S tate Sen. Anna Hernandez didn’t expect to become an elected official. Well into a career selling mortgages in corporate America, the Phoenix native was doing well for herself. Then in 2019, Phoenix police shot and killed her brother, Alejandro, while he was experiencing a mental health crisis. She started asking questions about Alejandro’s killing. The death certificate from a funeral home showed Alejandro had multiple gunshot wounds, contra- dicting the police narrative. “When we talked to the detective that day they killed him,” Hernandez said, “they had said my brother was only shot one time. “That was the moment I really started getting involved,” Hernandez said of Alejandro’s death. A tattoo of her brother adorns her forearm. It’s an ever-present reminder of the profound pain that’s fueled a fiery mission: to bring change and justice to the Valley. In 2022, Hernandez ran for the state legislature, upsetting incumbent state Sen. Cesar Chavez in the primary before running unopposed in the general election. For the past two years, the 42-year-old has been a passionate and outspoken advocate of progressive causes, loudly arguing in favor of police and housing reform. Now, after one term, Hernandez has her sights set on different, more local territory. Instead of running for reelection in the legislature, the progressive firebrand is attempting to hop down to Phoenix City Council, where she can exert influence on the fifth-largest city in the United States. It’s far from a sure bet. Hernandez is one of four candidates vying for a spot representing District 7, which encom- passes much of central and west Phoenix. The others are Martyn Bridgeman, a realtor whose campaign priorities are largely progressive; Michael Nowakowski, a controversial former councilmember with a history of corruption and anti- LGBTQ sentiments; and former state Rep. Marcelino Quiñonez, who resigned to jump into the race after Hernandez announced her candidacy. Hernandez’s main competition is Quiñonez, who dons dapper suits and sports slicked-back hair. Almost all major figures of Phoenix’s political class have endorsed him, including Mayor Kate Gallego and U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego. Quiñonez also has the backing of former Vice Mayor Yassamin Ansari, who vacated the District 7 seat to run for Congress, and interim Councilmember Carlos Galindo- Elvira, who was appointed to the body when Ansari left. Hernandez, who has never cared much about the establishment’s approval, boasts support from the grassroots. Her campaign website touts endorsements from 18 polit- ical organizations and labor unions, including Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona, Worker Power, the AFL-CIO, Unite Here! Local 11, Young Democrats of Arizona and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Ten organizations and unions have endorsed Quiñonez. If Hernandez is more of an outsider, that’s good, she says. With so many estab- lishment centrists at the helm, Phoenix City Council needs one. “I’m still part of this community. I try my best to be out there talking to different folks that are affected by those decisions that happen. I think that is missing in a big way on the council,” Hernandez said. “The majority of the council function within the status quo and aren’t shaking things up, not looking outside the box, not out there talking to the constituency that needs to be talked to: The ones that are struggling to make ends meet.” Police reform Earlier this month, Hernandez trekked through the Roosevelt neighborhood on the edge of District 7. As she knocked on door after door, more and more residents told her that only she and Bridgeman had come by to hear their concerns. Their concerns are also hers, Hernandez says. She’s focused her campaign on a few core topics, including housing and homelessness. Another is at the heart of her own life story: public safety, a term Hernandez says often is misconstrued as more policing and more funding for cops. “Public safety is so much more than that. It’s safe housing, it’s healthy neigh- borhoods, it’s can people go use their parks and be safe in their parks?” Hernandez said. “It’s do I have safe child care where my kids can go? Are there after-school programs that are gonna keep our kids off the street?” It is also policing, of course. If elected, Hernandez would immedi- ately become the city council’s most outspoken critic of Phoenix’s notoriously violent police force. Since 2014, Phoenix police have killed hundreds of people — including Hernandez’s brother — with countless stories of loss that could have been avoided. In June, the U.S. Department of Justice reported that Phoenix police have a pattern of discriminating by race, using excessive force and trampling the rights of homeless people. While establishment figures such as Sen. Gallego and Mayor Gallego have been wary of publicly critiquing police, Hernandez has not been shy about doing so. When video surfaced earlier this month of Phoenix cops beating and tasing a deaf Black man in August, Democrats on the council put out mealy-mouthed, we’re- very-concerned statements. In contrast, Hernandez and state Rep. Analise Ortiz released a statement calling the incident “indicative of the larger systemic problems within the Phoenix Police Department.” In January, Ortiz and Hernandez also teamed up in the legislature to introduce a Family Bill of Rights, which aimed to bring transparency and support to people injured by police and relatives of those killed by law enforcement officers. The bill, which was never heard by the legislature, was informed by Hernandez’s personal experience. Anna Hernandez’s positions on housing reform have sometimes brought her into conflict with Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego. (Photo by TJ L’Heureux) >> p 18
