Lydia Hernandez is an American politician serving as a member of the

Arizona House of Representatives The Arizona House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arizona Legislature, the state legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Arizona. The upper house is the Arizona Senate, Senate. The House convenes in the le ...

for the 24th district since January 2023. A

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

, she previously served in the House from 2013 through 2015 representing the 29th district.

Career

Hernandez has served as an elected member of the

Cartwright Elementary School District Cartwright Elementary School District is a school district in Phoenix, Arizona, United States which operates 21 schools in the city's Maryvale neighborhood. The district contains twelve K–5 elementary schools, four K–8 elementary schools, fo ...

Board since 2004. She currently serves as the Governing Board PresidentIn this role, she attended a Mexican American School Boards Association meeting in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

in 2019 and reportedly caused a scene while intoxicated. She was banned from the organization's events for two years and her position as chair-elect of the National Hispanic Council of the National School Boards Association was revoked due to the incident. Hernandez's daughter, Cassandra Hernandez, won a seat on the

Board at just 19 years old in November 2024. However, her daughter's ability to serve was complicated by Arizona state law prohibiting individuals from running or serving as school board members with an immediate family member with whom they resided in the previous four years. Critics say this makes the board essentially illegitimate. The criticism led her ally in the House, Consuelo Hernandez, to sponsor an amendment to a bill she sponsored that would have allowed Cassandra to legally serve with her mother. That bill did not pass, but with her daughter and another ally on the five-member board, Hernandez controls the majority vote and made an immediate staff shake-up by placing the interim superintendent on paid leave and hiring former Maricopa County School Superintendent Steve Watson. The hire drew immediate backlash from the local community as Watson had lost his last primary reelection campaign after allegations of financial mismanagement.

Arizona House of Representatives

Hernandez has served in the Arizona House of Representatives twice, first from 2013 to 2015 and currently since 2023.

Tenure

She endorsed Republican

Doug Ducey Douglas Anthony Ducey ( ; ; born April 9, 1964) is an American businessman and Republican Party (United States), Republican politician who served as the 23rd List of governors of Arizona, governor of Arizona from 2015 to 2023 and as State Treas ...

in the

2018 Arizona gubernatorial election The 2018 Arizona gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 2018, to elect the governor of Arizona, concurrently with the election of Arizona's Class I U.S. Senate seat, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other ...

. Hernandez voted with Republicans to ban photo radar and

red light camera A red light camera (short for red light running camera ) is a type of traffic enforcement camera that photographs a vehicle that has entered an intersection after the traffic signal controlling the intersection has turned red. By automatically pho ...

s from ticketing drivers. In February 2024, Hernandez filed an ethics complaint alleging other Arizona Democrats bullied her. The complaint was ultimately dismissed for being identical to a previously dismissed workplace harassment complaint made by her.

Campaigns

2014 State Senate campaign

In 2014, Hernandez ran for

Arizona State Senate The Arizona State Senate is part of the Arizona Legislature, the state legislature (United States), state legislature of the US state of Arizona. The Senate consists of 30 members each representing an average of 219,859 constituents (2009 figure ...

after incumbent senator

Steve Gallardo Steve Michael Gallardo (born October 25, 1968) is an American politician from the state of Arizona. A member of the Democratic Party, Gallardo serves on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors representing the 5th district. He previously served ...

retired to run for the

Maricopa County Board of Supervisors The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is the governing body of Maricopa County, a county of over four million in Arizona. The five supervisors are each elected from single-member districts to serve four-year terms. Partisan primary, Primary el ...

. She was narrowly defeated by fellow representative

Martín Quezada Martín J. Quezada (born May 16, 1977) is an American politician who was a Democratic member of the Arizona Senate serving from 2015 to 2023. He is also a member of the Pendergast Elementary School District Governing Board, serving since 2011. He ...

in the Democratic primary.

2016 State Senate campaign

She ran for the seat again in 2016, challenging Quezada in the Democratic primary. The race was notably uncivil and negative between the two candidates, with both candidates and their respective supporters attacking each other on social media. Quezada ultimately defeated Hernandez again.

2019 Phoenix City Council campaign

In 2019, Hernandez ran for

Phoenix City Council The Phoenix City Council is the governing body of the city of Phoenix, Arizona. The council is made up of nine members, including a mayor and eight council members representing individual districts. While the mayor is elected in a citywide elect ...

. She was defeated in the primary election.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hernandez, Lydia Living people Democratic Party members of the Arizona House of Representatives Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in Arizona Hispanic and Latino American women in politics Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women politicians Baylor University alumni 21st-century members of the Arizona State Legislature