Meet Talia Fuentes: the 32-Year Old Running for Arizona’s 9th Congressional District

talia fuentes Profile

As it’s been noted, there’s a political force that’s driving young women to run for office. You know, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. Following suit, we now have Talia Fuentes hoping to represent Arizona. She’s yet another badass woman who is ready to shake up the core of a stagnant political system. 

Talia Fuentes is currently running to represent Arizona’s Democratic Party in the election of the 9th Congressional District. She is a third generation German-Mexican woman who tackles life without hesitation. As with a lot of powerful women, she has a diversified resume, which allows her to understand a vast variety of topics. She has experience in digital, radio culture, applied biology, and international community service. Fuentes is also a businesswoman who is the CEO/Founder of the tech startup, Unite Congress, a company that is exploring ways to use cellphone-based biometrics for users to engage politically with their representatives. Her ultimate goal is to make it possible for users to be able to vote from an app. It’s still in its early stages, but it definitely has potential. One thing is for sure, this company highlights some of Fuentes main points in her campaign — representation and inclusivity. 

However, learning so many skills in different fields was something Fuentes did out of necessity sometimes. She became a single mother before the age of 21, so this drove her to excel at whatever cost. Nevertheless, her perseverance continuously reminded her that this was not only for her, but for the sake of her son as well. Being that she was seasoned at successfully learning new trades, Fuentes was not intimidated to make another career change. 

She was initially inspired to join the world of politics by Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign in 2016. She remembers making sense to her, which is why she’s embraced some of his political ideologies. Like Sanders, Fuentes believes in universal health care and climate change. She also focuses on working towards income inequality, racism, and the equal representation of women. 

talia fuentes profile congress BELatina
Photo credit youtube.com

Fuentes mainly campaigns through grass-root methods, as it’s become the norm for the young politicians joining in the race for office. Grass-root campaigns have been ignored previously, but it seems like it’s finally getting the recognition it deserves. Fuentes believes people are now seeing the importance of fundamentally understanding who represents them. Nowadays, it seems as though people want to feel represented by someone that they can relate to rather than the typical rich men who usually take office. This is why she has no reservations in knocking doors to get to know her community and vice versa. 

Though her state is predominantly a red state, she hopes she can create enough noise to get them out to vote. It’s been reported that among the United States, Arizona has one of the lowest voting statistics in recent elections. 

This is not Fuentes first time running for office. She embarked on her first political wave when she decided to run for Arizona’s 5th District in 2016. As we all know, 2016 was a monumental year for politics in American history. It was that same year Secretary Hillary Clinton ran for presidency. Just like Clinton, she was one of the only women the ballot that year. Fuentes lost, but was able to significantly cut the Republican margin by 12 points. Even though 2016 brought a different political climate to the table, this motivated Fuentes even more to continue with her vision.

Arizona’s 9th Congressional District will be holding elections in 2020. It’s still too soon to say what will happen, but I’ll be rooting for her all the way from Miami. 

“Those of us who can interact with multiple worlds,” Fuentes told Ozy, “are going to be the ones that save this one.”

For Image credit or remove please email for immediate removal - info@belatina.com