The Arizona Green Party has released an official list of candidates it will support, oppose, or otherwise decline to rate in its state primary this summer as it continues warning voters about candidates it says are attempting to use the party’s ballot line without its support.
A member of the party shared the endorsement ratings with Independent Political Report this week, with the document evaluating candidates for governor, secretary of state, Arizona Corporation Commission, U.S. House, and the state Legislature. The list includes candidates appearing on the Green Party primary ballot, as well as those recognized by the state as official write-in candidates seeking the party’s nomination in their respective races. The state primary is scheduled for July 21.
In its statewide primary, the party has endorsed Carlos Melendez for governor, Jon Ralston for secretary of state, and Mike Cease for Arizona Corporation Commission. It is also backing Gary Swing for U.S. House in Arizona’s 6th Congressional District and Brendan Trachsel for state representative in the 6th Legislative District.
The party is alternatively taking an active stance against several candidates, opposing Risa Lombardo and William Pounds in their respective gubernatorial bids, as well as Duwayne Collier for secretary of state. In the primary for the 3rd Congressional District, the party said it is opposing David Redkey, while in the 7th Legislative District, it is opposing Richard Grayson.
The party also declined to endorse or oppose several other candidates, listing Athena Eastwood’s write-in campaign for governor as not endorsed and Hector Gomez’s bid for state representative in the 26th Legislative District as not rated.
The Arizona Green Party said the ratings follow a formal endorsement process and are intended to clarify which candidates the party recognizes as consistent with its values, though it does not go into detail about what that process entailed. It also said that ballot labels in Arizona do not necessarily show whether a candidate is a member of, or endorsed by, the party whose nomination they are seeking.
“Only candidates formally endorsed through this member-led process are recognized as Arizona Green Party–endorsed candidates for purposes of party communication and support,” the party said.
As the Arizona Green Party regained recognition as a new party for the 2024 and 2026 election cycles, Green write-in candidates in the primary need only receive a plurality of the party’s votes for the office to win the nomination. That threshold is lower than the one applied to write-in candidates for parties with continued ballot representation, creating a situation where earning a spot on the general election ballot as a Green candidate is possible even in incredibly low-turnout contests, so long as a candidate files as an official write-in.
The announcement follows months of warnings from the Arizona Green Party about candidates it has deemed “sham candidates.” Last December, the party publicly identified Lombardo, Lisa Castillo, and Collier as individuals collecting signatures under the Green Party label despite, according to the party, having no formal prior involvement with the organization.
During the 2024 election cycle, the party similarly warned that candidates seeking its U.S. Senate nomination were attempting to use its ballot line without the party’s support. The primary was eventually won by Eduardo Quintana, the then-chair of its Pima County affiliate, whose write-in bid surpassed both candidates that initially drew the party’s concern.
The Arizona Green Party said it supports election reforms it believes would reduce incentives for candidates to use a new party’s ballot line without organizational support. Among them, it proposed ranked choice voting, proportional representation, easing ballot access laws, changes to the signature challenge process, and allowing small parties to nominate candidates by convention instead of primary.
Political parties in Arizona don’t control who runs on their ballot line. Candidates file individually for primary elections. They often have nothing to do with the party whose ballot line they file for and they don’t represent the party’s values.
Seventeen other states allow small parties to nominate candidates by party assemblies.
The current system requires an absurd number of petition signatures to qualify new political parties, which then have no control over party nominations. Petition candidates are still subject to legal challenges with no cure period for gathering additional signatures.
Arizona needs fundamental election reform to secure fair, inclusive multiparty representation, sincere voting methods, and easy ballot access.
Foremost, this means proportional representation for electing members of Congress and the state legislature. Sincere voting methods for single winner executive offices (instant runoff, range, STAR, or approval voting).
Petition signature requirements should be vastly reduced to qualify new political parties to nominate by assembly as well as for individual candidates to petition onto either a primary or a general election ballot.
