There’s something downright biblical about the fact that for 60 years, Republicans have controlled the Arizona House of Representatives.
During those six decades, House Democrats have been left to wander the political desert, so to speak, wailing in outrage during floor speeches, crying “injustice!” and filing bills doomed to rot in oblivion — a phenomenon that’s become even more commonplace in recent years.
But now, the taste of power is tantalizingly close to Dems’ collective tongue.
Sure, it is a bit premature to suggest that November will bring a Democratic majority in the state House.
After all, “flip the House” was a steady mantra for local Dems from 2019 to 2024, the six years during which Republicans held on to a narrow 31-to-29 majority. Yet, Republicans actually expanded their majority in the last election.
But indulge us as we entertain this thought exercise.
If it really happens… if the walls of Jericho really do come tumbling down and Democrats — at long last — wrest back control of the House…
Who will they choose to be speaker?
As it stands, it’s looking very likely that it would be a 33-year-old guy from Los Angeles.1
Though he only took office for the first time in 2023, Democratic Rep. Oscar De Los Santos — like a mirage — appeared suddenly at the top echelons of party power when he became House minority leader in 2025.
Oscar De Los Santos
So, is this guy the real deal? If House Democrats take power, is there anyone who’s going to challenge him? Who is he really, and what do his fellow caucus members think of him?
These are some of the burning questions for which we sought answers in our closer examination of the man who could very well be Arizona’s next speaker of the House.
Born to immigrant laborers from Mexico, De Los Santos already has a résumé rife with academic accolades. He holds:
A bachelor’s degree from USC, where he was a Truman scholar
A master’s in public policy from the University of Oxford — which he attended as a Rhodes scholar
Another master’s degree in Christian social ethics from the progressive Union Theological Seminary in New York City
And a JD from Yale Law School
So what makes a young man from L.A. with a distinguished pedigree and a bright future decide to set his sights on running for office from South Phoenix?
The answer, keeping in line with our biblical theme, is evidently a conversation with the liberal messiah — none other than former President Barack Obama.
“At age 18, Oscar served as the youngest field organizer for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, where he organized thousands of homeless and immigrant voters,” reads a bio on the website of a fellowship program De Los Santos participated in. “In recognition of his work, Oscar was invited to a private dinner with President Obama, where the president urged him to cross the Colorado River and join the movement to build a more democratic Arizona.”
And if that story of how De Los Santos came to Arizona sounds too good to be true, we’d like to add that the fellowship was funded by Paul and Daisy Soros, and that it paid for De Los Santos to get that JD from Yale Law school.
Somewhere, a (formerly) MSNBC binge-viewer is freaking out and frantically googling how to donate wads of cash to De Los Santos while screaming at their cat, “See! We need smart people making our laws!”
If we didn’t know any better, we might think this guy was cooked up in a Soros lab.
And did we mention that he’s gay, which would make him the first openly LGBTQ person to wield the speaker’s gavel?
With Democrats potentially on the brink of control in the House — which, many sources confirmed, De Los Santos is working laboriously with the Arizona Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee to make happen — the possibility of a Speaker De Los Santos is very real.
The process determining how a majority party picks its leadership happens quickly — right after the election, typically.
And, based on about a dozen conversations we had with Democratic lawmakers and shoo-in candidates who shared candid thoughts about De Los Santos and the caucus on the condition of anonymity, here’s what has become evident:
De Los Santos has solid support from a number of loyal members who see him as a competent leader
There will absolutely be challengers jockeying for the gavel
Some members expressed tepid criticism of De Los Santos’ leadership style — but even they had to admit that he was “alright” or “fine”
There isn’t any substantial energy or support coalescing around any specific challengers
A few names have been thrown out. Democratic Reps. Janeen Connolly and Cesar Aguilar are rumored to be mulling a run if Dems are in power, but neither had anything substantive to say to us about the matter.
Without a particularly adamant opposition campaign, it’s hard to picture another Democrat becoming speaker before De Los Santos.
“I would put him in the category of a good leader,” one Democratic lawmaker told us. "I’ve watched him grow during his time at the Capitol, year after year, taking on more and more responsibility and stepping up to the challenge.”
Through the years, De Los Santos — almost always dressed fastidiously in a suit and tie — has oscillated between two modalities of style: a more buttoned-up, old-school politician persona and a pugnacious progressive fighter.
Before he was in leadership, De Los Santos’ most well-known moment was probably when he faced an ethics complaint — along with progressive then-Rep. Analise Ortiz — for screaming “shame!” and “blood on your hands!” at Republican lawmakers who blocked the repeal of Arizona’s zombie 1864 abortion law, then confronted Republican Rep. Matt Gress and called him a liar.
A GOP-led ethics panel found that the two engaged in “disorderly, inappropriate, and disruptive behavior unbecoming of an elected official” for leading the chants.
