JoAnna Mendoza

JoAnna Mendoza, known to friends and family as Jo, grew up in a farmworker family in Pinal County.¹ After two decades in uniform, she returned to Arizona to raise her son, Aidan, as a single mother.¹ She continued her education after military service, earning a master's degree in leadership from Grand Canyon University.¹

She enlisted in the Navy at 17, later joined the Marine Corps and served a combined 20 years.¹ Her assignments included working as a Marine drill instructor and deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.² In an October interview, she connected her concerns about the Iran war to the young service members leaving small farming communities like Eloy, where she grew up.³

After returning home in 2016, Mendoza worked for Congressman Tom O'Halleran, helping veterans and their families navigate benefits.³ She later moved into nonprofit advocacy focused on veterans and military families who rely on public assistance programs.³ She ran unsuccessfully for the Arizona Legislature in 2020 and is now challenging Republican Juan Ciscomani for a seat in Congress.⁴

Mendoza says she would seek to reverse Medicaid and Affordable Care Act subsidy cuts, expand Medicare drug price negotiations and train more healthcare workers.⁵ She supports stronger security at ports of entry alongside legal pathways to citizenship and independent oversight of immigration detention.⁶ Her disagreement with Ciscomani over healthcare funding has made access to insurance and the finances of rural hospitals central issues in this election.⁴