PHOENIX — Facing off against current state treasurer Kimberly Yee in her race for reelection is Democratic State Senator Martín Quezada.
Quezada is currently a 10-year veteran of serving in the state legislature but will be termed out of the Senate after this year.
He's now looking to make the move to Arizona's top banker.
Quezada is a native Phoenician. His mother immigrated to the U.S. from a small mining town in Mexico.
The oldest of four, Quezada credits his and his siblings' dedication to public service to their parents.
"My parents set kind of an example just how to live and how to be," he said. "They were strong Catholics growing up and so they really served their community, they served others and we kind of adopted that kind of mentality, that perspective."
He was a first-generation college student and attended both Glendale Community College and Arizona State University.
He said his higher education pathway was not an easy one. It took him six years to earn his undergraduate degree because he was a full-time working student throughout.
"It's given me the experience that a lot of individuals are facing right now," Quezada said. "I've struggled to keep the lights on, I've struggled to put food on the table, I've struggled to go to work and go to school at the same time."
He said his exposure at the Arizona State Capitol, through an internship, made him start thinking about government and law as a career path.
He became an attorney and eventually found himself serving in the state legislature.
"What I've realized after serving for ten years, is that a lot of those issues, a lot of those things that I've cared a lot about - funding public education, healthcare as a human right, putting justice into our criminal justice system, protecting our planet, our air, our water - all of those issues, you needed money, really, to advance those issues," he said.
He said it's why when he was asked to run for the state treasurer's office, he felt a calling.
"I worked really well over the years with our county treasurers working on a lot of different issues that they've brought to the legislature and a couple of them approached me and they said, hey, we want you to consider running for this," Quezada said. "I thought it was a good challenge and a good opportunity and I wanted to take it on."
The top issues he told ABC15 he wants to tackle and invest in more if he wins the seat are public education, the environment, and the housing crisis.
"Housing is a financial issue. Being able to pay rent or address the rising rent prices every single day - that has an impact on people's personal finances and that has an impact on our state's finances if people are losing their homes." he added.
The state of our economy and rising inflation are weighing heavily on this position next term, Quezada believes.
"I expect to treat every dollar as a state treasurer in the way that I've been treating those dollars and most Arizonans are treating those dollars every day as well," he said. "They don't have a dollar to waste. They don't have a dollar to lose."
While Quezada said challenging Republican incumbent Kimberly Yee will be difficult, he believes Arizona deserves a change in the treasurer's office.
"I'm going to do things differently because I'm going to put the responsible management and investment of the people's money first," Quezada said. "I'm going to keep the politics and the extreme politics out of those decisions."