I suggest giving candidates the option of either seeking nomination by party assembly or bypassing an assembly by submitting a reasonable number of petition signatures or paying a modest filing fee. 50 signatures or $50 for county office or the state legislature. 200 signatures or $200 for Congress. 500 signatures or $500 for statewide office. $1,000 or 1,000 signatures plus a slate of electors for President.
Small parties should not be coerced to run gubernatorial candidates to meet a 5% vote threshold to secure continuing party status. I suggest that any party with at least 1,000 registered voters in the state or 1% of the vote for any statewide office in one of the two previous general elections should qualify for continuing party status to nominate candidates by party assembly.
Voters should have more choices and voting methods that accurately reflect their true preferences.
The existing system institutionalizes incentives for insincere operators to manipulate, deceive, and “game the vote.” The Green Party of Arizona has been subjected to candidates who don’t represent the party using the party’s ballot line for their own purposes since at least 2010. Petition signature requirements were vastly increased in 2013. That’s why we have this absurd sutuation in which major party “sham candidates” are the only candidates with their names printed on the Green Party’s primary ballot, while the party’s endorsed candidates are all write-ins for the party’s own primary.
Public criticism of this rotten system in corporate media focuses on the red herring of the so-called “spoiler effect” while ignoring the need for real election reform and sincere voting methods.
https://www.gp.org/gary_swing_arizona_s_ballot_access_laws_need_to_be_reformed
Gary, not at all arguing. That said, per the end of my piece, as I understand it, the AZGP at the start of this year said Pounds WAS good to go.
Of course, the AZGP also once embraced Kyrsten Sinema ….. (or at least, didn’t look beneath the hood)
William Pounds is a raving lunatic.
William Pounds? That big old nutter? https://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2021/04/green-party-nutter-william-pounds-dives.html
Green Party of Arizona: http://www.azgp.org
Information on Green candidates in Arizona:
Carlos Melendez for Governor: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590257948071
Jon Ralston for Secretary of State: https://jonralston4sos.com/
Mike Cease for Corporation Commission: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61566030929198
Brendan Trachsel for State Representative, LD6:
https://brendantrachsel.com/
Athena Eastwood, Democrats Go Mental on Green Party Candidate:”
https://arizonaglobe.com/u-s-congress/democrats-go-mental-on-green-party-candidate-athena-eastwood/
Athena Eastwood on Defending Voter Rights:
https://youtu.be/9zH15mUEsa4?si=MID4g1CXB1vx-QPX
Hector Gomez for State Representative, LD26:
https://hector.green/
Gerard Davis for State Senate, LD24: No known current public information
Richard Grayson for State Representative LD7:
Candidate Statement filed with Secretary of State:
https://apps.arizona.vote/electioninfo/Election/68
Richard Grayson on Ballotpedia:
https://ballotpedia.org/Richard_Grayson
Gary Swing for Progress, Arizona CD6
Green Primary write-in candidate campaign platform flyer:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTZ-G_4Qh8eOY7gEIlbmS-EDs7VsRxa8eihR-CTY4cULvz6gBV-z9eNmoeCDchnHu5gS-pKUCloFZP_/pub
Gary Swing for Progress AZ CD6 website:
https://theswingvote.wixsite.com/unity
Gary Swing for Progress on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/RunFromCongress
War is a Crime Against Humanity:
https://tucson.com/opinion/letters/article_ee5a807e-5f44-418d-9fd0-ebe4933dbd18.html
Arizona’s Ballot Access Laws Need to Be Reformed:
https://tucson.com/opinion/column/article_635a6776-6616-41fd-b9ac-47f103b721a0.html
Gary Swing on Proportional Representation:
https://www.theurbanist.org/u-s-voting-systems-should-and-can-better-reflect-diversity-in-representation/
Gary Swing on Abolishing the US Senate and the Electoral College:
https://yellowscene.com/2024/10/27/community-corner-abolish-the-electoral-college-and-the-us-senate/
Gary Swing on the United States as a “Slave Nation”
“250 is Enough: To Alter or Abolish:”
https://greenmassgroup.org/2026/02/250-is-enough
Best Democracy (election reform group):
http://www.bestdemocracy.org
http://www.bestdemocracy.org/proportional-representation
https://www.bestdemocracy.org/proportional-representation/hybrid.html
Electing Arizona’s State Legislature by Hybrid Proportional Representation:
https://www.bestdemocracy.org/proportional-representation/ewExternalFiles/Arizona%20Hybrid%20Pro%20Rep.png
I see from his photos that the person who sees no difference in the level of evil between the two major parties appears to be a white male, so his view is understandable. For those of us who are transgender, whether in the military or a middle school student, it makes a big difference which of the parties is in power. For those women who need an abortion or reproductive care, it makes a big difference. For those of us who members of a labor union, it makes a big difference. For immigrants and asylum seekers, it makes a big difference. For those of us who strongly support green energy and international climate change pacts, it makes a big difference. For teachers and students from pre-kindergarten to graduate and professional schools, it makes a big difference. For those of us with student loans, it makes a big difference. For those of us who struggle with medical bills, it makes a big difference. For those of us who want better regulation of firearms, it makes a big difference. For those of us who are voters and want fair elections, it makes a big difference.
