Independent Newsmedia
Three people are in the race for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors seat for District 2: a former state legislator, the current supervisor and a school board member.
Thomas Galvin is the incumbent Republican who represents the district that makes up northeast Maricopa County. He will face former state legislator Michelle Ugenti-Rita in the primary. Democrat Julie Cieniawski will face that winner in the November general election.
Julie Cieniawski
Julie Cieniawski, who has been a long-serving school board member from Scottsdale, is looking to be elected to the Board of Supervisors District 1 seat.
Cieniawski, a Democrat, currently serves on the Scottsdale Unified School District governing board and has been an advocate for public education, serving first as a teacher for 14 years within the district before being elected to the board.
In the education field, Cieniawski has served on several SUSD committees and was Scottsdale Education Association president for three years.
She has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Minnesota.
Thomas Galvin
Thomas Galvin is the incumbent on the Board of Supervisors representing District 2, having served on the board since being elected in 2022 after being appointed to the seat in December 2021.
Galvin, a Republican, had worked on various party efforts since his first campaign helping a mayoral candidate when he was 18 years old. He is a precinct committeeman and state committeeman for the party.
His career is as a land use and water attorney with a background in real estate development and consulting. He has a bachelor’s degree from the College of the Holy Cross and a law degree from the University of Notre Dame.
Priorities for the election for Galvin include fighting inflation and promoting public safety.
Michelle Ugenti-Rita
Michelle Ugenti-Rita, a lifelong Scottsdale resident, has served in the Arizona Legislature for 12 years and is now seeking the District 2 seat on the Maricopa Bounty Board of Supervisors.
Ugenti-Rita, a Republican, served in the Arizona House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019 and then in the Arizona Senate from 2019 to 2023.
Ugenti-Rita touts her conservative record in her run for the board, and sees issues such as how the Board of Supervisors sets taxing rates for special districts, its spending during and following the COVID-19 pandemic, and continuing on issues she’s worked on in the past including transportation and election reform.
A former real estate agent, Ugenti-Rita earned a bachelor’s degree from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.