Explore the races, meet the candidates, and compare their priorities.
LD13 · 2-Year Term
Population
237,864
Registered Voters
146,707
District Lean
R+9.3
Voter Registration Breakdown
Debate recap
As Democrats target East Valley legislative seats, two Republicans skip the debate “This is not my first rodeo, even though I’ve never done rodeo, and unfortunately, years ago, I said if we kept expanding the vouchers, we would get to this point in Arizona’s public education … funding crisis,” Democratic candidate Kristie O’Brien said.
Read the recap: LD13 debate recap (opens in a new tab)State Senate
Republican · Senate
Julie Willoughby is a registered nurse who was appointed to the state House in May 2023 to replace Liz Harris, whom the House had just expelled, and won a full term in 2024. Healthcare dominates her legislative work: nearly half the bills she has sponsored concern hospitals, medical professionals, insurance, Medicaid or patient rights, and Gov. Katie Hobbs has signed 16 of them while vetoing one since 2024. She has said God called her to the Legislature. She declined the Clean Elections debate.
Prominent Endorsements
Democrat · Senate
Completed the Agenda's candidate questionnaire
Kristie O'Brien is a divorce mediator and co-parenting specialist who served as vice chair of the Arizona Democratic Party. She has presented herself as a lawyer on social media and on a sworn financial disclosure form, though New York suspended her law license in 2019 for failing to register with the bar and she has never been licensed in Arizona. Her spokesman said she had not realized the license lapsed. She last ran for this Senate seat in 2014, losing to Steve Yarbrough.
Prominent Endorsements
State House
Republican · House
Completed the Agenda's candidate questionnaire
Janet Weninger co-owns Dilly's Deli and Floridino's Pizza and Pasta in Chandler with her husband, Jeff Weninger, who represented the district for five terms and did not seek reelection this year. In 2019 she founded Crusaders of Love, a charity that brings food and clothing to homeless camps in Arizona, California, Texas and Mexican border towns. She skipped the Clean Elections debate.
Prominent Endorsements
Republican · House
Completed the Agenda's candidate questionnaire
Kevin Hartke has been Chandler's mayor for eight years and sat on the city council for eight years before that. He has been the pastor at Trinity Christian Fellowship since 1985 and says a boy's murder on the church sidewalk 35 years ago pushed him into public service. He has built a reputation for a pragmatic, pro-growth approach, and in December he voted with the rest of the council to reject a Chandler data center, saying it would not bring enough jobs.
Prominent Endorsements
Democrat · House
Completed the Agenda's candidate questionnaire
Racquel Armstrong is an assistant professor at Arizona State University's Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation who taught in public schools and worked as an administrator before moving into higher education. She is a Democratic precinct committeeman and has not held elected office. She says Democrats lost a House seat here in 2024 because they missed the mark on affordability, and she wants the state to keep building data centers but to site them more carefully.
Prominent Endorsements
Democrat · House
Completed the Agenda's candidate questionnaire
Jacob Weinberg is the chief financial officer of an AI company that tracks shopper behavior for retailers and an officer in the Arizona Army National Guard. He moved to Chandler from Scottsdale, filed as a precinct committeeman in the district in March and has not held elected office. He breaks with most Arizona Democrats in defending the state's 2.5% flat tax, calling it a "winning tax rate," and he wants the Legislature's spending limits on cities lifted.
Prominent Endorsements