It’s nice that some people have the privilege not to care whether Republicans or Democrats are in charge. Do they have to lecture the rest of us who are not as fortunate as they are?
I may be on the ballot as a Green Party candidate but I’m running as a Democrat now. Anyone who thinks that any of the Green Party candidates running for governor can get even 2%, much less, 5%, of the vote, is either stupid or insane and certainly should not get the vote of anyone who doesn’t have those qualities, especially when they are running in a toss-up district that could make the difference between Republican and Democratic control of the U.S. House of Representatives. I look forward to the coming death of a ballot-qualified Arizona Green Party and hope that it is finally killed for good. To those who don’t want Trump to continue as he has been, vote blue, no matter who.
Neither Gerard Davis nor Hector Gomez filed a candidate statement, email address, phone number, or website when they filed with the Secretary of State’s Office.
Stonewall Democrats reports that Gerard Davis supported a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage in 2012. The Green Party would strongly disagree with that stance.
I found a 2012 candidate statement from Gerard Davis:
“I am the Green Party nominee for State Representative District 24. I am not a native Arizonan like the other candidates in this race, but many of the people I love the most in this world do. I am a candidate in the democratic progressive tradition of American politics; a tradition that has included populists, progressives, socialists, and greens. I have a
social democratic and liberal worldview; a worldview that includes an economic safety net
protecting citizens from unemployment, sickness, and poverty in old age and other disasters. I
am a workingman engaged in class struggle on behalf of the working class. It was the working
class that built Arizona. It will be the working class that will rebuild Arizona. I am running for
State Representative District 24 to give the working class not only a voice at the Capitol, but a vote as well. As your state representative I will propose a constitutional amendment to repeal Arizona’s right to work law. I believe that the time for the working class is now. Workers of Arizona, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains. You have everything to gain. Vote for Gerard Davis November 6th.”
In response to Herbert’s comment:
The Green Party of Arizona overlooked Gerard Davis’ filing for state senate district LD24 during the party’s endorsement process. So, also “not rated.”
Gerard Davis, Hector Gomez, and Duwayne Collier have not been in communication with the Green Party of Arizona. Gomez has a campaign website with no contact information, no candidate photo, and no information about who he is.
The substance of Gomez’s campaign website seems fine, but the same might be said of Risa Lombardo’s website. She simply cut and pasted content from the Green Party of the United States to put on her website.
Athena Eastwood was the only candidate listed as “not endorsed.” Both she and Carlos Melendez participated in the Green Party’s endorsement process for the party’s gubernatorial nomination. Party members voted to endorse Melendez.
Only the primaries for Governor and Secretary of State are contested.
Candidates listed as “actively opposed” were opposed for causes such as serious policy disagreements, toxic personality, or in the cases of Risa Lombardo and Duwayne Collier, being outright frauds.
The two contested primaries for the Green Party of Arizona are for Governor and Secretary of State. All registered Green Party candidates for other offices are expected to qualify for the general election ballot, regardless of whether the state party organization endorses, opposes, or remains neutral concerning their candidacy.
