The Arizona primary election will be held on August 30, 2016. Reproductive health care access has been under attack, both nationally and statewide, but Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona has endorsed candidates who have shown strong commitment to reproductive justice. To acquaint you with our endorsed candidates, we are running a series called “Meet Our Candidates.” In order to vote in the primary election, you must register to vote by August 1 — and can even register online. Make your voice heard in 2016!
[M]aritza Miranda Saenz is running for the Arizona Senate to represent Legislative District 27, which encompasses parts of Central Phoenix and the communities of Laveen, South Mountain, and Guadalupe. She is a candidate who comes from a family with experience in both law and grassroots politics. Her mother, Lucy Lopez-Goss, served indigent clients for the Maricopa County Office of the Legal Defender, and her father, the late Rep. Ben Miranda, served the area as a legislator, attorney, and activist. It is a tradition Miranda Saenz carried on while working alongside her father for 15 years. Her involvement in the community continued as she started a small business that mentors area youth. Miranda Saenz entered the race with an interest in supporting education and small businesses in Arizona, as well as protecting our voting rights and environment.
“I believe the ability to control one’s own body is an issue of justice and freedom.”
Since 2015, Miranda Saenz’s opponent, Catherine Miranda, has been the Democratic Senator for LD 27. Before that, Catherine served in the AZ House since 2011. During Catherine Miranda’s Senate bid in 2014, we gave her the spotlight on this blog for a very different reason. As we wrote then, “A lot of us might assume that a female Democrat will be a fierce advocate for reproductive rights, but that’s not always a safe assumption” — and, as we summarized then, Rep. Miranda has turned that assumption on its head time and again. In her five years in the Senate, Rep. Miranda has supported legislation to ban state funding for abortion providers, restrict the administration of medication abortions, and create other new barriers to reproductive health care. Rep. Miranda’s record earned her an “anti-choice” classification from NARAL Pro-Choice Arizona, as well as the endorsement of Arizona Right to Life.
Maritza Miranda Saenz thinks the voters of LD 27 need an alternative. On July 14, she generously took the time for an interview to tell us more about her candidacy and what’s at stake in the election.
Tell us a little about your background.
I am a mom, small business owner, and lifelong Democrat born and raised in South Phoenix. My husband and I are raising our four kids in the district and are deeply invested in the future of our community. I was raised with a sense of obligation to fight for working class families. I strongly believe that women should be the only decision makers about their own health care needs. Continue reading