Former lawmaker Diego Rodriguez suspends campaign for attorney general
Former state senator Diego Rodriguez has suspended his campaign to be the Democratic nominee for Arizona attorney general, leaving Kris Mayes as the lone Democrat in the race.
Mayes, an attorney, is a former member of the Arizona Corporation Commission.
Rodriguez announced his campaign's suspension in an email Friday.
"I dedicated my career as an attorney and my time as a legislator to the idea that values such as Equity, Justice, Integrity, and Compassion must be part of the foundation of our democracy. Now, I will move on to a new challenge to uplift those values with the goal of building stronger and better government at all levels," he wrote.
He plans to launch a Phoenix-based nonprofit to address how communities can better advocate for changes in public policy and the types of candidates who run for office.
"I want to make sure that the people of Arizona understand very clearly where we are at right now and how we got here... I don't think very many people fully realize just how organized the efforts are when it comes to some of these culture war issues that we're constantly dealing with and what it's going to take to get past this," he told The Arizona Republic.
The move comes against the backdrop of the April 4 candidate filing deadline.
Rodriguez did not explain why he was suspending his campaign. But he had raised the least amount of money of all the attorney general candidates, with $47,000 on hand by the end of last year. Mayes, in contrast, had raised $364,000 in 2021.
New campaign finance figures will be reported later this month.
In a statement to The Republic, Mayes said, "I’d like to thank Diego Rodriguez. Running for office is a major sacrifice, and Diego not only put himself out there, he brought an important and substantive perspective to the race."
A third Democratic contender for attorney general, Robert McWhirter, dropped out after the Jan.15 deadline to disclose 2021 fundraising totals to the secretary of state.
While the Democratic contest may be decided, the Republican battle for attorney general nominee is far from over.
Attorney Rodney Glassman; former Arizona Supreme Court Justice Andrew Gould; former Maricopa County prosecutor Abe Hamadeh; former U.S. Attorney’s Office border security section chief Lacy Cooper; Karsten Manufacturing corporate counsel Dawn Grove; and Eloy lawyer Tiffany Shedd are all running in the primary election Aug. 2.
Tara Kavaler is a politics reporter at The Arizona Republic. She can be reached by email at tara.kavaler@arizonarepublic.com or on Twitter @kavalertara.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Former lawmaker Diego Rodriguez suspends Arizona attorney general run
