Saying It is Her Time, Charlene Fernandez Explains How She Will Revitalize the Arizona Democratic Party

On Saturday, September 13, 2025, the Arizona Democratic Party will select a new Party Chairperson. 

Former House Democratic Leader Charlene Fernandez would like to be that person. 

Fernandez graciously interviewed with Blog for Arizona to discuss how she would revitalize the State Party and help steer Democratic Candidates to victory. 

The questions and her responses are below.

Please tell the reader’s least two reasons you would like to become the next Arizona Democratic Party Chairperson.

“Thank you for that question. One reason I would really like to become the party chair is I feel that it’s my time. I’ve already been a part of lawmaking, school board, precinct committeemen, kind of worked my way up. I was party chair in my own Community, and I think that right now is the time for me, and it’s the right time for the ADP. There’s been a little bit of turmoil that I haven’t been involved in, and so it’s a good time for someone that doesn’t have any alliances and just a fresh start.”

“I do generally like a challenge. When I was at the Arizona State Legislature, I was a minority leader, and I won that position by one vote. It was 15 to 14, and throughout those two years, it was always a balancing act to make sure that we came together as 29 when it was important for us to come together, but I totally understood when it was 15 to 14 at other times. I think this is part of what’s happening at the Arizona Democratic Party, and I would just like to come in and offer some assistance.”

Please tell the readers at least two reasons you should be chosen to become the next ADP Chairperson instead of the other candidates.

“I believe I have more experience. I have been a precinct committee person starting at 18 and continued to be a precinct committee person until I was appointed by the Biden Administration. We couldn’t get involved in party politics, so I was not a precinct committee person for three years. I have been a state committee person. As I told you, I was a party chair, but I worked my way up from that. I used to be Yuma County Party Treasurer, Secretary, First Vice Chair, and Second Vice Chair. When I talk to other county chairs, I can feel their pain. I understand the work that they’re doing and how difficult it is. So, I think my experience is above everyone else. Finally, my eight years at the legislature followed by my three years in Rural Development. I went in there with 31 employees and came out with 41 and we worked all throughout Arizona.”

“I feel that experience is above the rest.” 

Please tell the readers at least two ways you will improve Democratic Party registration. 

“The first thing I’d like to plan is to get more precinct committee people. When you have more precinct committee people, you have more opportunity to register more people. That’s your workforce right there to go out there and register more people. But we also need more ideas of how to register people. And when I say that people are like, ‘what do you mean, how everyone should kind of, know how to register people’ It’s ideas on how to get boots on the ground. What venues are open so that we can go out there and get more Democrats registered? I always like to fall back on my experience when I was working for Congressman Pastor. We used to register people to vote right after citizenship classes as soon as they were sworn in and they were released. We were outside with clipboards, with a table, with lots of assistants and voter registration forms to get people registered. There’s a lot of ways to do it. I want to increase precinct committeemen so we can come up with more ideas. And you know, no brainer, is that we have to engage all 15 counties. We have to let all 15 counties understand that they are part of the process. We can’t just depend on Maricopa County and Pima County to register Democrats. It’s got to be Cochise County, Yuma County, La Paz County. Every single one of the counties here in Arizona to increase the voter registration.”

Please tell the readers if you believe in a bottom-up approach to high quality candidate recruitment or top down. Please explain. 

“It has to be both because you have to build that bench all the time. We should be building that bench, whether it’s with precinct committee people, just growing our own team. But as they move up, we just don’t let them go. We have to stay engaged to make sure that they stay engaged with our community, with the state, and with the people they represent. So, it’s top, bottom, bottom, top, and, and that’s not a cop-out to give you that answer. It’s just critical that no matter how successful our candidates become that we’re there to support them. Is that with raising money? Is that with gathering signatures? We have to be there for our candidates. Once they become successful and then continuously build that bench.”

Please explain at least two ways you will improve Democratic Party and surrogate messaging to counter Republicans and their surrogates like Turning Point. 

“Our overall message is to save democracy. That’s on point, but we have to understand that different areas require different messages. Come to Yuma County the message should be save our Democracy and protect our water because it’s big in Yuma County. You go closer to the border and you want to talk about the issues that people are facing. The people that live along the border that depend on the economy that comes from the other side of the Border, investing in our port of entries, making sure that the lanes are open so people can come in and leave without waiting five, six, seven hours, and that’s actually happening at our borders. People want to talk about the rumors and the stories that our borders aren’t safe because so many people are coming over illegally. I got to tell you in the border area near where I live a few minutes away, is San Luis Arizona, named one of the safest cities in the country. So those stories that we hear about masses of people coming over is not true, and it hasn’t been true. The things we need to invest in are better messaging for our communities. Like, I said, what happens here in Yuma County is different than what’s happening up in Coconino County, so that message has to resonate there. How can you build a community with Democrats if we’re not telling them what we’re doing, when the messaging isn’t on point. So, I think it’s very, very important that we know our areas. That we can’t have someone come in from somewhere else and tell us what’s going on in our communities? We know our communities. Our legislators know their communities. They’ve won in those communities over and over and over again. We need to start listening to our elected officials, our legislators, our school board members, and our city councils and Mayors.”

Senator Gallego when he was running for the Senate and Governor Hobbs, both criticized the Biden Administration for their stance on the asylum process with regard to immigration until the last year. How does that match with what you just said about the narrative on immigration? 

“Our Governor and our Senator were probably right on point. They have more information than I do. When, during the time that I was working with the Biden Administration, I would hear stories. Well, people would find out I was from Yuma and they go. ‘Oh my gosh, I heard you’re being overrun.’ Seriously, that was the story, and I’m thinking, ‘Oh, my God, is my area being overrun?’ It was not. The border patrol was handling it. They were being very fair and humane as people came over. They made it sound like people were overrunning the border, just running across the port of entries. And that was definitely not happening.”

