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LD18 · 2-Year Term
Population
244,209
Registered Voters
155,793
District Lean
D+11.5
Voter Registration Breakdown
Debate recap
Tucson legislative candidates clash over vouchers, data centers “We are using public dollars to pay for a billion bucks’ worth every year of private education,” Democratic Rep. Chris Mathis said.
Read the recap: LD18 debate recap (opens in a new tab)State Senate
Democrat · Senate
Priya Sundareshan leads Senate Democrats and has held the LD18 seat since 2023. A natural resources attorney, she directed the University of Arizona law school's natural resource use and management clinic and holds degrees from MIT and the University of Arizona. She won the seat in 2022 against Republican Stan Caine, then ran unopposed in 2024. At the Clean Elections debate she backed a temporary statewide moratorium on data centers and income caps on school vouchers.
Prominent Endorsements
Republican · Senate
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Douglas Everett is an electrical engineer who spent 37 years in the aerospace industry and holds a 1986 bachelor's degree from Texas A&M University. He has never held elective office and advanced unopposed from the Republican primary. At the debate he opposed a statewide pause on data centers and defended the voucher program. He describes himself as "results oriented, not politically oriented."
State House
Democrat · House
Chris Mathis was appointed to a Tucson House seat in December 2021 by the Pima County Board of Supervisors, filling the vacancy left by Randy Friese, and has won two terms since. He teaches health care and elder law at the University of Arizona's law school, practiced as an elder law attorney, and once worked as a health care aide to U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel. At the debate he called for repealing universal school vouchers.
Prominent Endorsements
Democrat · House
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Nancy Gutierrez has represented LD18 in the House since 2023 and was elected assistant House Democratic leader in November 2024. She has taught since 1994 — elementary school, community college math and, since 2013, yoga at Tucson High — and holds an elementary education degree from Northern Arizona University. She sits on the Appropriations and Education committees.
Prominent Endorsements
Republican · House
Bob Dohse is a retired Air Force master sergeant who served from 1976 to 1996 and later managed humanitarian programs in conflict zones; he holds a 1983 bachelor's degree from Park University and sits on the Arizona Republican Party's executive committee. He has not held elective office, and he is the only Republican on the ballot for the district's two House seats, having advanced unopposed. At the debate he opposed a statewide data-center moratorium, citing local control.
Prominent Endorsements