MAGA Republican candidates Risa Lombardo for Governor and Duwayne Collier for Secretary of State petitioned onto the Arizona Green Party’s primary ballot. Arizona Green Party members Carlos Melendez for Governor and Jon Ralston for Secretary of State are challenging these Republican sham candidates as write-ins for the primary.
What all the Green primary candidates who are actively opposed by the Green Party of Arizona have in common is that they don’t represent the values of the Green Party, but they still choose to run on the Green Party’s ballot line for their own purposes.
In 2026, the Arizona Green Party had ballot access available for 98 state offices and nine US Representative seats. The state party doesn’t have the volunteers mobilized to field candidates for all these offices.
The governor’s race is considered to be critical because five percent of the vote for Governor would requalify the Green Party of Arizona as a political party in the state. However, requalifying as a “continuing party” either by registering two thirds of a percent of all Arizona registered voters or by getting five percent of the vote for Governor would increase petition signature requirements for individual candidates to the point that it would keep most Green Party candidates off the ballot in future elections.
The real issue is that Arizona has a rotten election system like the rest of the United States. Arizona needs ballot access reform and sincere voting methods – proportional representation for legislative offices, and instant runoff voting for single winner executive offices. Jon Ralston, the Green Party candidate for Secretary of State, understands the need for fundamental election reform. Duwayne Collier, the Republican sham candidate who petitioned onto the Green Party’s primary for Secretary of State, is just a fraud.
Richard Grayson raises the spectre of wannabe fascist dictator Donald Trump. Both cartel parties have long been partners in genocide, war crimes, and global military imperialism. If the current fascist ideology of the Republican Party is pure evil, the genocidal record of the Democratic Party is no less evil, albeit not pure.
According to the Secretary of State’s list of candidates in the June primary, there is another Green Party candidate, Gerard Davis, running unopposed for State Senator in Legislative District 24, where I live.
So, is he, like Hector Gomez, “not rated,” or do we infer from his complete omission from the list, that Davis is “not not rated”?
Apparently, candidates who don’t receive the Green Party’s endorsement can then be classified as “not endorsed,” “actively opposed,” or “unrated.” The odd part is that the party’s own explanation suggests every Green candidate should end up in one of those categories, but why did they leave out Gerald Davis? The Wikipedia page for the Arizona Green Party shows that Davis has run before as a candidate. He was even on the presidential primary ballot in 2012 (along with the endorsed candidate Gary Swing and the opposed candidate Richard Grayson.
In most established parties, “not endorsed” is already enough information. Having four statuses—endorsed, not endorsed, unrated, actively opposed—suggests the party is trying to communicate fairly fine distinctions among candidates. That can make sense internally, but it can also be confusing to voters if some candidates don’t appear on the list at all.
They are making themselves look like fools.
Unlike the “actively opposed” candidates for secretary of state or governor, the Arizona Green Party has left me unopposed in my candidacy for one of the two seats open for state representative in the 7th Legislative District, perhaps because they couldn’t find two registered Green Party members out of the hundred of so who live in our 24,000-square-mile district, which is twice the size of Maryland.
The Arizona Green Party has never been able to get more than 0.12% of the state’s voters, and after the November election, it will again be eliminated as an official party in the state for the umpteenth time.
(The percentage a party needs for permanent representation on the ballot will is 0.66667%, which the Libertarian Party has met for decades and which the fledgling No Labels Party, which actively discouraged registrants when it achieved temporary ballot status for the 2024 elections at the same time as the Green Party, which has approximately one-ninth the registered voters of the more than 1% that No Labels does.)
You would think the AZGP would face reality and engage in some self-reflection, but avoiding that is a trait they share with Donald Trump, an individual they have repeatedly called no worse, or perhaps better, than Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. I guess it’s the rest of us progressives and eco-socialists who are delusional.
Since I only need one vote to win the primary in July and join the lone Democratic candidate in LD7 as a progressive ticket for state representative in November, they must give me more reasons to not write myself in on the Green Party primary ballot. Good luck to them!