Democrats in the East Valley’s Legislative District 9 chose three candidates to replace state Sen. Eva Burch, who resigned earlier this month.
Burch won re-election to her second term in the Senate in 2024 out of LD9, a competitive district that covers parts of Mesa and Tempe.
Local Democrats in the district nominated former Maricopa County Schools Superintendent candidate Laura Metcalfe, past Mesa Public Schools board member Kiana Maria Sears and former Mesa Councilman Ryan Winkle to replace Burch.
All three candidates have sought public office in recent years.
Metcalfe, who serves on the board for the East Valley Institute of Technology, lost the race for Maricopa County superintendent to Republican Shelli Boggs last year.
Sears served on the Mesa school board for nine years from 2016 to 2025. She also unsuccessfully ran for the Arizona Corporation Commission in 2018 and lost to Republican Kyle Jones in a local Justice of Peace election last year.
Winkle was one of five candidates who ran for Mesa mayor last year but failed to advance to the general election after placing third in the city’s nonpartisan primary. Winkle’s mayoral bid came nearly eight years after he was removed from the Mesa City Council by his fellow members following a DUI arrest.
He is now the executive director at the Arizona Fair Housing Center.
The nominations will be sent to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which is responsible for naming Burch’s replacement.
