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Kiana Sears

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Kiana Sears
Image of Kiana Sears
Arizona State Senate District 9
Tenure

2025 - Present

Term ends

2027

Years in position

0

Predecessor
Prior offices
Mesa Public Schools Governing Board At-large

Compensation

Base salary

$24,000/year

Per diem

$35/day

Elections and appointments
Last election

November 5, 2024

Appointed

March 26, 2025

Education

Bachelor's

Interpersonal and intercultural communication, Arizona State University

Graduate

Public administration, Arizona State University

Personal
Profession
Corporate Relations Executive with the Valley of the Sun United Way
Contact

Kiana Sears (Democratic Party) is a member of the Arizona State Senate, representing District 9. She assumed office on March 31, 2025. Her current term ends on January 11, 2027.

Sears (Democratic Party) ran for election for the North Mesa Precinct judge of the Maricopa County Justice Court in Arizona. She lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Maricopa County Board of Supervisors appointed Sears to Arizona State Senate District 9 on March 26, 2025 to replace Eva Burch (D).[1]

Elections

2024

See also: Municipal elections in Maricopa County, Arizona (2024)

General election

General election for Maricopa County Justice of the Peace North Mesa Precinct

Incumbent Kyle Jones defeated Kiana Sears in the general election for Maricopa County Justice of the Peace North Mesa Precinct on November 5, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Kyle Jones (R)
 
57.7
 
29,770
Image of Kiana Sears
Kiana Sears (D)
 
42.2
 
21,741
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.1
 
52

Total votes: 51,563
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Maricopa County Justice of the Peace North Mesa Precinct

Kiana Sears advanced from the Democratic primary for Maricopa County Justice of the Peace North Mesa Precinct on July 30, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Kiana Sears
Kiana Sears
 
99.6
 
6,045
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.4
 
24

Total votes: 6,069
Candidate Connection = 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 Maricopa County Justice of the Peace North Mesa Precinct

Incumbent Kyle Jones advanced from the Republican primary for Maricopa County Justice of the Peace North Mesa Precinct on July 30, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Kyle Jones
 
99.4
 
10,861
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.6
 
61

Total votes: 10,922
Candidate Connection = 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.

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Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Sears in this election.

2020

See also: Mesa Public Schools, Arizona, elections (2020)

General election

General election for Mesa Public Schools Governing Board At-large (3 seats)

The following candidates ran in the general election for Mesa Public Schools Governing Board At-large on November 3, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
Lara Salmon Ellingson (Nonpartisan)
 
18.8
 
77,014
Image of Kiana Sears
Kiana Sears (Nonpartisan)
 
18.2
 
74,830
Joe O'Reilly (Nonpartisan)
 
17.2
 
70,788
Cara Schnepf Steiner (Nonpartisan)
 
16.8
 
68,914
Vikki Johnson (Nonpartisan)
 
14.3
 
58,864
Image of Rich Crandall
Rich Crandall (Nonpartisan)
 
14.3
 
58,618
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.4
 
1,594

Total votes: 410,622
Candidate Connection = 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.

2018

See also: Arizona Corporation Commission election, 2018

Neil DeSanti (R) ran as a write-in candidate.

General election

General election for Arizona Corporation Commission (2 seats)

Sandra D. Kennedy and incumbent Justin Olson defeated Rodney Glassman and Kiana Sears in the general election for Arizona Corporation Commission on November 6, 2018.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Sandra D. Kennedy
Sandra D. Kennedy (D)
 
25.7
 
1,076,800
Image of Justin Olson
Justin Olson (R)
 
25.2
 
1,053,862
Image of Rodney Glassman
Rodney Glassman (R)
 
25.1
 
1,049,394
Image of Kiana Sears
Kiana Sears (D)
 
24.0
 
1,006,654
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.0
 
232

Total votes: 4,186,942
Candidate Connection = 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.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Arizona Corporation Commission (2 seats)

Sandra D. Kennedy and Kiana Sears defeated William Mundell in the Democratic primary for Arizona Corporation Commission on August 28, 2018.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Sandra D. Kennedy
Sandra D. Kennedy
 
45.1
 
351,561
Image of Kiana Sears
Kiana Sears
 
28.1
 
219,011
Image of William Mundell
William Mundell
 
26.8
 
208,941

Total votes: 779,513
(100.00% precincts reporting)
Candidate Connection = 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 Corporation Commission (2 seats)

Incumbent Justin Olson and Rodney Glassman defeated James O'Connor, incumbent Tom Forese, and Eric Sloan in the Republican primary for Arizona Corporation Commission on August 28, 2018.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Justin Olson
Justin Olson
 
25.2
 
240,825
Image of Rodney Glassman
Rodney Glassman
 
22.8
 
218,130
Image of James O'Connor
James O'Connor
 
21.6
 
206,929
Image of Tom Forese
Tom Forese
 
15.9
 
152,395
Eric Sloan
 
14.4
 
138,051

Total votes: 956,330
(100.00% precincts reporting)
Candidate Connection = 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.

2016

See also: Mesa Public Schools elections (2016)

Three of the five seats on the Mesa Public Schools school board were up for at-large general election on November 8, 2016. Incumbents Steven Peterson and Michael Nichols filed for re-election and were joined on the ballot by three newcomers: Kiana Sears, Dan Hink, and Elaine Miner. Peterson won re-election and was joined in his victory by Miner and Sears.[2][3]

Results

Mesa Public Schools,
At-Large General Election, 4-year terms, 2016
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Elaine Miner 24.85% 63,990
Green check mark transparent.png Kiana Sears 20.66% 53,179
Green check mark transparent.png Steven Peterson Incumbent 20.14% 51,865
Michael Nichols Incumbent 17.26% 44,438
Dan Hink 17.09% 43,987
Total Votes (100) 257,459
Source: Maricopa County Recorder, "Final Results," accessed December 7, 2016

Funding

See also: List of school board campaign finance deadlines in 2016
Campaign Finance Ballotpedia.png

School board candidates in Arizona were not required to file a campaign finance report if they did not raise or spend more than $500. If they planned to stay under this threshold, they were permitted to file an exemption statement. This rendered them exempt from all other campaign finance reporting, provided they did not exceed the $500 threshold. Otherwise, candidates were not required to file any report until they raised or spent more than the threshold limit. At that point, they had to file a Statement of Organization within five business days from when the threshold was reached. The pre-general campaign finance report was due November 4, 2016. All campaign finance filing was handled by the Arizona Secretary of State.[4]

Endorsements

Sears was endorsed by the Mesa Education Association.[5]

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Kiana Sears did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

2020

Kiana Sears did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

Scorecards

See also: State legislative scorecards and State legislative scorecards in Arizona

A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.

Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.

Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Arizona scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.










See also


External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Eva Burch (D)
Arizona State Senate District 9
2025-Present
Succeeded by
-
Preceded by
-
Mesa Public Schools Governing Board At-large
2016-2025
Succeeded by
-

Footnotes


Current members of the Arizona State Senate
Leadership
Senate President:Warren Petersen
Majority Leader:Janae Shamp
Minority Leader:Priya Sundareshan
Senators
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
District 5
District 6
District 7
District 8
District 9
District 10
District 11
District 12
District 13
District 14
District 15
District 16
District 17
District 18
District 19
District 20
District 21
District 22
Eva Diaz (D)
District 23
District 24
District 25
Tim Dunn (R)
District 26
District 27
District 28
District 29
District 30
Republican Party (17)
Democratic Party (13)