James Holmes

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

James Holmes

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

July 30, 2024

Personal

Birthplace

Arizona

Religion

Catholic

Profession

Transportation

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Twitter

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Personal Facebook

James Holmes (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Arizona House of Representatives to represent District 23. He lost in the Democratic primary on July 30, 2024.

Holmes completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

James Holmes was born in Arizona. His career experience includes working in transportation and as a real estate agent.

Elections

2024

See also: Arizona House of Representatives elections, 2024

General election

General election for Arizona House of Representatives District 23 (2 seats)

Incumbent Michele Pena and incumbent Mariana Sandoval defeated Matias Rosales in the general election for Arizona House of Representatives District 23 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Michele Pena (R)	34.2	37,967
✔		Mariana Sandoval (D)	33.6	37,375
	Submit photo	Matias Rosales (D)	32.2	35,788

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 111,130
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 23 (2 seats)

Incumbent Mariana Sandoval and Matias Rosales defeated James Holmes in the Democratic primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 23 on July 30, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Mariana Sandoval	48.6	9,194
✔	Submit photo	Matias Rosales	36.0	6,811
		James Holmes	15.4	2,919

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 18,924
= 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 23 (2 seats)

Incumbent Michele Pena advanced from the Republican primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 23 on July 30, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Michele Pena	100.0	9,597

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 9,597
= 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.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Holmes in this election.

2022

See also: Arizona's 8th Congressional District election, 2022

General election

General election for U.S. House Arizona District 8

Incumbent Debbie Lesko defeated Jeremy Spreitzer and Alixandria Guzman in the general election for U.S. House Arizona District 8 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Debbie Lesko (R)	96.5	197,555
		Jeremy Spreitzer (D) (Write-in)	2.5	5,145
	Submit photo	Alixandria Guzman (D) (Write-in)	1.0	2,013

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 204,713
= 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.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Richard Grayson (D)

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• James Holmes (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Arizona District 8

Incumbent Debbie Lesko advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Arizona District 8 on August 2, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Debbie Lesko	100.0	100,629

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 100,629
= 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.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Charly Corazon (R)

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

James Holmes completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Holmes' 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.

I’m a native Arizonan, proud graduate of local, public schools, and a father to one daughter and grandfather to twin two year olds. I’ve spent nearly forty years in the transportation and supply chain logistics fields, from being a Teamster’s Union trucker to working in management. Like a majority of Americans, I have lost faith in most of our elected officials. The “professional politicians” and “political elites” are too often more concerned with amassing power and increasing their personal wealth than they are with using common sense to solve the problems we all face. I chose to run for office to bring real, actionable solutions to fix the issues that everyday Americans worry about. While other candidates focus on getting as many endorsements as possible from the people they deemed important, I chose instead to knock on thousands of doors and meet every voter I could. We the People deserve to have our voices heard, and it is my intention to represent all of my constituents fairly and honestly.

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?

• Contrary to what others claim, there are steps that Arizona Legislators can take to secure our southern border, without waiting for the Federal Government to act. Administrations from both political parties have failed for decades, the time to act is now.
• Too many politicians aren’t honest with voters, and they underestimate our desire for real change. Arizona must take immediate steps to secure our water supply. This means being honest about how and why our supply is diminishing and how we can fix the problem. We cannot support the rapid growth, in the form of overbuilding and a massive influx of new residents. Bringing in new businesses and more people doesn’t stimulate our economy or lower inflation, rather it increases the burden not only on our water supply, but also our infrastructure, our schools, healthcare facilities and more.
• Our public schools are struggling. The diversion of nearly one billion dollars away fro public schools and towards for-profit schools in the form of vouchers, the continual budget cuts to schools, the reduction of revenue derived from corporations and the ultra wealthy must be addressed immediately.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Increased funding for Public Schools, protecting our water supply, and defending the rights of women and all Arizonans

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Honesty, a willingness to tell it like it is, even if the truth is unpopular. The courage to vote according to the wishes of the voters, not along Party lines.

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

For much of my career, across different fields, I have usually worked 50-70 hours per week. I also am very stubborn and I won’t give up when I have a goal.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

The willingness to represent all voters fairly, without regard to Party, and to work to represent all constituents.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I joined the circus and became a truck driver when I was eighteen.

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

Protecting our water and improving our education system, which currently ranks 49th in the country.

Do you believe that it’s beneficial for state legislators to have previous experience in government or politics?

It could be helpful in terms of a familiarity with processes, but I think we have too many state legislators that have lost touch with everyday Arizonans. You don’t have to have been elected or been involved in politics to have good ideas to solve problems.

Do you believe it’s beneficial to build relationships with other legislators? Please explain your answer.

It can be, if the relationship allows for the honest exchange of ideas and a willingness to work across Party lines.

Are you interested in running for a different political office (for example, the U.S. Congress or governor) in the future?

Only if I believed I could make a difference for the people in the district or state.

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

I strongly support full transparency regarding the state’s spending of taxpayer dollars.

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.

2022

James Holmes did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign finance summary

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Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

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James Holmes campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	Arizona House of Representatives District 23	Lost primary	$34,755	$30,475
2022	U.S. House Arizona District 8	Withdrew primary	$0	N/A**
Grand total			$34,755	$30,475
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only available data.

See also

2024 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 23

Website

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Personal

Facebook

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)