Photo courtesy Jevin Hodge
By Ronald J. Hansen | Arizona Republic
Fresh off a narrow loss for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, Democrat Jevin Hodge announced Monday he is running for Congress in the area represented by Republican David Schweikert.
Hodge, 27, enters the race against the six-term incumbent as Democrats begin a new effort to win in the northeast Valley, an area that moved in their direction during the Trump era, but not nearly enough to win in a historically conservative part of metro Phoenix.
His entry comes days after three-time Democratic congressional candidate Hiral Tipirneni terminated her campaign committee last week.
Hodge, who heads the board of directors for a Head Start center in Phoenix, casts himself as the beneficiary of a government safety net that he wants to preserve for others as well.
“I’m running for Congress because I got my opportunity. I want to do everything I possibly can to fight for everyday Arizonans to get theirs,” he said in an interview.
A Tempe resident, Hodge said he plans to make his campaign centered on issues such as preserving voting rights, combating income inequality and expanding access to health care.
“I’m a middle-of-the-road, centrist, pragmatic thinker, and that’s what Arizona likes,” he said. “We have a history of fighters, and that’s what I am.”
Hodge, who is Black, said the 400 wealthiest households in America have more combined wealth than all African Americans.
“That’s not fair, nor right,” he said.
