Ballot Math / Arizona Legislature / LD1
Candidate races: Arizona Legislature, District 1

LD1: a safe Republican district centered on Prescott, not Phoenix

November 3, 2026 general election. District 1 is not in Maricopa County at all: it covers most of Yavapai County, including Prescott, Prescott Valley, and Chino Valley, plus one Coconino County precinct covering Sedona, about 237,896 people. Registration: 51.32 percent Republican, 18.84 percent Democratic, 29.84 percent other (2026 general election guide). The Independent Redistricting Commission rated the district outside the competitive range, with a composite Republican advantage of about 27.78 points, and the 2024 presidential vote inside the district went Republican by 33.2 points. No forecaster publishes a rating for these specific races.

State Senate: Finchem vs. Dargon

The structural fact: this is a contested race on paper and a longshot in practice. Sen. Mark Finchem won this seat in 2024 with 65.91 percent of the vote, and he was unopposed in the 2026 Republican primary. His Democratic opponent raised $100 in the finance reports published as of March 2026. Both parties fielded a candidate, so the seat is not uncontested, but no source we found treats the outcome as in doubt.

Mark Finchem (Republican, incumbent)

State senator since January 2025, after defeating incumbent Sen. Ken Bennett in the 2024 Republican primary and winning the general election 65.91 to 34.09 percent over Democrat Mike Fogel. Before that, state representative for the old District 11 from 2015 to 2023, and the Republican nominee for secretary of state in 2022, when he lost to Adrian Fontes by more than 120,000 votes. Born in Detroit in 1957. Education: associate degree in criminal justice from Kalamazoo Valley Community College, bachelor's from Grand Canyon University, and a Master of Legal Studies from the University of Arizona. Longtime real estate broker, and chief executive of the Election Fairness Institute since 2022. Senate committees, per Vote Smart: Appropriations, Judiciary and Elections, Rules, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, and the Joint Committee on Capital Review.

Key votes (verified individually via Vote Smart and the Freedom Index):

  • HCR 2001 (2026), the voter ID referral that became Prop 144: YES.
  • HB 2133 (2026), age and consent verification for sexual material published online: YES (conference report). HB 2223 (2026), disclosure when a registered sex offender requests a legal name change: YES.
  • SB 1055 (2026), requiring state law enforcement to notify federal immigration enforcement when a person without legal status is arrested: YES. SB 1520 (2026), requiring state law enforcement to share information with the federal government on request: YES. SB 1635 (2026), prohibiting individuals from alerting others to law enforcement activity: YES.
  • HB 2017 (2025), restricting voting centers and capping precinct size: YES. SB 1012 (2026), repealing the ban on concealed carry in restaurants: YES.

Stated priorities: election law is his signature issue, and the Arizona Republic describes him as one of the state's leading voices promoting unproven election fraud conspiracy theories. His Senate work has centered on voter ID, limits on voting centers, immigration enforcement cooperation, and Second Amendment bills. Scorecards, attributed: Freedom Index 2025 to 2026 session score of 75 to 77 percent; Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter rating of 0 percent; NFIB Arizona rating of 100 percent with an endorsement, and a 2026 endorsement from the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry (all via Vote Smart).

Money: as of his March 2026 campaign finance reports, raised $139,675, spent $113,823, $37,467 on hand. That date is part of the fact: no later figure was retrieved, and his totals will have changed since.

Controversies, with his responses: Finchem challenged his 2022 secretary of state loss in court. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Julian dismissed the case as groundless, found it was pursued in bad faith, and ordered Finchem to pay $40,272 of Fontes's attorney fees plus $385 in costs as sanctions; his attorney was ordered to pay $7,434 of then Secretary of State Katie Hobbs's fees. Finchem responded that "there is no provision in contest law for a judge to award sanctions. Hard stop," and criticized the judge. A separate 2022 lawsuit Finchem filed with Kari Lake seeking to ban electronic voting machines was dismissed, and the judge ordered their lawyers to pay $122,200 in sanctions. Finchem was present in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, and says he did not enter the Capitol. He declared membership in the Oath Keepers in a 2014 candidate questionnaire. Those are the documented episodes; his defense, in his own telling, is that he was asserting his rights and challenging unreliable election systems.

