By Jason W. Brooks
Mail | X: @JasonWBrooks2

With Democratic Rep. Jennifer Pawlik not running for re-election, there will be at least one new representative for Arizona legislature’s District 13.

Julie Willoughby, the Republican who was appointed to replace the expelled and newly elected Liz Harris last spring, is seeking to retain her seat.

There are three Democratic Party candidates running in the July 30 primary.

One Republican challenger is seeking to take one of the two seats for LD13. Jeff Weninger, who held a legislative seat for several years before, will be the other Republican alongside Willoughby in that primary.

Arizona state representatives are chosen in November of even-numbered years, with the top-two vote-getters in each district earning the seats, regardless of party affiliation. The July 30 primary determines a maximum of two candidates per party to advance to the general election, so Weninger and Willoughby both automatically advance and will be on the November ballot.

On the Senate side, J.D. Mesnard has represented a Southeast Valley district in the Arizona legislature since he was first elected in 2012.

That almost changed in 2022, as the Republican beat Democrat Cindy Hans in the LD13 general election by fewer than 4,000 votes.

That wasn’t even the closest election in the region. In 2018, when Mesnard was making his first successful Senate run for then-LD17, he squeaked past Steve Weichert by fewer than 2,000 votes.

Well-divided politically, LD13 encompasses much of Chandler, along with parts of the Town of Gilbert and unincorporated stretches of Maricopa County.

House candidates are:

Nicholas Gonzales, Democratic Party

Nicholas Gonzales is an entrepreneur, urban planner, and father now running for State Legislature in his hometown of Chandler.

Gonzales was raised and educated in the Chandler Unified School District. He also attended Arizona State University.

Gonzales says he has deep connections to the Chandler community.

NOTE: The LD13 Democrats have informed Independent Newsmedia that no further information was available on this candidate as of this writing. More information could be available once a campaign website is created for this candidate.

Brandy Reese, Democratic

Brandy Reese says she and her brother were raised by teen parents who struggled to make ends meet.

Reese holds a degree in chemistry from the University of Oklahoma.

She worked for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, where she eventually worked as its senior criminalist.

In her role, she identified, collected, and analyzed physical evidence from crime scenes in the laboratory, working to take violent criminals off the street. She sometimes provided expert testimony in courtrooms.

Reese was elected President of the Southwestern Association of Forensic Scientists.

Reese and her husband and two daughters, two dogs and one cat live in Chandler. Both of her daughters graduated from Chandler Unified School District schools.

Reese ran as the only Democratic Party candidate in the 2022 Legislative District 14 House race, finishing third.

Reese is active as an education reform advocate and is a regular and Chandler Unified board meetings. She was the District 14 House endorsed candidate for Save Our Schools Arizona in 2022.

Shante Saulsberry, Democratic

Shante Saulsberry is a native of San Diego. She holds a master's of business administration from Strayer University.

Saulsberry has been the executive director of the Janice’s Women’s Center, Inc. since December 2020 and the CEO of the Janice Vaincre Boutique since June 2021.

She’s done event coordination for both Phoenix Pride and for the American Cancer Society.

Saulsberry said in addition to nonprofit work, she has also established successful businesses.

In June 2023, Saulsberry received a Verified Certificate for U.S. Public Policy: Social, Economic, and Foreign Policies from “HarvardX - An Online Learning Initiative,” run by Harvard University.

Saulsberry is also an Arizona notary public.

Despite not having held public office, Saulsberry has been involved in a major piece of legislation. She wrote much of HB2604, which doubled the duration of protective orders to a period of 2 years.

The bill, introduced by a state lawmaker in 2021 and amended and signed into law by Gov. Doug Ducey in April 2022, also extended emergency protective orders to seven days.

Jeff Weninger, Republican Party

Jeff Weninger is running for the Republican nomination in Legislative District 13, hoping to get back to the Arizona House of Representatives he served in from 2015 to 2023.

After serving about nine years and two elected four-year terms on the Chandler City Council, Jeff Weninger was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives for then-District 17, holding that office for the duration and chairing the House Commerce Committee.

Weninger ran for Arizona treasurer in 2022, but lost the Republican nomination to incumbent Kimberly Yee.

She initially jumped into the governor’s race, but eventually dropped out and ran successfully to keep her job as state treasurer.

Weninger and his business partner, Shaun Kelley, own a restaurant company named Arizona Sandwich Shops Inc. The company is known for the gourmet sandwich shop, Dilly’s Deli, and an Italian restaurant in Chandler, Floridino’s Pizza and Pasta.

Weninger has lived in Chandler with his wife and three kids for more than 20 years.

Julie Willoughby, Republican

Rep. Julie Willoughby is the only District 13 incumbent seeking reelection, as Rep. Jennifer Pawlik is stepping down.

Willoughby and Liz Harris were easily the top two Republican vote-getters in the 2022 Republican District 13 House primary.

Willoughby was narrowly edged by Harris for the second of two Representative offices for District 13, Pawlik placing first.

However, early last year, Harris was expelled by her Legislature peers for bringing in witnesses who made unsubstantiated allegations. Willoughby was appointed by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in May to replace Harris.

Willoughby is a Fountain Hills High School graduate and a career emergency room nurse.
Her last job was chief nursing officer for Exceptional Healthcare Inc.

Willoughby has a master’s degree in leadership and management from Western Governors University. Her bachelor’s in nursing is from Arizona State University.

She also holds a certificate from Gateway Community College and an A.S. degree from Scottsdale Community College.

Willoughby also worked with Mercy Ships in her volunteer work as an RN in Haiti.

Senate candidates are:

J.D. Mesnard, Republican Party

State senator J.D. Mesnard (LD 13) was elected to the Senate in 2018 after serving eight years in the Arizona House of Representatives, including serving as Speaker of the House during his final term.

Mesnard is a graduate of Arizona State University with a bachelor's degree in Music Composition. He also holds two master's degrees, one in Business and the other in Public Administration.

Prior to running for office, Mesnard worked at the Arizona Senate for eight years as a policy advisor on issues ranging from education, transportation and retirement, to family services and government administration.

Mesnard, who lives with his wife Holly and three daughters in Chandler, is a small business owner, investor and consultant, and is adjunct faculty at Mesa Community College and Arizona State University, where he teaches political science courses. He has been teaching for 14 years.

Born at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida during his father’s military service as a fighter pilot, Mesnard has lived in Arizona for almost 30 years.

Sharon Lee Winters, Democratic

Sharon Lee Winters is a small business owner, a former paralegal and retired English and math teacher.

She holds a bachelor’s in psychology from Illinois State University and an M.A. in humanities from the University of Texas.
Winters devoted her teaching career to special education in public schools at a pueblo in New Mexico, as well as English at Brookhaven College in the northern Dallas suburbs.

NOTE: The LD13 Democrats told Independent Newsmedia that no further information was available on this candidate as of this writing. More information could be available once a campaign website is created for this candidate.

We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments on this topic.  Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.  Email Jason W. Brooks at jbrooks@iniusa.org

Jason W. Brooks
Associate Editor

Jason W. Brooks is a News editor for the Daily Independent and the Chandler Independent.

He covers the Chandler area for both yourvalley.net and the monthly print edition while writing for and assisting in the production of the Daily Independent.

Brooks is a well-traveled journalist who has documented life in small American communities in nearly all U.S. time zones.

Born in Washington, D.C. and raised there and in suburban Los Angeles, he has covered community news in California, New Mexico, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska and northern Arizona.