How would you advance messaging in terms of an Affordability Agenda and lifting the people up like for housing and providing opportunities for people to better themselves?

“Well, of course, that’s who the Democrats are, and we need to talk about that. When I hit the grocery store, I see people when they go up and check out and see what the cost of their groceries is. We’ve been told a lie. We were told a lie for the last two years with Trump when he was campaigning and then now that he’s in office that we were going to see lower prices. The eggs were going to be cheaper. It’s going to be cheaper when we go to get gas. That was all a story that they told that so many people bought. We have to tell the truth: if we do it right, we can lower prices. We can make sure that people can afford their groceries.”

“We can make sure that people can afford homes. But as long as we don’t practice accountability toward the people that are selling homes, that are landlords, then, we’re not going to have any equity for our people that are unhoused or looking for quality homes in areas where their kids can go to school.”

Please explain at least two ways you will improve Democratic Party fundraising strength for the next two election cycles.

I was just talking to somebody earlier, and I was telling him that it’s hard to explain how people outside of Arizona want to hear the stories of Arizona. They’re ready to invest. They’re very curious about our elections and how our elections are proceeding and how we campaign. They want to invest in this area. So, when I was fundraising for the legislature as the minority chair, people wanted to hear our story. You have to be prepared to talk about our stories. I want to make sure that as a group, and by the way, it’s not one person that is responsible for fundraising, it should be a team of people from the Arizona Democratic Party. It should be a team of us. Some of us will raise more. Some of us won’t.  It all looks different, but it’s all going to get us to where we need to go. But we have to be ready to tell the story why people should be investing in Arizona. My plan is to make sure that every single legislative district has a Democrat running there. If we don’t have a Democrat running there, then why should anyone donate to the Democratic Party. Why should anyone go to the polls if there’s not a person with a D next to their name. We have to make it important for them to get to the polls and to invest in those people that are running. So, it’s going to take a lot of thought about how we’re going to fundraise. We’re going to have to continuously do it as a time, but we can’t put aside the important work, and that’s working within our communities in all 15 counties.”

Please explain all at least two ways you will improve Democratic and Democratic weaning voter turnout in the next two election cycles.

“What I said about telling our story, a lot of times, we forget to talk about the issues that we’re strong on. Our Social Security might be cut. This means that our seniors could get hurt. We need to start talking about those stories about the policies that we, Democrats, put in place. Whether it be Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, those things help people all over. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or a Republican. It doesn’t matter if you vote or don’t vote. These benefit everybody, and that’s what we should be talking about: those things that are at risk of being defunded or are undermined. We need to talk about education. When you start talking about getting rid of the Department of Education, this hurts every state in this Country, and it’s going to hit Arizona hard. When we’re one of six states where they want to start talking about how they’re going to manage Social Security and Medicare, we should start alerting our seniors, but at the same time, we got to talk about those issues that are facing our kids. Will there be a place for them to live after they graduate from college? Is college even affordable? Is the workforce there for them to get a good quality job. We got to talk to about those issues because those young people are the future of the state and this country. We have to make sure we talk their issues at the same time. Talking to a lot of young kids, I was not surprised and enlightened that their interest in how Social Security is so important to their family, whether it be grandma that has Social Security, and they’re aware of that. That for some, it’s the only means of support, and they know how important that is. So, sometimes that Social Security issue will hit home with a young person, but we really need to start talking their talk. What they need to know is that we care about them being able to buy a home, live in a home, rent a home, get a good college education if that’s what they choose to and be able to find meaningful and gainful employment.”

Is there anything not covered in the first seven questions that you would like the readers to know about your candidacy to become the next Arizona Democratic Party Chairperson? 

Well, I told you a little bit about my experience.  I was born and raised in a rural community so I understand how important it is to feel included, but I really didn’t get that true understanding until I went all around Arizona as the state director for USDA. I heard the same story: ‘We don’t feel included. We feel left behind. No Investments. No meaningful investments. No resources.’ I could have carried a little rope from one community to the other and heat that same story, no matter where he or she, even if it’s cold in one area and very hot in the other. That need to feel included is so important. We have to invest in those communities. I also was a school board member right here for one of the oldest high school districts in Arizona: Yuma Union High School District. I was the first Latina to serve on that school board, which is beyond scary to me that it took so long to get someone like me on there, but I learned so much about education in a rural area. I raised my kids in public schools, and I was raised in public schools. But to see the behind the scenes and the fact that you don’t get that investment like a lot of schools and other areas. So, I think that gives me more of an awareness and edge of what needs to be done in Arizona. It’s a lot of work that is not going to happen in 15 months, but we can come together. And I truly believe that we will. We will see wins up and down the ballot for Democrats.”

“You know what is really exciting?  That level of interest, that seven people are interested in running for this. That’s number one. Number two, when there’s so many people that are going to these meetings and talking about what they’re interested in and how they’re going to change the party. This is information you gather. I heard from one candidate that is talking about voter registration that I had never heard of. By the same token, I have to call all these LDs and talk to the chair and find out about what work they’re doing, and I’m learning so much. I don’t know if I would be doing that if it was just one or two of us, so this has really opened doors and enlightened me.”

“I’m really happy about the crowded field and I just hope the best person wins on the 13^th. I hope that’s me. I don’t run to lose, so I’m really hoping to win, but I’m also hoping that all of us will come together and be able to help each other as we lift Arizona and the Arizona Democratic Party up next November.”