Wanting to bring a fresh perspective from the Gen Z populace to the Arizona State House, political boy wonder Armando Montero, the President of the Tempe Union High School Governing Board, is running for one of the Arizona Legislative District Twelve House seats.
Arizona Legislative District 12 contains parts of Tempe, Ahwatukee Foothills, Mesa, and Chandler.
A member of the Tempe Union High School board since he was 19, Montero promises to work on the following issues if elected to the State House.
- Affordable and accessible housing and health care.
- Great public schools.
- Supporting pathways to higher education and workforce development
- A worker centered and affordable economy.
- Water security.
- Commitment to Democracy.
Mr. Montero graciously took the time to respond to questions about his candidacy for the State House.
The questions and his responses are below.
Please tell the readers two reasons you like to run for Arizona House Seat in LD 12 in the next cycle.
“The first reason is I want to help bring a unique and fresh perspective to the State Capitol in the State House, I first got elected to public office when I was 19 years old on the Tempe Union High School District Governing Board. I’m in my fifth year on that board right now. I first got involved with politics and public service early on in high school. What got me involved was the issue of mental health and social emotional wellness. What drove me to get involved at the school board level was to help bring a perspective of someone who’s been in our school system recently and to bring a unique perspective to some of the issues that younger people in the district were facing, and so once I got elected to that board, I was able to work with an amazing team and recognize the value of having diverse perspectives when making really difficult and tough decisions. That’s not just unique to the school board. Obviously, our state is at a crossroads with many different issues related to public education, the economy, affordable housing, the environment, and other important areas. I really want to bring that experience and perspective that I’ve had over the past five years serving in public office and serving as the President of that Board to a lot of those issues that we’re dealing with the State Capital.”
“I think, to bring a fresh perspective by being likely the first Gen Z person elected to the State Legislature and by being able to not only uplift that Community, but also bring in a large block of our voter base in the state that are dealing in a kind of have a unique Impact or a unique perspective on a lot of the tough issues that the state is facing.”
“I think the second reason building off that experience, too, is because I think public education is really the heart of what got me involved, and so that is kind of the heart of where my campaign is at right now. If you had asked me, maybe two years ago, if I would have run for the State Legislature, I probably would have said, no, but what changed my mind was the day that I had to vote to cut 54 full-time positions from our school budget because of the consistent underfunding of public education in the state. We know that this isn’t unique to the Tempe Union High School District. We’re seeing what’s happening in Kyrene, and we’re seeing what’s happening in Mesa. We’re seeing what’s happening with public school districts across the state. I think having been on the receiving end of a lot of the impacts of the negative policy education policies that have come out of the legislature, I’m hoping to bring that perspective to hopefully find and revamp a lot of the education work that we’re doing at the legislature and at the state from a wide variety of issues.”
Why should the voters pick you over any primary or general opponent in the next cycle?
“First, I bring a unique experience to the race. I grew up in LD 12. I grew up in Ahwatukee and went to our schools, which is one of the main reasons I ran for public office in the community to give back to the area and the community that raised me. Again, having that experience of being elected at 19 and having experience with a lot of the difficult issues that we’re facing. As a state, having dealt with and managing public budgets, having to go through tough budgetary cuts and decisions, having to in navigate overseeing a school district in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, I think really kind of shoved us into the limelight of what it means to put my head down and do the work. That’s kind of what my philosophy has been in public office and what I want to continue to do at the legislature. I’m not there to chase headlines. I’m not there to get the flashy social media presence. I think if anyone knows me, they know that I’m not a big social media presence, and that’s kind of not what I would want to be. I’m there to put my head down and do the work and find solutions and that’s how I’ve conducted myself for the past five years in public office.”
“Second, I kind of touched on it earlier. I really hope to bring a unique and fresh perspective. I spent a lot of time these past five years building functional relationships. Having been in public office, talking to our city council members, our state legislators, our statewide leaders, current sitting legislators and having been at the doors for two election cycles now having a pretty decent understanding of what the issues that the community in LD 12 is facing. I think it’d be unique to have someone who’s 25 and hopefully the first Gen Z person to be in the legislature bringing that fresh perspective.”
What are these two issues that you’ll be running on in the next election cycle?
