Akanni Oyegbola

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Akanni Oyegbola

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

August 2, 2022

Education

High school

Bowie High School

Bachelor's

Virginia Union University, 2004

Graduate

University of Maryland, 2008

Personal

Profession

Executive

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Instagram

Akanni Oyegbola (Democratic Party) (also known as Oye) ran for election to the Arizona House of Representatives to represent District 21. He lost in the Democratic primary on August 2, 2022.

Oyegbola completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Akanni Oyegbola earned a high school diploma from Bowie High School, a bachelor's degree from Virginia Union University in 2004, and a graduate degree from the University of Maryland in 2008. His career experience includes working as a executive.

Elections

2022

See also: Arizona House of Representatives elections, 2022

General election

General election for Arizona House of Representatives District 21 (2 seats)

Consuelo Hernandez and Stephanie Stahl Hamilton defeated Deborah McEwen and Damien Kennedy in the general election for Arizona House of Representatives District 21 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Consuelo Hernandez (D)	33.1	36,567
✔		Stephanie Stahl Hamilton (D)	30.1	33,231
		Deborah McEwen (R)	18.6	20,484
	Submit photo	Damien Kennedy (R)	18.2	20,125

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 110,407
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 21 (2 seats)

Consuelo Hernandez and Stephanie Stahl Hamilton defeated Akanni Oyegbola in the Democratic primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 21 on August 2, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Consuelo Hernandez	45.9	13,895
✔		Stephanie Stahl Hamilton	32.2	9,756
		Akanni Oyegbola	21.9	6,616

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 30,267
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 21 (2 seats)

Deborah McEwen and Damien Kennedy advanced from the Republican primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 21 on August 2, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Deborah McEwen (Write-in)	54.0	1,441
✔	Submit photo	Damien Kennedy (Write-in)	46.0	1,228

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 2,669
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Akanni Oyegbola completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Oyegbola's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Akanni has introspected about what is it about the House of Representative LD21 seat, the mission and the duties entailed within the seat that draw him to the position? Akanni feels that the opportunity to make an impact on small business support , community wellness, and Economic Development (e.g. tourism) as his main position. Furthermore, he chose to pursue the state seat for two other intimate reasons. The first being that, He wants to assist state residents with the challenges they face daily. Second, the benefit of seeing the big picture of juxtaposing creative outcome program ideas with state/local concerns. Akanni Oyegbola feels post modernism is key, so by proving his resilience and strength through the challenging circumstances in his life. The hardship that Akanni has faced has motivated him to advocate for mental health awareness as a core aspect of economic development. His commitment to social policy issues is most evident through his Community Wellness Festival. This annual event, brings about awareness of Health Inequalities by providing his under-served community with access to resources such as: dealing with health disparities, domestic violence, mental illness, depression, counseling, financial literacy, employment skill training, summer youth employment programs, S.T.E.M., small business workshops, legal aid, fair housing, nutrition, etc. He plans to continue to make an ethnically based positive impact in his local district.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Before I was a Arizona State candidate.…before I was voted as Acting Mayor of South Tucson City Council….I was a government intern studying Business Management and legislative policy. With six years of local government experience, I understand how state legislative policies preempt local municipalities.
• My personal connection to entrepreneurs and cities is why like so many of you, I want more done for small businesses. I am committed to making our community a better place to live and work. I am running because I believe the future of Arizona lies in the hands of 90 state representatives. I want the well being of my district to be sustainable through empowerment, economic development (e.g. tourism), health care, housing, mental health, financial literacy, livable wages, mobility, and environmental justice. I speak to residents frequently and what they want, is a representative who has faced challenges and understands the issues they face on a daily basis.
• My goal is simple: help people and communities prosper and create jobs. Focusing on policies that help not hinder the people served, employment, and business investment. I sincerely request your vote again and look forward to hearing your ideas. With your vote we change our future together!

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

We must provide more support to small business owners immediately. Improving housing availability and affordability comes from supporting efforts to allow more building of all kinds. It involves reviewing regulation that makes homes more expensive and slower to build. It also involves less restrictive zoning and rational allowances for rural construction rather than broad prohibitions. Increase the amount of long-term affordable rental housing, especially in high-opportunity communities.

Protect existing affordable rental housing from physical deterioration and financial insecurity.
Support affordable housing projects currently in the pipeline that face financial obstacles due to the pandemic.
Goal #1: Increase the supply of long-term affordable rental housing
Goal #2: Preserve the physical and financial viability of existing affordable rental housing
Goal #3: Shore up affordable housing deals in the pipeline

In Arizona, interest rates of medical debt can increase by as much as 10% per year, every year. Families can lose their homes, cars, or have their wages garnished by predatory debt collectors – even if they've done everything right.
The Predatory Debt Collection Protection Act fixes these problems by:
Protecting more assets from being sold to pay off debt collectors.
Ensuring hard-working Arizonans keep more of their bank accounts and wages.

Limiting the outrageous interest rates that trap families in an unending cycle of medical debt.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I will start with how well I do my job and work hard to provide real value to citizens. Day-to-day execution is key for me. I most work to strengthen accountability and transparency. Engage citizens in solving community and societal challenges.

Trust builds when people feel they are part of a community- or society-wide enterprise that takes their concerns and voices into account—particularly in circumstances where trust is low. I will work to strengthen social inclusion.

