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The primary election is settled, and I am honored to be the Democratic nominee for Ward 3, even by a slim margin. I know many residents of this ward — and across the City — are angry at government. They have good reason to be. The most pressing issue in Ward 3 is the visible increase in homelessness and the epidemic of drug use. Residents report camps in our public parks and neighborhoods, and we hear about the impact on local businesses. The number of people who are “living� on the streets of Tucson has grown exponentially in the last four years.

I’ve tried to thread the needle of this complex and nationwide epidemic, with compassion for all involved. For all people who are surviving on the streets, for neighbors who want to visit their park without having to witness drug use and garbage, for business owners who clean up human waste just to get in the door, and for bus riders who want a bus stop, not an open-air drug market.

I’m proud of what Tucson has accomplished in the last four years. The former Wildcat Inn, Amazon Motel, No Tell Motel and Sugar Hill on Stone at the former site of the Bum Steer are all owned by the City and will now be housing units. All these public housing projects, along with the Tucson House, are in Ward 3.

But it’s a drop in the bucket and nowhere near adequate to deal with the scale of the problem. I understand it’s hard to see the individual success stories (there are many) when there are so many camps out there and so much public drug abuse.

Another frequent policy issue that I hear about consistently concerns fare-free transit – both for and against. The City stopped charging bus fares during COVID, and that policy has been consistently supported by four votes on the Mayor and Council, including my own. If we as a community want to move toward local climate solutions, a clean, reliable, accessible mass transit system is key. I acknowledge that the majority of the support for fare-free public transportation comes from transit and climate advocates. I am one of them. I also realize that not everyone shares this opinion. I think it might be time to let voters decide.

After the defeat of the half-cent sales tax that was Prop 414, I was approached by community members still interested in additional funding for transit and housing. At the same time, I know there are voters who would like to see more resources go towards public safety, fire, and police staffing. With the extreme cuts in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill and slashed state funding, the city will be facing some hard choices. Regardless of what voters decide with the RTA spring election, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I wasn’t planning ahead.

That’s why I will ask my Council colleagues and the public to support letting Tucson voters decide two separate sales tax initiatives in November of 2026: 1) quarter cent for transit and housing and 2) quarter cent for public safety.

I ran four years ago on the belief that global warming was the biggest issue affecting Tucson; extreme heat, rising utility bills, a dwindling water supply, and species extinction are existential threats. I still believe that to be true, just more urgent. Currently, Mayor and Council are dealing with many issues, including concerns over data centers and other large water and energy users. At the same time, I want to address the immediate, visible issues of a growing unsheltered population and public drug abuse (especially at bus stops).

I hope that those who supported me in the primary election and those who didn’t will come together and unite in the general election. Tucson’s challenges are too great and the stakes too high for us to face them divided. This election is about coming together to fight the growing chaos and threats that are coming from the unhinged Trump administration.