Briana Ortega

Briana Ortega (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Arizona House of Representatives to represent District 21. She lost in the Democratic primary on July 30, 2024.

Ortega completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Briana Ortega earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona and a law degree from the Gonzaga University School of Law.^[1]

Elections

2024

General election

General election for Arizona House of Representatives District 21 (2 seats)

Incumbent Consuelo Hernandez and incumbent Stephanie Stahl Hamilton defeated Christopher Kibbey in the general election for Arizona House of Representatives District 21 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Consuelo Hernandez (D)	38.6	48,283
✔		Stephanie Stahl Hamilton (D)	34.4	43,028
	Submit photo	Christopher Kibbey (R)	27.1	33,883

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 125,194
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 21 (2 seats)

Incumbent Consuelo Hernandez and incumbent Stephanie Stahl Hamilton defeated Briana Ortega in the Democratic primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 21 on July 30, 2024.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Consuelo Hernandez	43.4	13,745
✔	Stephanie Stahl Hamilton	29.1	9,218
	Briana Ortega	27.5	8,723

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 31,686
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 21 (2 seats)

Christopher Kibbey advanced from the Republican primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 21 on July 30, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Christopher Kibbey	100.0	8,746

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 8,746
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Campaign finance

Endorsements

See also: Our approach to covering endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements or voter guide recommendations for Ortega in this election.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

Briana Ortega completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Ortega's responses.

Expand All

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Briana is an attorney, small business owner, and lifelong Southern Arizonan. Throughout her life, she has developed two core values: hard work and the importance of supporting your community.

Briana is an alumna of Sahuarita High School and the University of Arizona. Motivated by her desire to advocate for others, Briana attended law school at Gonzaga University. She graduated at the top of her class, while juggling multiple jobs, serving on the editorial board of Gonzaga's law journal, and interning for the U.S. Attorney's Office.

In 2023, Briana launched her own law firm after seeing a need for affordable, accessible legal services for small business owners and residents of Southern Arizona. Briana successfully represented the family of Governor Raul Castro in their lawsuit against the University of Arizona, after the university attempted to sell the family’s historic home in Nogales. Now, she hopes to represent Southern Arizonans in the state legislature.

Briana’s run for office follows a family legacy of public service. Her parents are Mexican immigrants who overcame significant adversity to attend and graduate from college, all while raising their two small children. Her father became a public school teacher. Her mother became a respected prosecutor who now serves as a judge in Santa Cruz County. Her brother is a combat veteran who served in Afghanistan.

With her strong values and true love for her community, Briana is poised to be a voice for Arizonans.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Public Education
Arizona’s public schools have been under attack for decades. Our schools are crumbling, we’re losing valuable teachers, and our children are being left behind. Now, Republicans have expanded private school vouchers so the wealthy can send their children to private school on the lower and middle classes’ dime.
Briana is the proud daughter of a former public school teacher and product of public education. So, she means it when she says she will do everything in her power to bring resources to our community. That includes increased educator pay, bringing back full-day kindergarten, reeling back the ESA voucher program, and demanding accountability for charter schools.
Jobs and the Economy Southern Arizona has significant resources, as well as talented, hardworking individuals. Yet, we’re seeing our job force flock to larger cities, like Phoenix and Los Angeles, because job creators are not investing in our communities. Talented individuals seek opportunities where they can thrive, earn competitive salaries, and contribute meaningfully. Briana is committed to revitalizing our southern economy. We must actively court job creators, demonstrating that our southern regions offer untapped potential and a skilled workforce. By retaining our workforce, we can build resilient communities that thrive even in challenging times.
Women's Rights They’ve taken away women’s constitutional right to choose an abortion, and they won’t stop there. Women must be allowed to make decisions about their bodies (and doctors must be allowed to carry out those decisions) without fear of criminal prosecution or retaliation from the government. Briana has represented domestic abuse, sexual harassment, and sexual assault survivors in the courtroom. She's committed to promoting legislation to protect women from predators and make sure every anti-woman piece of legislation dies.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Briana is passionate about access to justice issues. In addition to protecting and advocating for constitutional rights, we must also ensure equal access to those rights. Not only must we protect reproductive rights, we must ensure Arizonans everywhere - from rural to major metropolitan areas - can reach their doctors and nurses. Not only must we adequately fund education, we must promote programs that allow students of all socioeconomic backgrounds to get to the classroom.

What is your favorite book? Why?

What committees interest you?

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign finance summary

Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

Briana Ortega campaign contribution history
Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024	Arizona House of Representatives District 21	Lost primary	$24,402	$17,790
Grand total			$24,402	$17,790
Sources: OpenSecrets, Federal Election Commission *This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

External links

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Candidate

Arizona House of Representatives District 21

Personal

Footnotes

↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 30, 2024

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Current members of the Arizona House of Representatives

Leadership

Speaker of the House:Steve Montenegro

Majority Leader:Michael Carbone

Minority Leader:Oscar De Los Santos

Representatives

District 1

Selina Bliss (R)

Quang Nguyen (R)

District 2

Stephanie Simacek (D)

Justin Wilmeth (R)

District 3

Alexander Kolodin (R)

Cody Reim (R)

District 4

Pamela Carter (R)

Matt Gress (R)

District 5

Sarah Liguori (D)

Aaron Marquez (D)

District 6

Mae Peshlakai (D)

Myron Tsosie (D)

District 7

Sylvia Allen (R)

Walter Blackman (R)

District 8

Janeen Connolly (D)

Brian Garcia (D)

District 9

Lorena Austin (D)

Seth Blattman (D)

District 10

Ralph Heap (R)

Justin Olson (R)

District 11

Junelle Cavero (D)

Oscar De Los Santos (D)

District 12

Patricia Contreras (D)

Anastasia Travers (D)

District 13

Jeff Weninger (R)

Julie Willoughby (R)

District 14

Laurin Hendrix (R)

Khyl Powell (R)

District 15

Neal Carter (R)

Michael Way (R)

District 16

Chris Lopez (R)

Teresa Martinez (R)

District 17

Rachel Keshel (R)

Kevin Volk (D)

District 18

Nancy Gutierrez (D)

Christopher Mathis (D)

District 19

Lupe Diaz (R)

Gail Griffin (R)

District 20

Alma Hernandez (D)

Betty Villegas (D)

District 21

Consuelo Hernandez (D)

Stephanie Stahl Hamilton (D)

District 22

Lupe Contreras (D)

Elda Luna-Nájera (D)

District 23

Michele Pena (R)

Mariana Sandoval (D)

District 24

Anna Abeytia (D)

Lydia Hernandez (D)

District 25

Michael Carbone (R)

Nick Kupper (R)

District 26

Cesar Aguilar (D)

Quantá Crews (D)

District 27

Lisa Fink (R)

Tony Rivero (R)

District 28

David Livingston (R)

Beverly Pingerelli (R)

District 29

Steve Montenegro (R)

James Taylor (R)

District 30

Leo Biasiucci (R)

John Gillette (R)

Republican Party (33)

Democratic Party (27)

[1] Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 30, 2024

[1]

Briana Ortega

Contents

Biography

Elections

2024

General election

General election for Arizona House of Representatives District 21 (2 seats)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 21 (2 seats)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 21 (2 seats)

Campaign finance

Endorsements

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

Campaign finance summary

See also

External links

Footnotes

Information about voting

2026 Elections

2027 Elections

Election analysis

Trending

Public Policy

Information for candidates

Get Engaged

Services

Additional analysis

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