Brandy Reese wants to represent Arizona’s 13th district in the State House, so she can secure support for the services that sustained her family growing up.
By Candice Helfand-Rogers
“Instead of trying to fight bad legislation, we need to elect better people.”
That philosophy is how Brandy Reese, a forensic scientist and concerned mom, found herself running for a State House seat to represent Arizona’s 13th legislative district – a decidedly purple swath of state located along the southern border and encompassing much of Maricopa County. After years of civic engagement on behalf of schools and voters near her Chandler, Arizona, home, “I decided that [better people] meant me – that I wanted to step up.”
She’ll have to win on Nov. 5 before getting to work, of course. A Democratic primary will be held this Tuesday, but it’s not competitive – she and entrepreneur-slash-urban-planner Nicholas Gonzales will automatically advance. Reese has secured endorsem*nts from pro-choice PAC Emily’s List, the Arizona Education Association, and gun control advocacy group Moms Demand Action, along with nods from numerous other local, state and national bodies, to support her candidacy.
Her introduction to civic engagement came by beholding the “Red for Ed” movement, an historic strike organized by educators throughout the Grand Canyon State to secure better pay and support after the Great Recession of 2008 gutted education funding statewide. As a proud public school graduate herself, Reese took the cause personally. “Education was really what gave me the leg up to move away from my impoverished childhood and into a better, more successful place.”
She was excited by watching the types of teachers who had helped her as a child, vie for more for themselves – and crushed when lawmakers largely failed to deliver on their behalf. None of the teachers’ demands were fully met, “It was almost a bait and switch,” she recalls.
That inspired her to get active, by working with Civic Engagement Beyond Voting, a grassroots organization that aims to spark engagement between everyday citizens and their local governments. “The more I got involved, the more I saw that the legislature is where we need to fight,” Reese says – which is why now, she wants “in.”
Indeed, while there’s work to be done outside of the polling station, she says, voting itself does matter – especially in down-ballot races like the one she’s now running in. “I try to remind [voters] that … the more local the public servant, the more likely they are to impact their lives.”
Public Resources as Stepping Stones
While speaking with voters along her campaign trail, Reese has found economic concerns to be at the fronts of their minds. “People want to talk about the affordability of things,” she says.
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She can relate. Reese was born in Oklahoma to teen parents – rather smart ones, she recalls, but they had little money, and struggled to make ends meet. Her parents always impressed upon her the importance of education as “the pathway out” of poverty. Along the way, her teachers offered critical support, especially whenever they noticed Reese was without. If her family couldn’t afford a backpack or a graphing calculator, for example, they would provide it.
Her parents continued to encourage Reese’s pursuit of education as they worked toward their own. Her father ultimately earned his GED in his 20s, and completed some college. Her mother wound up earning a master’s degree in 1997 – the same year Reese earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Oklahoma.
After graduation, Reese embarked upon what would become a 14-year career with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations, “doing the work to make sure the people of Oklahoma were protected and got justice.” She then moved to Arizona to focus on raising her family, but she always loved that data-driven, fact-based work – and, the idea of ensuring others’ safety.
It’s the same analytical-yet-protective approach she now wants to bring to drafting policy on behalf of her district, in order to address a host of issues.
Taking care of the area’s public education system by allocating more support for it is, of course, a top priority for her. Arizona still ranks 32nd in the nation with regards to teachers’ salaries, and Reese says this can harm more than students. “Businesses don’t want to come to an area that doesn’t have a good education for the children of people they employ,” she points out.
Managing the climate crisis is also critical. “We need to prepare for the very real needs of the state as far as climate change is concerned,” says Reese, who wants to do more to protect Arizona’s water resources – especially since the Colorado River, which supplies almost 40% of the state’s water (and which is funneled to six other states), is experiencing climate change-related drought. “We need to make Arizona a livable place for the foreseeable future.”
Appealing to Critical Young Voters
Another top priority for Reese? Making sure “people have the right to seek the medical attention they need … without politicians making those decisions for them.”
Abortion has been a galvanizing issue for voters, especially in Arizona, she says. This past May, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs repealed an 1864 near-total abortion ban that had been recently reinstated by the state’s Supreme Court. This September, a 15-week ban will become Arizona law.
It’s a win that embodies the differences elected officials can make, Reese adds – not to mention, a much-needed dash of hope. When the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade was handed down in 2022, her daughters – who recently became old enough to vote for their mom – “were anxious about what it would mean.” And, they weren’t even sure they wanted to remain in the state.
If elected, her mandate is clear: “I want to make Arizona [a place] where my kids want to live.”
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[CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that Reese’s upcoming Democratic primary is competitive, when it is, in fact, not.]