Christine Dargon (Democrat)

Psychologist and educator from Rimrock, in the Verde Valley. Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Seton Hall University, a master's in criminal justice from Grand Canyon University, a master's in education from Fordham University, and a bachelor's in psychology and sociology from the University of Connecticut. About 30 years in education and social service, including adjunct teaching. Owner of Emerald Waves Healing, a wellness business with locations in Rimrock and the Sedona area, founded in 2018, which she runs on sliding scale pricing. She moved to Arizona in 2010. First time candidate for the Legislature; she won the Democratic primary unopposed with 17,722 votes.
  • Stated priorities, from her Blog for Arizona interview: fully fund public education; housing affordability; water security; common sense gun laws; and saving rural health care. Her campaign slogan is "Unleash Arizona's Potential," and she describes her approach as pragmatic and progressive, with an emphasis on listening to constituents across the district, from Prescott and Sedona to Seligman and Baghdad.
  • Endorsements, attributed: Sierra Club, Arizona AFL-CIO, Communications Workers of America, and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona (Arizona Republic); also Arizona List, AFSCME, and Arizona College Democrats (Civoren candidate listing). She declined to answer the Arizona Voter Guide survey, per that guide.
  • Money: as of March 2026 campaign finance reports published via See the Money, raised $100, spent $128, $2,150 on hand. The cash on hand figure is larger than the amount raised in the same table, which suggests carryover or a loan the table does not itemize; see verification notes. No later total was located.
  • Controversies: none found.

State House: two seats, three candidates, one Democrat

How this race works: vote for up to two. Democrats fielded only one candidate, Sandy Zalecki, so she cannot take both seats, and at least one Republican is guaranteed a seat if the two Republican incumbents simply finish in the top two, which is what happened in 2024: Selina Bliss took 88,691 votes and Quang Nguyen 87,726, against 44,199 and 40,911 for the two Democrats. Zalecki's path is to outpoll one incumbent. There are no official write-ins in this race that we could verify.

Quang Nguyen (Republican, incumbent)

State representative since January 2021, first from the old District 1 and then the redrawn District 1; chairman of the House Judiciary Committee since 2023. He arrived in the United States as a refugee from Vietnam as a teenager, lives in Prescott Valley with his wife, Mai, and owns an advertising business. In the 2026 Republican primary he finished second of two advancing candidates with 33,231 votes, just behind his seatmate; a third Republican, Shawn Dell Wildman, was eliminated.

Record and key votes (verified individually via Vote Smart):

  • HB 2133 (2026), age and consent verification for sexual material online: YES (conference report). HB 2112 (2025), requiring commercial pornography websites to verify a user's age: YES, and a co-sponsor.
  • SB 1025 (2025), authorizing the state treasury and retirement system to invest up to 10 percent of funds in Bitcoin: NO. His seatmate voted yes on the same bill; see her entry.
  • SB 1462 (2025), prohibiting and criminalizing deep fake pornography: YES.

His own bills: a 2026 bill signed by Gov. Hobbs allowing convicted speeders to install speed limiting devices in their vehicles instead of having their driving privileges suspended, and the 2022 law requiring Arizona high school students to study the problems of communism. The Arizona Republic describes him as a Second Amendment advocate who often takes tough on crime positions. In the Arizona Voter Guide survey he supported expanded border enforcement, keeping the universal Empowerment Scholarship Account program, stronger voter ID and ballot security, and a referral to repeal Proposition 139, the constitutional right to abortion, and opposed new firearm restrictions, adding sexual orientation and gender identity to nondiscrimination law, physician assisted suicide, and expanded recreational marijuana.

Money: no 2026 cycle total located in the sources retrieved; see verification notes. Controversies: none of significance found in the coverage retrieved.