“I already touched on the first one, public education. It has consistently been under attack, and I think there’s a lot that we can do, not just in fully funding our public schools but also putting guard rails and accountability measures on the ESA program, looking at the ways that we have structured our public education system from accountability measures to our school finance formula. I think there’s a lot of work that we can do with regards to teacher recruitment and retention, making sure that we’re having fully qualified principles and administrators at each of our schools. I think LD 12 is lucky that we have so many great public schools, and so we can take that experience to really show statewide what a strong public education system can do for our kids and our community.”
“Affordable housing is another major issue and I think that’s something that so many people in, not just LD 12, but across the state are dealing with. We know that rent is out of control. We know that homes are becoming more and more unaffordable. Even speaking of someone who’s about to be 25 years old and having no idea when I’ll be able to afford to buy a home. As a current law student and trying to plan for that, I think there’s a lot of uncertainty. And I think families want certainty in being able to have the financial stability to be able to achieve the American dream to buy a home and to build a family. I think there’s a lot that we can do, especially having a strong partnership and relationship with current legislators and city officials in the cities that I would represent would hope to be able to sit down and find some common solutions on ways that we can increase housing supply and decrease costs for housing.”
“Another issue, I would like to touch on briefly is water and the environment. I think one of the unique issues that we’re facing here, in Arizona and the southwest is water. A lot of the news that we’ve seen recently around some of the negotiations on the Colorado River and seeing some of the unique issues that states here on the lower basin are facing is something that hopefully will have bipartisan solutions on. I think this is one issue that we can put partisan politics aside and recognize the severity of if this isn’t something that we address soon. This is going to have drastic impacts for all Arizonans, but specifically us in the valley and LD 12.”
What is your view on supporting public safety, first responders, and law enforcement.
“I think public safety is a paramount issue and of increasing importance. Speaking from experience, school safety is a big issue, and so we’ve had to deal a lot with finding ways of creating safe schools while making sure that our students feel safe and are safe on campuses. And that’s the same mindset I want to bring to the State Legislature to find ways that we’re supporting our first responders and law enforcement to ensure that we do have safe communities. I’ve also been very passionate about since first starting out in public service about mental health, and I think that plays pretty largely in the public safety discussion. I want to make sure that we’re funding our mental health infrastructure properly to ensure that people have access to the necessary resources, especially in times of uncertainty. I think we’ve seen statistically that mental health concerns continue to rise, not just in youth, but across the board. I would be a big proponent of making sure that we’re investing in mental health resources as well.”
What are at least two ways you will conduct voter and social media outreach to Democrats, Independents, and like-minded Republicans?
“The first thing is door to door conversations. I think that’s the most impactful way to really be able to learn about the issues that our community is dealing with. That’s one of the things that I unfortunately had to miss out on a lot when I was first running in 2020 because of the pandemic. Just in the first initial stages of this campaign, I have really been taking the time to meet with folks to understand what the issues are to build out that platform and find out for myself about what the different pockets of the district care about. It’s a diverse district, and so people have different unique needs and different solutions that they want to bring forward. Having those conversations is really informative, and nothing can beat having a face-to-face conversation about why I’m running and some of the issues I’m passionate about and solutions that I want to bring.”
“I think having a big social or digital presence to keep people engaged and informed of as the campaign progresses and communicate what we’re talking about, what we’re passionate about, but also providing an avenue for two-way communication. One conversation at a door isn’t going to be sufficient and saying that, especially if I get elected. I want to be able to have an open-door policy: If you have a concern with the way that things are going, I want to hear from you. And I think my philosophy has been so far in office and would be an office obviously representing not just Democrats, but Independents, Republicans and anything in between. There’s going to be times where we don’t agree. I might vote a way where you might disagree with me. But, I’m happy to have a conversation about that, and we might agree to disagree. But at least we’re hearing one another. I think that that’s something that’s been sorely missing in our politics recently. Just having conversations like that can at least help us to see where we’re coming from in many ways and find solutions or common ground that we may not think that we have.”
Is there anything that covered in the first four questions that you would like the readers and the voters to know about your candidacy for one of the Arizona State House seats in LD 12? Please explain.
“Thank you for the opportunity to be able to share a little bit more about why I’m running. I’m excited to have the endorsement of Mitzi Epstein, who’s stepping down from the Senate race and creating this open seat and a lot of other local leaders such as Tempe Mayor, Corey Woods, most of the city council, sitting legislators, and a lot of other school board members. I am happy to connect with anyone who wants to reach out and talk about any issues.”
Please click here to access Mr. Montero’s website and find out more about his campaign for one of the LD Twelve State House seats.
You can also email Mr. Montero at monteroforaz@gmail.com
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