villegas and Sally Ann Gonzales are facing challenges from Democrats Ben Koehler and Genoveva Diaz.
Legislative District 21 — Nogales, Sahuarita and southeast Tucson
Finally, there is a crowded primary for House Democrats in LD21. Democratic Reps. Consuelo Hernandez and Stephanie Stahl Hamilton are facing challenges from fellow Democrats Maritza Higuera and Miranda Lopez for the Democratic nomination for the district’s two seats in the House.
Democratic Sen. Rosanna Gabaldon faces no challenge in the Democratic primary for the district’s Senate seat.
County races
In the county races, there are even more candidates running unopposed, including Pima County Supervisor Andrés Cano. While Cano was appointed to the board last year to fill the vacancy left by Grijalva, state law requires an election be held for the last two years of the term.
In Justice Precinct 3, which includes Ajo, JP Sara Mae Williams is being challenged by Juanita Escalante in the Democratic primary.
In Justice Precinct 6, which includes portions of Tucson, JP David Miller is being challenged by Morgan Miholich for the Democratic nomination.
In Justice Precinct 7, which includes Green Valley, Justice of the Peace Ray Carroll is being challenged by Kara Egbert in the Republican primary.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona added a supplemental filing to its lawsuit against Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos in Superior Court on Wednesday alleging a pattern of working with immigration officials on responding to certain types of 911 calls, even where there was no allegation of a crime being committed.
It also accuses Nanos of delaying by roughly five months a public records request seeking department records that show deputies coordinated with ICE.
The allegations add to a long list of political fights for the 70-year-old sheriff.
And they contradict Nanos’ public statements over the last year that PCSD would not cooperate with federal immigration agents.
“Defendant Nanos has good reason to wish away inquiries into PCSD deputy communications with immigration agents. Since the beginning of the second Trump administration, Defendant Nanos has made routine assurances to the public that he does not collaborate with federal immigration officials,” the filing states.
The new filing, first reported by Lookout’s John Washington, supplements the initial complaint filed last year. It comes a week ahead of an April 3 evidentiary hearing in the case, and as the elected Democrat faces mounting criticism from activists, deputies and elected officials.
“PCSD deputies appear to have engaged in unconstitutional coordination with federal immigration authorities, generally against Spanish-speaking individuals who cannot produce U.S. identification but are under no suspicion of criminal wrongdoing,” the ACLU attorneys allege in their filing.
The ACLU alleges deputies drove five men to a nearby Taco Bell and bought them food after learning it would take an hour for U.S. Border Patrol agents to arrive. They arranged for Border Patrol to meet them at the Taco Bell to take the men into custody, the ACLU stated in their lawsuit.
In addition to asking the court to declare PCSD violated Arizona Public Records law, the ACLU is asking the court to force the release of 2,158 incident reports between July 1, 2024, and May 14, 2025, referencing Border Patrol.
The Pima County Attorney’s Office, which is representing PCSD, declined to comment on the supplemental filing.
Nanos has downplayed his level of co-operation with ICE in multiple public statements, including a September 2025 radio interview with the “Bill Buckmaster Show” last year when Joe co-hosted.
“I have a job to do. And it doesn't have anything to do with immigration,” Nanos said.
He suggested his office only worked with ICE as it does with any other federal law enforcement agency.
“Our interaction with ICE is no different today than it's been for the last 50 years. They have a job to do. Whether I agree with their methodology really doesn't matter,” Nanos said during the radio interview.
Nobody’s fault but the kidnapper’s: In a poignant interview with NBC News, Savannah Guthrie described the scene she and her family found at her mother’s house, including doors that were propped open. Guthrie also spoke about the two ransom notes she thinks were real and her feeling of guilt that she may have somehow spurred kidnappers to target her mother.
“I said, ‘What?’ And then, I mean, it sounds so, like, how dumb could I be? But I just, I didn’t want to believe. I just said, ’Do you think (she was kidnapped) because of me?’” Guthrie recounted, choking up and wiping away tears. “He said, ‘I’m sorry, sweetie, but, yeah, maybe.’”
Stem cell scam: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes sued Cord Blood Registry, a company that stores more than 1 million samples of umbilical cords in Tucson and charges families big fees, the New York Times reports. The argument from Mayes is that the company misled parents about the samples having the potential to treat more than 80 medical conditions. Mayes said she herself was duped by the company years ago when she banked her daughter’s umbilical cord blood with Cord.
Reaching a breaking point: Ranchers in the Malpai region of southeastern Arizona are struggling with drought, forcing them to cut back on their herds or close up shop, Shi En Kim reports for the Republic. Ranches flourished for decades with storms in the summer and lighter rains in the winter, but in the mid-1990s that rhythm “came to a screeching halt,” says rancher Bill McDonald.
“But these mountain-rimmed meadows have been waiting in vain. In the last few years, the summer grasses no longer green like they mean it, and desert brushes are taking over. That's because the monsoon rains that fed the grassland ecosystem for centuries are not arriving on schedule and with their usual gusto,” Kim writes.
Pluses and minuses: The Downtown Links project is going to be complete in a few months, after more than five years of construction, KGUN’s Craig Smith reports. The project will make it easier to bypass downtown and get to I-10, which should lessen congestion on downtown streets. But business owners are a little worried that if Tucsonans don’t have to go through downtown, then they’ll forget that there’s a lot more going on than just restaurants.
Did you know Tucson is also home to a great little newsletter that keeps you informed about local government and politics? If you want it to stick around, then click that button.
Upping the ante: For the first time in Arizona, a federal grand jury indicted someone for trying to support a foreign terrorist organization by selling firearms to Mexican drug cartels, the Tucson Sentinel’s Paul Ingram reports. Laurence Gray, a gun shop owner in Hereford, was initially charged with trafficking firearms and related charges last year, but the Trump administration designated the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations in early 2025 and now Gray is the test case for the new charge.
All this talk about Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos and this year’s candidates reminds us that former Sheriff Mark Napier is actually running for office again this year.
He wants to be the mayor of Oro Valley.
And right wing radio personality Chris DeSimone is running for the Oro Valley Town Council.
We can’t comment on how the government would be run under their leadership, but the meetings would be far more interesting if these two were on the dais!