Selina Bliss (Republican, incumbent)

State representative since January 2023. Registered nurse from Prescott who also teaches nursing at Yavapai College. In the 2026 Republican primary she finished first with 33,391 votes. The Arizona Technology Council endorsed her for 2026, as it did Nguyen.

Her bills tell the story: a 2025 law, signed by Gov. Hobbs, clamping down on marijuana packaging made to appeal to children; a 2026 bill signed by Hobbs toughening penalties for soliciting a prostitute while allowing trafficking victims to have their criminal records sealed; and the referral her Republican colleagues placed on the November 2026 ballot asking voters whether to ban transgender athletes from competitive school and intramural sports, which is Prop 318, covered on its own page. She has also carried, for several sessions, a bill to install a statue honoring Don Bolles, the Arizona Republic journalist murdered in 1976; it passed the House and stalled in the Senate, per State Affairs.

Key votes (verified individually via Vote Smart): SB 1025 (2025, state Bitcoin investment): YES, opposite her seatmate. SB 1373 (2025, strategic digital assets reserve): YES. SB 1268 (2025, requiring hospitals to question patients on legal status): YES. HB 2099 (2025, requiring government employees to enforce and cooperate with immigration orders): YES.

Money: no 2026 cycle total located in the sources retrieved; see verification notes. Controversies: none of significance found.

Sandy Zalecki (Democrat)

Air Force veteran from Prescott, a Bible study facilitator who describes herself as a "non-MAGA Christian." She is a mother and grandmother. She won the Democratic primary unopposed with 17,459 votes. She is the only Democrat on the ballot for two seats.
  • Stated priorities, from her campaign site: she presents herself as pro free speech, pro free religion, pro choice, and pro education. On housing she supports Gov. Hobbs's affordability plan, including the Arizona Affordability Fund and Housing Acceleration Fund, plus limiting corporate purchasing of housing, rent control, and rent subsidies. On veterans, she supports property tax exemptions for veterans. On elections, one of her first bills would require every candidate to run as a Clean Elections candidate, taking PAC and corporate money out of campaigns.
  • Money: no campaign finance totals located. Controversies: none found. She did not return the Arizona Voter Guide survey, per that guide, which lists her campaign contact instead.

Verification notes

  • District 1 contains no part of Maricopa County. It is included in this expansion because the assignment covered legislative districts 1 through 3; voters in Maricopa County will not see these races on their ballots, and voters in Yavapai and the Sedona precinct of Coconino County will.
  • Money is the weak point of this page. Senate figures come from the March 2026 reports compiled by See the Money and republished on Wikipedia; no later totals and no House cycle totals were located as of October 27, 2026. Dargon's March table is internally odd (cash on hand above the amount raised) and is printed as reported.
  • Key votes are limited to votes verified at name level through Vote Smart or the Freedom Index. The Finchem vote list is the deepest on this page because those sources publish his individual record; Bliss and Nguyen each have four verified votes printed, and tempting party line votes without name level sources were deliberately not added.
  • Registration figures are from the 2026 Arizona General Election Guide and differ slightly from the older Secretary of State figures carried on Wikipedia's district page (51.52 percent Republican, 18.39 percent Democratic there). Both are printed in the sources list; the guide's newer figures are used in the profile.
  • No source found gives a forecaster rating for these specific LD1 races, and no official write-in candidates for LD1 were listed in the sources checked.

How to vote without getting your ballot rejected

  • Mail it by Tuesday, October 27, 2026. After that day, do not mail it: use a drop box or a vote center instead.
  • It must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3. Postmarks do not count.
  • Sign and date the affidavit envelope, and write a current phone number on it.
  • For write-ins: only votes for officially filed write-in candidates are counted. No official write-in candidates for the LD1 Senate or House races were listed in the sources checked for this page. Write the name exactly and fill the oval if you use the line.
  • Leaving any item blank is allowed. It does not affect the rest of your ballot.

Sources

Ballot Math: analysis only, no endorsements. Same template as every race on this site: offices and record, key votes, money with dates, stated priorities, controversies with responses, and gaps admitted in the open.