Meet the Hernandi
In the Arizona Legislature, two sisters represent two deep blue districts: Alma Hernandez in LD20, and Consuelo Hernandez in LD21. And while they like to style themselves as the most effective Democrats at passing bills, they have a disturbing track record of sponsoring and supporting legislation to advance Project 2025 priorities — like cutting permanent supportive housing, censoring LGBTQ+ content online, and criminalizing pro-Palestinian protestors on college campuses.
Here are the receipts!
2026 Bills & Votes
- HB2175 — Arizona already has laws that consider malice based on identity as an aggravating factor in the sentencing of crimes. This bill would essentially make it more specific, imposing sentencing enhancements for a range of felonies when there is malice toward the victim as a member of a protected group. That list includes race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, antisemitism and disability. To that list, the bill also adds “political affiliation,” an undefined term that could be used to justify enhanced sentences for protestors. On March 2, in the Committee of the Whole, Representative Brian Garcia proposed an amendment to remove that language and to add gender identity as a protected group instead. In a roll call vote on Rep. Garcia’s amendment, Consuelo voted no: against protections for trans people and in favor of a law designed to crack down on political speech.
- HB2720 — the story of this bill, as its proponents tell it, is that it was designed carefully to protect victims of sex trafficking by replacing “prostitution” in statute with two new definitions for engaging in sex for a fee and paying for the sex. Separating buyers from sellers when it comes to criminal penalties is the key feature of the Nordic model, an imperfect but well-established system that fully decriminalizes the sale, but maintains criminal penalties for the purchase of sex. HB2720, on the other hand, maintains the existing criminal penalties for selling and increases the criminal penalties for buying, exacerbating the precarity of anyone selling sex without adding any new protections from prosecution for victims of sex trafficking. An amendment has been proposed to create a rebuttable presumption that would more or less turn the bill into a genuine mirror of the Nordic model, and key stakeholders representing the interests of victims have conditioned their support on the inclusion of this amendment. Nevertheless, and despite having been presented with that information minutes earlier, Alma voted in favor of the bill to advance it out of committee.
- HB4070 — this bill, which bans people convicted of certain offenses related to trafficking from starting corporations or serving on boards, was written broadly enough to sweep in nonprofits that help immigrants and even parents who crossed the border with their children. Additionally, because victims of sex trafficking are often coerced to commit offenses that constitute sex trafficking, it could prevent them from getting back on their feet with a nonprofit or business of their own later. Alma supported this bill and worked on an amendment that was eventually adopted that on its face narrows the bill, but in reality carries the same risks. Both Alma and Consuelo voted for the bill as amended on March 5.
- HB4117 — a transparent follow-on to the arrest of journalist Don Lemon at an anti-ICE protest that took place at a church in Minnesota, this bill creates the crime of “disturbing a religious service.” This crime (a class 1 misdemeanor, the highest) consists of “disturbing or disquieting, by the person's indecent behavior, profane discourse or unnecessary noise, any assemblage of persons who have met for religious worship.” In his vote explanation on the House floor, Representative Alex Kolodin prefaced his statement by acknowledging “a disturbing resurgence of anti-Semitism in this country” while thanking his colleagues for their “good faith efforts […] to try to address it,” before going on to say that “we only make anti-Semitism worse when we crack down on First Amendment rights.” His criticism of the bill as far too broad and “dangerous on first amendment grounds” was eloquent and rooted in his own faith, pointing out that “it would be crazy if I got hit with a misdemeanor for chatting with one of my friends at shul using my normal expletives.” Nevertheless, and despite the obvious motivation for the bill to silence anti-ICE protests, both Alma and Consuelo voted yes.
- HCR2043 — this resolution, co-sponsored by both Alma and Consuelo, looks to trigger a constitutional convention per Article V of the U.S. Constitution in order to impose term limits on Congress. The value of term limits aside, you can’t open a cookie jar for just one particular cookie: the only real limit once the lid is off is your own self control. What about the current political reality and leadership in Washington suggests that we could open up the Constitution and only grab the term limits cookie? Both sisters are aware of the threat, and yet they continue to push for an opportunity to rewrite the constitution with Trump in power.
