Aaron Baumann is a graduate law student, aspiring lawyer and possibly the next member of the Arizona House of Representatives for District 2.
Baumann is a current graduate student at the James E. Rogers College of Law and is running for the state House next fall. Baumann, an Arizona Native, hopes to represent Cochise County, which encompasses the south side of Tucson to Nogales, where his family is from.
“I want to run because it’s so important that we get better representation,” Baumann said. “We need representatives who can speak for different groups of people, like young people, minorities and geographic constituencies that are underrepresented.”
Baumann is running against two incumbents, Chris Ackerley and Rosanna Gabaldón, as well as fellow House newcomer Daniel Hernandez. The four candidates will be facing off for two seats in the Arizona House of Representatives.
“My weakness is name recognition. Going into this, no one knew who I was,” Baumann said. “My strength is my work ethic. I have been absolutely dedicated to this for a year and I think that I will continue to show the voters and the constituents of the district why I deserve their vote.”
Tim Hogan, executive director of the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, said Baumann is a good person who did an outstanding job when he worked with them, never giving up even when it would have been easy. Bauman worked with the center as a volunteer and did research for the center on a lot of issues.
“I think he was one of the hardest working interns we’ve ever had,” Hogan said.
Bauman said he’s received positive reactions from people in the district because they love seeing candidates at their doors introducing themselves.
“It is especially important in the more rural parts of the district, like Nogales, where people don’t really see candidates.” Baumann said. “Those people have been really enthusiastic about having a native son running.”
He said while he loves speaking to students, they are more excited by the presidential race than local politics.
“Our generation needs to have a voice in how government is run because we are the ones that are going to be most affected by the policies enacted for the next five, 10, 20, 50 years,” Baumann said. “We’re going to have to deal with the consequences.”
Baumann added that while only a small portion of UA students may live in his voting district, every legislature has a single vote. Each representative elected effects Arizona equally. Baumann will be taking the state bar exam after the election in February.
“I definitely need to work on having some balance in my life. Running for office is really hard and really time consuming,” Baumann said. “But I want to win. I’ve thrown my all into the campaign.
Baumann said he feels he’s qualified because he understands the law and has the kind of character people can trust and count on. Baumann is going to continue campaigning door-to-door in the upcoming months, reaching out to the campus community and growing awareness.
“Being a good legislator is two-fold,” Baumann said. “You have to be in it for the right reasons and that’s to make good law that improves peoples lives, and then you also have to be somebody who people can trust.”
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