Adrian Fontes, Arizona

Adrian Fontes is Arizona's 21st Secretary of State, elected in 2022 after defeating election denier Mark Finchem. Raised in Nogales in a family rooted in southern Arizona for over 300 years, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1992 to 1996, then earned a B.A. summa cum laude from Arizona State University and a J.D. from the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law. He worked as a prosecutor in the Denver, Maricopa County, and Arizona Attorney General's offices before becoming the first Democrat elected Maricopa County Recorder in over 50 years in 2016, where he modernized ballot tracking technology and oversaw record voter turnout during the 2020 election.