Phoenix City Council election: Former state lawmaker on way to winning vacant seat
Nov 6, 2024, 12:15 PM
Former state lawmaker Anna Hernandez is on her way to joining the Phoenix City Council. (Arizona Legislature Photo)
(Arizona Legislature Photo)
PHOENIX – If the initial wave of results from Tuesday’s election holds up, there won’t be a Phoenix City Council runoff election next year.
That’s because the leading vote-getter for each of the four seats on the ballot was over the required 50% threshold as of Wednesday morning, according to the Maricopa County Elections Department results page.
The upshot of the 2024 election is that the Phoenix City Council chambers will look very much the same in 2025, with Mayor Kate Gallego winning her reelection bid and former Arizona state Sen. Anna Hernandez likely the only new face.
Incumbents Ann O’Brien of District 1 (unopposed), Debra Stark of District 3 (63.7%) and Betty Guardado of District 5 (61.5%) all had double-digit leads in their races, essentially clinching their reelections.
The other four current councilmembers — Jim Waring of District 2, Laura Pastor of District 4, Kevin Robinson of District 6 and Kesha Hodge Washington of District 8 — won’t be up for reelection until 2026.
What happened in race for District 7 Phoenix City Council seat
In this year’s only race for an open seat, Hernandez was leading with 52.7% of the vote in District 7 as of Wednesday morning.
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Another former Democratic state lawmaker, Marcelino Quiñonez, was second in the four-way race with 20.3%. He was followed by former Councilman Michael Nowakowski (16%) and political newcomer Martyn Bridgeman (11%), a real estate agent.
If Hernandez finishes with a majority of the votes cast, she’ll be sworn into Yassamin Ansari’s former seat in April. If Hernandez falls below 50%, she will face the No. 2 vote-getter in a March 11 runoff election.
Tuesday’s election included the race to fill what’s left of Ansari’s term, which runs through April 21, 2025. She stepped down from the Phoenix City Council in March to focus on what turned out to be a successful run for Congress.
Carlos Galindo-Elvira, who was appointed to fill the District 7 seat until voters had the chance to weigh in, won Tuesday’s special election to complete Ansari’s term.
His opponents were Nowakowski and Bridgeman, but it wasn’t close. Galindo-Elvira garnered 51.5% of the first wave of votes, while Nowakowski had only 26.6% and Bridgeman was back at 21.8%.
