Former Arizona AG candidate January Contreras to be nominated for Biden post

PHOENIX – Onetime candidate for Arizona attorney general January Contreras is among those announced as nominees for a position in the White House administration.

President Joe Biden last week announced his intention to nominate fellow Democrat Contreras for assistant secretary to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Children and Families division.

The public interest attorney previously worked in the Obama administration in Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services and was an adviser to then-Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano on health, children and family issues.

Contreras said on social media she was honored by the nomination and that “It’s a mission that matters and that I have long been deeply committed to.”

The White House said in her role as a designee to the White House Council on Women and Girls that Contreras “led efforts to launch new federal training and guidance to ensure that immigrant victims of domestic violence and other crimes are treated with the same dignity and protection that all victims deserve.”

In 2018, Contreras won her primary race for state attorney general, but fell in the November election to incumbent Republican Mark Brnovich.

The University of Arizona alumna was honored as the State Bar’s legal aid attorney of the year in 2020.

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