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Election 2024
Republican, Democratic candidates run unopposed in LD Senate 15 primary
Independent will be on Nov. 5 ballot
Clockwise from top left are Jake Hoffman, Evan Olson and Alan Smith.
Posted
The Republican and Democratic candidates in Tuesday's primary election for Arizona State Senate District 15 are running unopposed.
District 15 includes a portion of Mesa including Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Queen Creek and San Tan Valley.
In the Republican race, incumbent Jake Hoffman is the lone candidate. In the Democratice race, Alan Smith is running unopposed.
They will square off against independent Evan Olson in the Nov. 5 general election.
Jake Hoffman, Republican
Incumbent Jake Hoffman is chairman of the director nominations and government committees, vice chairman of the appropriations committee and is a member of the transportation, technology and missing children committee, according to https://www.azleg.gov/senate-member/?legislature=56&legislator=2130.
The former Queen Creek town council member is one of 11 people who have been indicted by a state grand jury in an ongoing investigation into a "fake elector" plan during the 2020 election aimed at helping Donald Trump retain the presidency.
Hoffman was first elected to the state legislature in 2021 in Arizona House District 12.
He is the founding chairman of the Arizona Freedom Caucus, which is made up of conservative members of the Arizona Legislature.
Senate Bill 1044, authored in 2024 by Hoffman, would abolish the Arizona Commerce Authority.
House Bill 2787, submitted by then-Rep. Hoffman in 2022, proposed that Maricopa County be divided into four counties — Hohokam County for much of the East Valley; Mogollon County for northeast Phoenix, Scottsdale and the northeastern part of the county; O’odham County for most West Valley cities and west to the current Maricopa County line; and Maricopa County for central and northeast Phoenix.
He has a bachelor of science degree from Arizona State University and a master of business administration from Bushnell University. Previous elected experience includes as a Higley Unified School District Governing Board member and a town of Queen Creek council member.
He graduated with a business degree in finance from the University of Iowa. Smith worked as an auditor in the insurance field and was transferred and promoted several times in his 38-year career in Iowa, Utah, California, Colorado and Hawaii. He retired from the insurance industry in 2016.
Though retired, he volunteered one day per week at Head Start and in second-grade public school classrooms at Mesa Public School’s Stevenson Elementary. He is an active board member of Walking Down Ranch, a nonprofit in Lakeside assisting homeless veterans; and started a recycle program in my community of 830 homes, it states.
He enjoys talking to voters to understand their priorities. He wants to understand what voters think will move the state forward, research the issues and see how other states or countries handle issues similar to those in Arizona to make fact-based decisions and plans for a better future for Arizona, for Arizona’s longterm future, it states.
Evan Olson, Independent
Evan Olson has a bachelor of arts degree in government from GCU with an emphasis on state and local policy, which he sought to become educated and part of the solution within American politics, according to https://www.evanolsonforaz.com.
Prior to that, while attending college in St. Cloud and obtaining a sales and management AAS degree, he ran for and won the DECA leadership role of service coordinator. As service coordinator he planned and organized all college campus events, fundraisers, food drives and business competition events for the DECA organization.
Olson spent the next 10 years building a sales career while pursuing different entrepreneurial ventures, including a wedding DJ service from 2008 to 2013. After years of sales, he achieved the level of director in 2016, it states.
He advocates for: instant run-off voting, open primaries and ending voter-suppression laws; banning the donation of money to elected legislative officials from lobbyists and corporate/special interests; rewriting the funding formula with accountability measures; enacting water conservation legislation, shifting water from agricultural to urban use, and investing in new longterm water resources; and is in favor of gun reform with a goal to keep destructive firearms out of the hands of people with malicious intent and the mentally ill, not to take away guns.
