The incoming 2025 Arizona Legislature is choosing leadership and committee positions, and selected State Rep. Steve Montenegro (R-Goodyear) as speaker of the house on Tuesday. The longtime legislator, who was born in El Salvador and describes himself as MAGA and America First, will be Arizona’s first Latino speaker of the house.
The Arizona Sun Times spoke to Montenegro shortly after he won the three-way race with 18 votes from 33 Republican voting members. He defeated Rep. Joseph Chaplike (R-Scottsdale), a member of the Freedom Caucus, and current House Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci (R-Lake Havasu).
Montenegro (pictured above) said he was born in San Salvador, where his parents engaged in ministry work, and immigrated legally to the U.S. with his family when he was 5. They lived three years in California, then his father was called to be a pastor in Colorado. After that, his father became a missions supervisor in Canada for four years. The family lived the first two years in Detroit, however, “due to Canada’s tough immigration laws,” Montenegro said with a chuckle.
Next, when Montenegro was 14, the family moved to Surprise for his father to become a pastor He began high school at Dysart High School, and went on to Arizona State University for college. He loved the “amazing” topics of law and justice, due to the American justice system, so began majoring in Administration of Justice. He said there is a “value of honor among law enforcement and military in the U.S.,” which isn’t present in much of the rest of the world. The U.S. system has “honor and integrity” and the “peaceful transition of power,” and law enforcement is respected on the streets.
His goal was to go to law school, so he was advised to work for a public official. He accepted an internship with then-U.S. Representative Trent Franks. He changed his major to Political Science after someone suggested it would better prepare him for law school.
People began approaching him suggesting he run for office. At first he laughed it off. He transitioned into a staff position in Franks’ office, and continued brushing off pleas to run for office. He would respond that he was devoted to the ministry, where he had become a minister in his father’s church, Surprise Apostolic Church, and intended to go to law school. Finally, it all clicked when he realized that as a legislator, he could “write” law instead of “interpret” it. He ran against the powerful Senate Pro Tem leader Robert Blendu, who was switching to run for the House, defeating him in 2008.
Montenegro served in the legislature from 2009-2018, and was elected back to the House in 2022. He accumulated a solid lifetime rating of 92 from the American Conservative Union, which went up to 93 last year. He was the only Latino in the legislature to vote in favor of SB 1070, Arizona’s strict border security bill in 2010. In 2016, he co-chaired Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential run in Arizona.
Montenegro has continued his work in ministry. A friend asked him to assist with a church in west Phoenix, Catalyst Church. He started helping out there in 2018 as a ministry pastor, assisting where needed, including helping teenagers graduate from high school and raising money for community needs.
He runs Coronam Consulting, which provides advice on “how to further our causes like border security.” That issue is “part of my heart as a legal immigrant,” he said. ”That’s the best thing to honor immigrants, is to have a system that rewards legal immigration, the rule of law.” The firm also champions school choice and Educational Savings Accounts (ESAs), including building faith, Hispanic, and business coalitions to support them. He also promotes medical freedom, due to it affecting him and his family personally.
When asked about any specific plans regarding the needs of Latinos, Montenegro said he has a vision of three things for the “American dream.” First of all, he will “fight for the American dream here in Arizona.” He said, “It means doing everything possible to provide an environment where every Arizonan can prosper. That has to do with the budget we’re passing as a state, the overall health of the economy that deals with taxes, that deals with the size of government. It deals with making sure that we are healthy economically here in the state of Arizona.”
The second prong is “public safety from your front door to the border,” he said. “We are a border state, and we have to understand, we have to fight for the security of our citizens, our Arizona, so that from the moment they walk out their front door, their front yard, for their children to be able to play in their front yard and in their streets without having fentanyl wildly loose In our state, without having a border that is flowing with human trafficking, child trafficking.”
He continued, “So everything that has to do with public safety, law enforcement, border security, first responders; we want the overall safety of every Arizonan. And number three, our individual rights and liberties. We want to fight for property rights of the individual, for parental rights, for educational freedom, for school choice, for medical freedom. You know, we want the government smaller so that the Arizonan can be large. Arizonans bigger and governments smaller.”