2025 Bills & Votes
- HB2221 — on Feb 12 and again on May 6, 2025, Alma and Consuelo voted in favor of a bill that would ban cities and towns from reducing their police budgets year over year, even if they have to cut the budgets of every other department to maintain their current level of spending. And if a recession hits? Say goodbye to libraries, human services, and fire departments. For Alma and Consuelo, a functioning city is less important than making sure we never “defund the police.”
- HB2706 — sponsored by Alma and Consuelo, this bill is only one piece of a larger package of legislation introduced this year that would make it easier to have someone committed simply for being homeless, for using substances, or for being mentally ill, and which would divert resources from permanent supportive housing into the construction of locked facilities, a Project 2025 priority and active part of the Trump administration’s agenda.
- HB2867 — sponsored by Alma and Consuelo (with two Republican co-sponsors) this bill would have exposed teachers to the threat of civil action for a wide range of speech and conduct bundled together under a dangerously broad definition of antisemitism, which could include basic instructional activity and class discussion. Alma’s example of what antisemitism could look like in the classroom? A Palestinian flag displayed in a window at her neighborhood Montessori school.
- HB2880 — this bill, a ban on a specific form of protest activity on college campuses, mimics the rhetoric used by the Trump administration to defund universities and justify the abduction of student activists and mass expulsion of students from the country. On May 7, while dozens of pro-Palestinian student protestors were being arrested for sitting in the Columbia University Library, Governor Hobbs signed this bill into law.
- HB2112 — this bill, voted for by both sisters and praised on the floor by Alma, advances the Project 2025 goal of criminalizing “transgender ideology” as a form of pornography and shuttering the “telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread” by providing a legal tool for anyone to use against websites hosting LGBTQ+ content or sex ed information. (Note: on May 7, the sisters switched their votes to oppose HB2112 when the bill returned to the House for a final vote. A positive turnaround!)
Why “Hernandi?”
It’s not just a fun pluralization — it’s a consulting firm! Now, you might ask, is it ethical for elected officials to run a consulting firm that, among other nebulous services, facilitates “strategic partnerships and grasstops advocacy?” Does it sound exactly like what a 7th grader would picture when first learning about pay-to-play corruption? Those are both questions that people have asked! One could also ask whether it seems cool and okay for elected officials to run such a consulting business without disclosing their client list.
They have a brother, too.
Daniel Hernandez, the oldest sibling, was the first to join the legislature and served as the archetype for their particular brand of right-wing Democratic politics. Since then he has run unsuccessfully for Congress in CD6 and subsequently in CD7. From the start of his 2025 campaign for CD7, Daniel put his identity forward as a selling point, sending text messages with the call to action “I’m gay and I need your help.” Eventually, he stepped up his engagement with the LGBTQ+ community in an unexpected and very hands-on way. Let’s cut to the tape. In the video linked here, Daniel moves to swat the phone out of the hand of Scott Blades, who was filming a contentious encounter between Alma and a constituent. It’s inappropriate behavior by any measure, but is made even more offensive by the fact that Blades is the executive director of the Tucson Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network, a pillar of the local community.
Get your stickers!
If you’ve seen the Hernandon’t stickers around town or at the capitol and want to get one of your own, just reach out!
Let’s go back to primary school
Both Alma and Consuelo will be campaigning in primary elections in 2026, and if it’s not clear by now, the moral of this website is simple: don’t — don’t vote for these siblings and don’t vote for their shit bills. But there’s one thing you can do. Primary them.
If you live in LD20 or LD21 (or if you know someone who does) and you’re sick of far-right Democrats wasting space in the legislature — or if you’ve already decided to run — get in touch.
Just one last crazy thing
Now, something very important to Alma and Consuelo is their Jewish heritage and faith, which they adopted about 10 years ago. So when Mexico elected its first female president, who also happens to be Jewish, you might think they’d celebrate it, but no. Why would you expect them to ever be chill or normal? Check this out:
