Meet the Candidate: Arizona House of Representatives, District 4

Charlene Fernandez

Editor’s Note: Election Day is Nov. 3. There are several candidates running for office, including Charlene Fernandez, Dr. Gerae Peten and Joel John, who are running for Arizona House of Representatives, District 4. John did not respond to this Q&A. These stories are part of an ongoing Yuma Sun series called “Meet the Candidates.”

Name: Charlene Fernandez

Age: 65

Office running for: Arizona House of Representatives

Political experience:

Yuma County office for Congressman Ed Pastor 1991 – 2002

Yuma County office for Congressman Raul Grijalva 2009 – 2011

Board Member of Yuma Union High School District Boardmember 2005 – 2012

Arizona State Representative 2015 – Current

Family: Husband Sergio and children Brian, Carlye, and Lisa

Please describe your platform.

My platform is founded in equal access to opportunity, whether economic, educational, or housing. Everyone deserves a fair chance to get a good education, a job that can sustain a family, affordable healthcare, and a safe place to live. We cannot hand that out to everyone, but we can, and should, provide the opportunity for people to achieve those goals.

What is your background? What in your past experiences helps qualify you for this seat?

I’m a native Yuman and proud product of this community. I started my public service with Congressman Ed Pastor, worked in Governor Janet Napolitano’s office, and now have been representing Yuma at the Arizona House of Representatives since 2015. In the House, I lead the Democratic Caucus making sure rural Arizona has a prominent seat at the Capitol in Phoenix by accomplishing the bipartisan Drought Contingency Plan to ensure sustainable water for our communities and agriculture for the future. Serving on the Appropriations committee gives Yuma a strong voice for what is perhaps the most important annual bill the legislature does every year – the budget. I’m hoping you’ll see the great opportunity we have in 2020 to win majorities in the State House and focusing on hard working Arizonan’s priorities this election by voting for my seatmate Dr. Gerae Peten and me in the upcoming election.

If elected, what is your first priority?

I’ve long made great education in our state my first priority. We can accomplish this by fully funding our public schools, eliminating the teacher shortage, and ensuring we have support for schools in communities that need it most. Certainly now more than ever, adequate standards, safety, and resources are critical to the opportunity for every student to succeed. We must get priorities straight at the legislature and focus on making sure education, and all basic services, are put before corporate tax giveaways and tax breaks for the super-rich.

What sets you apart from your opponent(s)?

Unlike my opponent, I question every day at the capitol why the current leadership there is leaving hard working Arizonans behind while bending over backwards to please special interests, large corporations with sweetheart deals, and the super-rich with tax giveaways. I have prioritized your children’s education. He will prioritize for-profit private education schemes. I have prioritized your rights as a worker. He will prioritize giving your tax dollars to corporate giants for empty promises. I have prioritized a comprehensive response to our pandemic including expanded unemployment protections, paid sick leave, small business assistance, and widespread testing. He will toe the line of the rest of Republican legislative leadership to do nothing. The choice is clear. If you want to prioritize working families that need access to great education and economic opportunity, please vote for me, Charlene Fernandez, beginning on October 7th.

What do you think is the biggest challenge right now facing Yumans?

Economic opportunity has challenged Yuma for as long as I can recall. This has been exacerbated through this pandemic. We’re a proud agricultural community and must embrace that without forgetting the hard work from everyone from workers in our lettuce fields to trade with our neighboring country, Mexico. We need to make sure that families, workers, and small businesses have an environment where they can thrive and when crisis happens, like COVID-19, there is a safety net to keep people in their houses and businesses from closing while we work through it responsibly.

What would you do, if elected, to help change that?

In our COVID-19 response package our team put forward proposals to expand unemployment protections for Arizonans because we know $240 a month is not enough to live on and Arizona’s current eligibility requirements leave thousands without any options, among many other short term measures that were rejected by only a single vote from Republicans. I’ve sponsored bills that will add resources so we can fully fund a great education for students and reduce the teacher shortage, so Yuma has an educated workforce in the coming decades. With Dr. Peten and my re-election in the coming months and gains in other areas of the state, we’ll finally have a united majority in the Arizona House of Representatives to usher in a new era that puts people before corporations and special interests. Please vote starting on October 7th by mail and no later than November 3rd at the polls.