The Sun Times asked him if the legislature would be doing anything about election integrity.
Montenegro responded, “Well, yeah, you know, we always want to protect the sanctity of the ballot, of the ballot box. You know, there’s too many lives that have been spent sacrificed for that right, for that privilege, and so I want to make sure that our members, we’re looking at sound policy that is going to continue to secure that elections process and and we want to make sure that we are doing it in a way where we are restoring the trust of the voters. If you, if you do things haphazard[ly], or if you do things where you don’t vet them right, there can be unintended consequences, and we want to make sure that we are looking at everything and allowing the experts to help us as we navigate that process. So, yeah, I want to see us move robust and sound legislation, not just talking points. We don’t need, you know, things that tickle people’s ears. Arizonans have sent us to a majority and increased our majority so that we can, you know, we can do what’s right and what’s best for our elections process.”
The Sun Times asked him about reforming the State Bar of Arizona, which has come under fire in recent years for targeting conservative attorneys.
He responded, “Law and justice are what — the foundation, the bedrock of safety and order in our communities. If there are [problem] areas, the public and members always deserve to hear and to know of truth. … There’s accusations. It will take time to educate the public. Ultimately, any robust argument deserves for us to hear it and to consider.” He indicated that this would likely be an area the legislature would investigate this coming year.
Next, The Sun Times asked Montenegro about accusations from state capitol insiders who said he was allowing his consultant Constantin Querard, who often represents moderate Republicans, to choose the legislators who will chair committees.
Montenegro said the rumor was “not true,” and there was “no evidence” of that. He said he is making the rounds talking to every member, and cleared his calendar from meeting with any lobbyists during the transition period.
He said after the transition was over, he said he would meet with lobbyists, and explained why he wouldn’t shun them like some legislators do.
“Our job is to meet with the public,” he said. “I mean, we’re talking about teachers, we’re talking about realtors, we’re talking about every segment you know, people who work in a restaurant, small businesses, every sector of the economy, agriculture. You know, when we’ve got every sector of the economy coming to see us, because the laws that govern this place affect every Arizona and so our job is to meet with people. How else will they present their grievances to the government? So if we want to honor the people of Arizona, our doors have to be open to every Arizonan and so but to me, that means we’re the people’s house, and it’s going to continue to be that. Arizona sends us to listen, listen to every Arizona’s voice.”
Some legislators defend their meetings with lobbyists by pointing to the conservative causes they learn about, such as those representing election integrity, pro-life, family organizations, and school choice issues.
The Sun Times asked Montenegro if he has any hobbies or side interests, and he admitted that he doesn’t have much time for them. He plays the piano, but said he is not as renowned as State Senator J.D. Mesnard (R-Chandler). He also enjoys reading and golf.
He declared that he is America First and MAGA. “I wholeheartedly believe in American Exceptionalism, which is why I love those two,” he said.
Montenegro concluded, “Pray for us. Arizona spoke very clearly and very concisely in this last election; they rejected Katie Hobbs’ vision for Arizona. She spent tens of millions of dollars, north of $15 million to try and flip the legislature, and with her vision, with what she was presenting for Arizona, and Arizona said no. And not only did they say no, they said we’re actually going to go the other way. We’re going to increase the majorities in both the House and the Senate, they saw that what we’re presenting is the American dream. We’re presenting safety from the front door to the border, and we’re presenting protecting their individual rights and liberties. And Arizona said, ‘We like that direction.’”
For him personally, Montenegro said his “life is going to be spent on the gospel of Jesus Christ and liberty.”
With this election, Republicans expanded their majority in the House from 31 Republicans and 29 Democrats, a one-seat split that has been in place for the last six years, to 33 Republicans.
The Senate remains split between 16 Republicans and 14 Democrats. However, conservative Mark Finchem defeated Sen. Ken Bennett (R-Prescott) in the primary, which will have a significant effect on that chamber since Bennett often voted against Republicans. Conservative Sen. Warren Petersen (R-Mesa) was voted to continue as president. The legislative session begins January 13.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Steve Montenegro” by Steve Montenegro.
