Republican Steve Montenegro will be the next Arizona House speaker

[ad_1]

Republicans in a closed-door meeting on Nov. 12 elected Rep. Steve Montenegro as the new speaker of Arizona's House of Representatives for the 2025-26 session.

Montenegro, a former pastor and veteran lawmaker, won the three-way race with 18 votes from 33 voting members. That group included several Republican House candidates who are leading but have not yet won their races as a final vote count nears. As the most current election results show, Republicans will control both the House and Senate with a slight increase in their numbers in the House.

"We are stronger than ever before right now," Montenegro said after the vote by colleagues. "The people of Arizona have spoken, and they want to make sure that we are focused on these values that matter to Arizonans: the economy, families, education and, of course, other issues that are vital and important for us."

House Republicans, who met at the Arizona Rock Products Association office in Phoenix, also elected Reps. Michael Carbone of Buckeye as House majority leader and Julie Willoughby of Chandler as House whip.

Republican state Senate members, meeting at an undisclosed location, voted to give current Senate President Warren Petersen another two years in the position leading the 30-member chamber. Sens. Janae Shamp of Surprise and Frank Carroll of Sun City West will be the new senate majority leader and whip, respectively.

Democrats, who failed to deliver a tie or win in either legislative chamber, gathered at the state Capitol on Nov. 12 to vote for their leaders.

House leadership: Biasiucci, Chaplik, Montenegro ran for speaker Currently, the House has 31 Republicans and 29 Democrats, a one-seat split that has been in place for the last six years. But Republicans are expected to expand their majority in the chamber by at least two seats when all of the ballots have been counted.

The speaker competition was between Montenegro, a former majority leader who lives in Goodyear; current House Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci of Lake Havasu City; and Rep. Joseph Chaplik of Scottsdale, a member of the House Freedom Caucus.

The speaker seat opened up because current Speaker Ben Toma, R-Glendale, is term-limited.

On the Democratic side, House Minority Leader Lupe Contreras of Avondale had signaled he would not seek a return to the role of leading the Democratic caucus.

Democrats on Nov. 12 picked Reps. Oscar De Los Santos of Phoenix as minority leader; Nancy Gutierrez of Tucson as assistant minority leader; and two co-whips: Quantá Crews and Stacey Travers.

De Los Santos had faced competition from Reps. Cesar Aguilar of Phoenix and Consuelo Hernandez of Tucson for the minority leader spot.

Montenegro has experience, baggage Montenegro's a hardline conservative who previously served four terms in the House from 2009 to 2016 before voters elected him to the state Senate. He's an enthusiastic supporter of President-elect Donald Trump and was the only Latino in the state Legislature to vote in favor of SB 1070, the controversial anti-illegal immigration law passed in Arizona and largely nullified by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Montenegro grew politically restless in 2017 and launched a short-lived bid for secretary of state. He resigned from the Senate in 2018 to run for Congress, losing the Republican primary following news that he'd been exchanging sexually charged Snapchat messages with a woman who worked as digital media coordinator for the state Senate's Republican Caucus.

He previously worked as a pastor for the Surprise Apostolic Church, where his father is a senior pastor. His latest financial disclosure statement shows his main income now comes from his work for his company, Coronam Consulting.

"I think we have a very, very strong Republican − a Christian man, a Latino man − that would help us manage the House and the Senate and work with a Democratic governor when we can, and lead us into the ’26 election to take back the governorship," said Rep. David Livingston, who's served seven terms in the Legislature, following the vote. He would not say who he voted for. "All the people that ran today had a similar message of Arizona First, America First, citizens first, economic development, border security, and family security."

Rep. Matt Gress of Phoenix said Montenegro "reflects the modern Republican party," especially considering the "sizeable share" of Latinos in the party.

"He will certainly deliver good, common-sense Republican priorities at the Capitol," Gress said. "He has the institutional knowledge to ensure the House has a very clear, distinct voice with the other chamber and with the governor's office."

Petersen wins second term as Senate president Petersen, of Gilbert, won a second term as Senate president. He faced opposition from state Sen. David Gowan of Sierra Vista, a former House speaker.

The Senate currently has a 16-14 party split, with Republicans expected to maintain their slight majority.

Senate Democrats picked Sens. Priya Sundareshan as minority leader; Flavio Bravo as minority assistant leader; Rosanna Gabaldón as minority whip; and Lela Alston as minority caucus chair. Sundareshan is the co-chair of the Arizona Democratic Leadership Campaign Committee, which set out this year to win control of the Legislature.

The new leaders will have the power to appoint members to the Legislature's various committees, create new ones or even abolish or consolidate committees.

The next legislative session begins Jan. 13, when legislators will be sworn into office.

Poised to retain control: GOP lawmakers continue seeking AZ ballot measure reform

Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-228-7566 and follow her on Threads as well as on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @maryjpitzl.

Reach the reporter at rstern@arizonarepublic.com or 480-276-3237. Follow him on X @raystern.

[ad_1]

Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=673463b640804dc69f38240709957c8d&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Flegislature%2F2024%2F11%2F12%2F1-of-these-3-republicans-will-be-the-next-arizona-house-speaker%2F76206042007%2F&c=6723826390269838125&mkt=en-us Author : Publish date : 2024-11-12 16:12:00 Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source .