Former Tucson council member Rocque Perez seeks LD20 seat
Former Tucson City Council member Rocque Perez is running for Arizona State Senate in LD-20, challenging Sen. Alma Hernandez and emphasizing education, labor, environmental and civil rights issues.
Former Tucson City Council member Rocque Perez has announced a run for the Arizona State Senate in Legislative District 20, challenging Democratic Sen. Alma Hernandez and framing his campaign around local engagement and what he calls a lack of representation at the state level.
A fourth-generation Tucsonan raised by a public school teacher, Perez said he has centered his campaign on personal experience and the lived realities he and his former constituents have observed.
With a degree in political science from the University of Arizona, Perez said his interest in running for state Senate is not new, noting he has considered a bid for nearly a year as he watched state and federal decisions affect Tucsonans.
“I am running as a Tucson-first candidate because I've been engaged in conversations within (the) community,” Perez said. “I set myself apart, I'm on the ground and experiencing this moment with folks, elevating their interests at a local level and at large, fighting a conservative agenda to undermine the work that we do here.”
Perez is CEO of the Southern Arizona Education Council, formerly known as the Metropolitan Education Commission, a nonprofit that empowers a more educated and engaged community by helping learners access opportunities to thrive.
The nonprofit hosts events including Teen Congress and Teen Town Hall, which help high school students connect with community leaders, programs Perez attended as a student.
“I'm a product of public ed, and I feel very (adamant) in giving back to the folks that invested in me,” he said.
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Perez was appointed last May to fill the Ward 5 seat vacated by former Tucson City Council member Richard Fimbres, making him, at 26, the youngest municipal official in Arizona at the time.
“Before I was selected, I had made a commitment to invest in the southside,” Perez said. “I made a half-milllion dollar investment across nonprofits, small businesses and community projects, infusing money both to address the undercut funding from the federal level and from the state level, but also to advance some of the historical disinvestment the south side has faced.”
The funding supported grants for southside nonprofits, direct assistance for small businesses and neighborhood improvement projects focused on economic development, youth programming and community infrastructure.
Perez said those investments reflected broader policy priorities he carried into his votes on the council.
“A lot of the interests that I had at a voting level when it came to our regard for the environment, our workforce, our safety, addressing homelessness, those things were all made in mind, not necessarily just within the southside, but really Tucson at large,” he said.
That citywide perspective, he said, also shaped his decision to seek higher office.
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Perez said concerns from Ward 5 constituents about a lack of representation at the state level motivated him to launch his campaign.
“Representation is really important for me. There was a lot of excitement in that there was an opportunity for new leadership, and I felt that the same should have been said for LD-20,” he said. “With Ward 5 overlapping so significantly with District 20, in addition to Consuelo Hernandez's district, I felt like I had gotten an even greater level of awareness as to how residents are feeling misrepresented by the Hernandez family. I felt like I had an imperative to elevate those interests and jump in.”
Perez recently published an opinion piece criticizing the representation of Alma Hernandez and her sister, Rep. Consuelo Hernandez, arguing their records do not reflect Democratic values or the communities they serve.
Education policy is one area Perez said illustrates that disconnect. In the city’s last election cycle, voters approved investments in public schools in the Tucson Unified and Flowing Wells districts, a move Perez said was long overdue and driven by a lack of funding at the state level as lawmakers continue to prioritize school vouchers over public education.
“The only reason that we have to do something like that at a local level is because of the lack of investment at the state level,” Perez said. “It's incredibly important for me, knowing that education can help people break cycles of poverty, can lead people to greater professional pathways, and that education can inspire more engaged, civically and professionally engaged citizens of our community.”
He said he also plans to prioritize environmental protections at the state level. Citing Tucson’s history of trichloroethylene, or TCE, contamination and concerns over corporate use of natural resources — such as water for data centers — Perez said he would push to hold companies accountable and protect those resources.
“Historically marginalized communities have had to front the burden for major economic development decisions,” Perez said. “When we have a state legislature who very evidently has incentivized developments like this, that's contrary to what we see at the ground level.”
He said those experiences have shaped how he approaches economic development policy.
“As we're navigating the ramifications of major economic development, and recognizing the consequences of development in decades past,” Perez said. “I think it was incredibly informative as to how I would approach conversations at the state level.”
With Tucson home to several local and national unions and voters again approving a minimum wage increase, Perez said he is focused on fair pay, safer working conditions and expanding opportunities for career advancement.
“I have a clear mandate to represent union interests, and I think it's a large part of a working family's focus during my run,” Perez said. “Tucsonans have made it clear that we want to allow for our working families to have the means to live fruitful lives and not have to labor extensively to meet their basic needs.”
Beyond labor issues, Perez said civil rights protections are also a key priority of his campaign.
Over the past year, more than 600 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced in state legislatures nationwide, including in Arizona. While the Arizona bills were vetoed by Gov. Katie Hobbs, Perez hopes to advocate for the state Legislature to protect Arizonans from discrimination, not catalyze it.
“The majority in our state legislature has no regard for the LGBTQ community. That's reflected in their decisions to exclude protections of our folks in the workplace, in an educational setting, in accessing resources that would otherwise be protected by every other Arizonan,” Perez said. “I'm largely opposed as a gay man, as someone who has been interested in equity for all people, and even more so, at a time where we're also facing that kind of decision making at the federal level.”
Topacio “Topaz” Servellon is a reporter with Tucson Spotlight. Contact them at topacioserve@gmail.com.
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