When people feel they’re blocked from opportunities because of their gender, race, age, ethnic or religious group, disability, or other reasons, it’s hard to expect them to trust an elected official they feel are marginalizing them. Reforms that give longstanding residents an opportunity to own land; access to banking, and finance, education, and skills training help many people overcome economic barriers. Lastly I should make a sincere effort to acknowledge the problem of social trust, and to take steps to improve their policies, practices, and rhetoric.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

Akanni Oyegbola was eighteen years old when he was finally told by his parents the details about many of his grandfather’s entrepreneurial accomplishments. He never met his grandfather. He only knew the face of a man in the picture above his father’s desk in his home office. He wondered to himself, what was his grandfather like? Does he have anything in common with him? As a first generation Nigerian American kid growing up in Washington D.C., working in the family business was instilled in Akanni as part of the Yoruba culture from a very young age. While working in his family’s business with his five sisters, he was inundated with why it was important to work hard, immerse himself with local politics, and get an advanced education. Akanni remembers vividly his father Dr. Oyegbola explaining the importance of local elections and how they affect the community’s day- to-day lives. To Akanni it made sense, both his parents came to the United States (U.S.) from Nigeria in the late 1950’s to get advanced degrees. His parents wanted to reside in what was only a dream to many outside of the U.S. His parents used their understanding of the immigration system to help and give hope to other families from Nigeria who had a vison of coming to the U.S. to pursue the American dream as well.

With a passion of following the path laid before him, Akanni Oyegbola’s academic and professional background mirrors what he grew up learning first hand, business. The fire was now fully lit. His undergraduate course work was strategically tailored to all the essential business skills a young professional needs. As a Business Management major, he was able to tie-in structure and creativity. Several of his courses included: Project Management, Sociology, Entrepreneurship, Accounting, Statistics, Marketing, Psychology, and Policy. Once he completed his Bachelor degree, He moved on towards his Master’s degree in business. His master’s degree helped him to focus on the managerial side of busine

What is your favorite book? Why?

Scaling Up by Verne Harnish
This business book details practical tools and techniques for building an industry-dominating business. This book is written so everyone ― from frontline employees to senior executives ― can get aligned in contributing to the growth of a firm. Scaling Up focuses on the four major decision areas every company must get right: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash.

What do you perceive to be your state's greatest challenges over the next decade?

One of the most important issues for the Arizona and the LD21 district is water availability and being more deeply involved in this issue. Over the next two to four years, the state of Arizona should be instrumental in ensuring that an action plan is created. The legislator should pass legislation and develop regulations that will accelerate the implementation of both non-potable and potable reuse of water here in Arizona for short term goals. Lastly, the depth and breadth of advancing water reuse to meet local demand for water by proposed actions that will more than double the use of water recycling in Arizona, and help prepare the state for the impacts of climate change.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

See also

2022 Elections

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Government

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Newsletters

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External links

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Candidate

Arizona House of Representatives District 21

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Footnotes

[show]

Current members of the Arizona House of Representatives

Leadership

Speaker of the House:Steve Montenegro

Majority Leader:Michael Carbone

Minority Leader:Oscar De Los Santos

Representatives

District 1

Selina Bliss (R)

Quang Nguyen (R)

District 2

Stephanie Simacek (D)

Justin Wilmeth (R)

District 3

Joseph Chaplik (R)

Alexander Kolodin (R)

District 4

Pamela Carter (R)

Matt Gress (R)

District 5

Sarah Liguori (D)

Aaron Marquez (D)

District 6

Mae Peshlakai (D)

Myron Tsosie (D)

District 7

Walter Blackman (R)

David Marshall (R)

District 8

Janeen Connolly (D)

Brian Garcia (D)

District 9

Lorena Austin (D)

Seth Blattman (D)

District 10

Ralph Heap (R)

Justin Olson (R)

District 11

Junelle Cavero (D)

Oscar De Los Santos (D)

District 12

Patricia Contreras (D)

Anastasia Travers (D)

District 13

Jeff Weninger (R)

Julie Willoughby (R)

District 14

Laurin Hendrix (R)

Khyl Powell (R)

District 15

Neal Carter (R)

Michael Way (R)

District 16

Chris Lopez (R)

Teresa Martinez (R)

District 17

Rachel Keshel (R)

Kevin Volk (D)

District 18

Nancy Gutierrez (D)

Christopher Mathis (D)

District 19

Lupe Diaz (R)

Gail Griffin (R)

District 20

Alma Hernandez (D)

Betty Villegas (D)

District 21

Consuelo Hernandez (D)

Stephanie Stahl Hamilton (D)

District 22

Lupe Contreras (D)

Elda Luna-Nájera (D)

District 23

Michele Pena (R)

Mariana Sandoval (D)

District 24

Anna Abeytia (D)

Lydia Hernandez (D)

District 25

Michael Carbone (R)

Nick Kupper (R)

District 26

Cesar Aguilar (D)

Quantá Crews (D)

District 27

Lisa Fink (R)

Tony Rivero (R)

District 28

David Livingston (R)

Beverly Pingerelli (R)

District 29

Steve Montenegro (R)

James Taylor (R)

District 30

Leo Biasiucci (R)

John Gillette (R)

Republican Party (33)

Democratic Party (27)