JoAnna Mendoza, Arizona

JoAnna Mendoza is a retired U.S. Marine and Democratic candidate for Arizona's 6th Congressional District. Born in Florence, Arizona and raised in a farmworker family in rural Pinal County, she enlisted at 17 and served twenty years across the Navy and Marine Corps, including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and served as a Marine Corps Drill Instructor and instructor at Officer Candidate School. She holds a B.A. in Intelligence Studies from American Military University, an M.S. in Leadership from Grand Canyon University, and an M.A. in Political Psychology from Arizona State University, and has worked as a congressional staffer for Representative Tom O'Halleran, a veterans' advocate, and executive director of VetsForward.