New AZ Legislature leaders to give Democrats, and Southern AZ a stronger voice

For Tucson, the coming legislative session will bring a rare chance for Southern Arizona to shape state policy from a position of power. Priya Sundareshan, a Tucson Democrat and the incoming president of the Arizona Senate, will lead a chamber controlled by her party for the first time in 60 years. With Democrats also holding the governor’s office and a majority in the Arizona House, Tucson residents and other communities outside the Phoenix area could have a stronger voice in decisions involving education, water, infrastructure, state spending and the cost of living.

Sundareshan was chosen by Senate Democrats on November 6 to serve as president elect, after previously serving as the chamber’s minority leader. She is expected to take over when the new legislative session begins in January 2027. Democrats won 20 of the Senate’s 30 seats, up from the 13 seats they previously held, giving the party a two thirds majority. In the House, Democrats won about 37 of the 60 seats, while Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs won reelection. House Democrats selected Oscar De Los Santos as speaker elect.

The election results give Democrats control of the governor’s office and both legislative chambers, a combination the party has not held in Arizona since 1966. For Sundareshan, the change represents a sharp reversal from her first four years in the Legislature. She said that during the Republican majority, only one of her bills received a committee hearing. Many other Democratic proposals never received even that first consideration, leaving what she described as a large backlog for the new majority to address.

Her immediate promise is to move those bills into the legislative process. That does not mean Republicans will be excluded, Sundareshan said. She has indicated that the Democratic leadership intends to consider Republican proposals as well as work with Republicans on ideas that can attract support. Still, she made clear that Democrats will first have substantial work to do on the proposals that accumulated while their party was in the minority.

The priorities she outlined include easing the high cost of living for working families, protecting Arizona’s water supplies and environment, and addressing long standing underinvestment in public education. She also said Democrats will examine the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account voucher program, with a focus on preventing wasted money and fraud. Other issues expected to receive attention include university funding, transportation infrastructure and how state resources are distributed to communities beyond Maricopa County.

That last concern has particular significance in Tucson. Southern Arizona lawmakers and residents have long criticized the Legislature for allowing the Phoenix metropolitan area’s large bloc of lawmakers to dominate state policy. Sundareshan said the region’s priorities and major employers have not always received the attention they deserve in the Capitol. With a Tucson lawmaker presiding over the Senate, and several other members of the incoming Democratic leadership also coming from Southern Arizona, the region will have a more direct role in setting the agenda.

Sundareshan is the first Tucson lawmaker to lead the Senate in nearly 20 years. She is also part of a broader political milestone as an Indian American leader in Arizona. Born and raised in Tucson, she attended local public schools in an Indian American family, earned a chemical engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2006, then completed a law degree and a master’s degree in agricultural and resource economics at the University of Arizona in 2011.

Before entering elected office, Sundareshan taught natural resources law at the University of Arizona and directed the university’s Natural Resource Use and Management Clinic. She also worked with the Environmental Defense Fund on sustainable resource management. Her background in water, natural resources and law is closely connected to several issues expected to come before the Legislature. She was first elected in 2022, began serving in January 2023 and later became Senate minority leader. She won reelection in Legislative District 18 with about 66 percent of the vote.

The last Democrat to serve as Senate president was Pete Rios, who held the position from 1991 to 1992. Sundareshan’s selection therefore gives Southern Arizona both a symbolic breakthrough and an opportunity to influence practical decisions about state investment. She has said Democrats heard voters reject partisan extremism and choose a new direction, and that the party must earn public trust by delivering results residents can feel in daily life. For Tucson, the test will be whether that new influence produces measurable attention for local schools, universities, transportation needs, water protection and communities that have often felt overlooked in the state Capitol.