Mary Jo Pitzl
Arizona Republic
Rep. Lupe Contreras is the new House Democratic leader at the state Capitol, elected in a marathon meeting that also reconfigured the minority party’s leadership team.
It took nine hours and 11 rounds of voting Wednesday for the 28 Democrats present to elect a leader, evoking parallels to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s bid among Republicans to win his position in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year.
Rep. Leeza Sun of Phoenix did not attend the meeting, which was held both virtually and in person at the state Capitol.
After more than nine rounds of voting failed to produce the needed 15 votes to win the leader post, the Democrats moved on and elected the rest of their leadership team before returning to the drawn-out leadership contest between Contreras and Rep. Marcelino Quiñonez.
Freshman Rep. Oscar de los Santos from Laveen won the race for assistant minority leader. He replaces Contreras.
