Southern Az Dem congressional hopeful Donat to speak at DGT Monday

A roundup of upcoming Tucson-area political events: Congressional candidate Chris Donat speaks to DGT; Sentinel team on the airwaves; voter registration deadlines for summer elections draw near, and more.

Send your events for Tucson Sentinel’s political calendar to [email protected].

Congressional candidate Chris Donat will speak Monday to the Democrats of Greater Tucson via Zoom.

Donat, 42, is an engineer who is making his first bid for public office.

“I was really pissed off after the last election, and I think that that’s probably a common tone with everybody running,” Donat said. “The sheer lack of interest in following any kind of democratic norms is appalling.”

He said he didn’t hear enough about climate change in the last election.

“We are running out of water,” Donat said. “We have a lot of industry that’s interested in using a lot of electricity, and we’re not preparing for that, and nobody’s talking about these things. So that’s why I wanted to throw my hat in the ring. I mean, there’s fewer than 10 engineers in Congress right now, and we have a lot of technical problems ahead of us, and I’m excited about solving those problems, but, I mean, they need to be addressed, right?”

Besides climate change, Donat – who says he is a “big fan” of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont – considers himself pro-choice and supports a Medicare for All single-payer healthcare system. He embraces both solar power and nuclear fusion power plants “is very, very concerned about AI and automation displacing workers.”

Donat has been fascinated by Tucson ever since he watched the Nickelodeon series “Hey Dude” while growing up in Cleveland, Ohio. The show, which ran from 1989 to 1991, was filmed at the Tanque Verde Guest Ranch.

“I watched that, like, I think it was in third grade, and I loved it,” he said. “I loved the desert scenes. I was always the one who wanted cactus at home in pots.”

He headed west in 2001 to earn an engineering degree at the University of Arizona. Since graduation, he’s worked for Tucson-area companies such as Roche Tissue Dynamics and AGM Container and had gigs in Boston and San Francisco, including working for solar start-up. He now works at Raytheon.

Register for the 6 p.m. talk here.

Donat is one of a dozen Democrats who filed statements of interest in the race with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office, including JoAnna Mendoza, Mo Goldman, Andrew Becerra, Dean Dill, Tyler Newman, Lori Reid, Samantha Severson, Jason Stanhibel, Aiden Swallow and Fernando Alvarez.

The most recent Democrat to file is Johnathan Curtis Buma, a former FBI agent who was arrested in mid-March for improper handling of classified information. Federal prosecutors allege Buma printed various files as part of a book pitch in 2023.

Burma, who filed to run for CD6 on May 1, told the U.S. Senate in 2023 that he was concerned that the FBI was not more aggressive in its investigation of former New York Mayor Rudy Giulianni and was not following up on key evidence in its investigation of Hunter Biden, according to a partially redacted whistleblower statement.

Besides Ciscomani, Austin Unruh has filed a statement of interest on the GOP side.

The majority of the congressional district’s voters  – 74 percent – live in Pima County. About 12 percent live in Cochise County and about 10 percent live in Pinal County, with the remaining 4 percent scattered around Graham and Greenlee counties.

The district leans Republican, with 36 percent of voters identifying with the GOP, 31 percent identifying as Democrats and 33 percent who aren’t aligned with either major party.

Ciscomani twice narrowly defeated former state lawmaker Kirsten Engel for the U.S. House seat, in 2022 and 2024.

Wednesday, May 14: Tucson Sentinel reporter Jim Nintzel guest-hosts the
Buckmaster show. Guests include Pima JTED Director of Research and Development Merrill Kemp-Wilcox, author and ethnobotanist Gary Paul Nabhan (whose works include this year’s “Against the American Grain: A Borderland History of Resistance” and the James Beard Award-winning “Agave Spirits: The Past, Present and Future of Mescals”) and authors Lisa Schnebly Heidinger and Julie
Morrison, whose new University of Arizona Press book is “Arizona FriendTrips: Stories from the Road.” Noon on KVOI, 1030 AM. Episodes stream at buckmastershow.com.

Monday, May 19: Democrat Jim Sinex, one of four Democrats seeking the Midtown Ward 6 seat on the Tucson City Council seat in the Aug. 5 primary election, will talk with Democrats of Greater Tucson. 6 p.m. via Zoom. Register here.

Friday, June 6: Tucson Sentinel reporter Paul Ingram joins host Bill Buckmaster to interview Tucson Chief of Police Chad Kasmar on the
Buckmaster show. Noon on KVOI, 1030 AM. Episodes stream at buckmastershow.com.

Monday, June 16: Deadline to register to vote in CD7 special election

Wednesday, June 18: Early voting begins and ballots are mailed for CD7 special primary election

Tuesday, July 8: Deadline to register to vote in city of Tucson primary election

Wednesday, July 9: Early voting starts and ballots are mailed for city of Tucson primary election

Tuesday, July 15: Primary Election Day for CD7 special election

Tuesday, Aug. 5: Primary Election Day for Tucson City Council races

Wednesday, Aug. 27: Early voting begins for CD7 special general election

Tuesday, Sept. 23: General Election Day for CD7 special election

Tuesday, Nov. 4: General Election Day for Tucson City Council races