The rage from the young lawmakers reflected a major concern among moderate and independent voters, and it was an election year. A few Republicans eventually changed their vote on the abortion bill and sent the repeal to Gov. Katie Hobbs. But the dramatic confrontation led to De Los Santos being stripped of committee assignments by GOP leadership.
While that propensity toward getting feisty has certainly diminished since he’s been in leadership, De Los Santos still doesn’t shy away from a fight.
In June, during the waning hours of this year’s legislative session, he stood up to a very testy and physically much larger Republican Rep. Neal Carter, who looked like he was about to square up against De Los Santos.
As that incident shows, he’s still wont to do something that ruffles Republicans’ feathers and sparks some degree of controversy.
For a member of the minority party, it’s really the only way to make an impact on the process — though that would change with the practical power of being in the majority.
But in this election cycle, De Los Santos is on a mission — one bestowed upon him by the prophet Barack — to flip the Legislature. He told us it’s “the first thing I think about when I wake up, and the last thing I think about before going to bed.”
In fact, he didn’t want to answer any questions that weren’t about that.
“Right now, I just want all of my public comments and time and effort to be about flipping the Legislature and less about future governance,” he said.
That’s the kind of precise calculation that sums him up pretty well, actually.
But he’s talked about future governance on the campaign trail.
Even as he told us in April that Republicans’ legislative tactics and refusal to hear Democratic bills were “fucked up,” he’s taking the high road on the campaign trail, a la Obama.
“I think it is, frankly, shameful that the Republicans have killed very good ideas — some of which, by the way, they even agree with — simply because a Democrat introduced it,” De Los Santos said in a Clean Elections debate last month. “I don’t believe that is a good way to operate. I don’t think that’s how Democrats should operate when we’re in the majority.”
Alongside Senate Democratic leader Priya Sundareshan, he’s co-chair of the Arizona Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (ADLCC), the campaign arm for Capitol Dems.
Sara Kennedy, the executive director of the ADLCC, lauded De Los Santos for raising the most funds of any member for battleground candidates — more than $100,000 — and for committing so much time to calling voters and knocking doors on behalf of those candidates.
“They see that, you know, there is a leader out there advocating for them and a Democratic majority,” Kennedy said. “He knows that he’s a strong advocate to be able to talk about why the Legislature is so important in these targeted districts, but also, talk about the legitimacy of all our candidates.”
And plenty of Democratic members have taken note of his efforts, too.
“Co-chair is not just a ceremonial title. It has come with real work and responsibility throughout,” a second anonymous Democratic lawmaker told us in response to a question about whether they’d support him as speaker. “That is a massive factor for me. Because there are people who are working tens of hours per week to win races.”
But more than his work on the campaign trail, De Los Santos’ leadership in the Democratic Caucus down at the Capitol will likely be the key factor — especially when it comes to the budget, a production in which he played a supportive role as Hobbs’ staff and GOP lawmakers went back and forth over its major and minor details.
“He’s very meticulous — very organized and structured. That kind of precision has been why we’ve been able to get two good budgets with a majority of Democrats on it,” a third Democratic lawmaker, who is also in leadership, told us. “We’ve started that early, like as early as late January, and we’ve polled our members regularly so everybody knows the steps and the process.”
But, to be sure, there are differing perspectives from within the caucus about his ability as a negotiator.
One lawmaker said they weren’t sure if De Los Santos was bold enough to challenge the governor when it comes to issues dividing the executive and legislative branches.
And another Democrat said that De Los Santos helped negotiate the budget deal with GOP leadership without securing a deal to prevent more of Republicans’ referrals from making it to the ballot, which they called a “rookie move” that allowed Democrats’ leverage to evaporate.
They also were critical of De Los Santos’ ability to back up his fellow Democrats, citing another heated moment when Arizona Education Association President Marisol Garcia was “bullying” lawmakers into supporting the infamous school voucher reform bargain that never was.
“He did not speak up,” a fourth Democratic lawmaker told us. “The way that some members view him is that he is self serving and just wants to uplift himself.”
Even so, the lawmaker said they appreciated “everything he has done” to help fundraise and knock doors for the ADLCC.
And that’s kind of the reigning sentiment in the leadership discussion — there isn’t an anti-De Los Santos force mobilizing at this time.
“(If he faced opposition) it would come from some folks who maybe want to see themselves in those roles versus, like, opposition driven just by consensus,” a fifth Democratic lawmaker told us.
Until a few hours after the polls close on Election Day, all of this is just a thought — and Republicans could still maintain control of the House.
Or, there could even be a split chamber, which would make choosing a speaker a messy, even more uncertain process.
Who knows? And a lot of Democrats don’t want to talk about the leadership vote at all — even those who have been rumored to be considering challenging De Los Santos, like Connolly.
“We can have this conversation on November 3 around 8:30 p.m.,” she told us.
1 He’ll turn 33 on November 11, just a few days after the election.