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SIERRA VISTA — Rodney Glassman was once a Democrat. In fact, he was his party’s candidate in the 2010 futile attempt to unseat the legendary Sen. John McCain.
Glassman wound up taking a respectable 34.7% of the vote, the most for a McCain challenger since Richard Kimball took 39.5% of the electorate in 1986.
Also in 2010, Glassman became the father to the first of two daughters, a life change that began to push him rightward on the political spectrum. And on June 16, 2015 — a date he recalls with the surety of a wedding anniversary — Glassman’s conversion was complete when he witnessed Donald J. Trump descend the escalator at Trump Tower to declare his run for the presidency.
“Like President Trump, like President Reagan and countless other Arizonans, I used to be a Democrat,” Glassman said. “I grew up. You’re a college kid in Tucson, you start getting involved in things and you’re a liberal. But then you start taking care of things, your priorities change and your maturity grows. Trump wasn’t the first thing but it was ultimately the last thing that brought me to the decision.”
So when the opportunity was presented to him by Sierra Vista McDonald’s owners Pat and LeeAnn Richards to serve Big Macs on the 50th anniversary of the first drive thru in the fast food chain’s history, he wasn’t about to miss the chance to follow in the footsteps of Trump who famously did a photo-op at a Golden Arches in Feasterville, Pennsylvania during the 2024 campaign.
“It was awesome,” said Glassman, the first Republican to announce his candidacy for the Arizona Attorney General’s race in 2026. “The amount of pride and excitement from everyone that was there, from the mayor who told his story about getting in his first car accident out front, to a lady in her 50s I met who told me it was the first place she worked. Just being with such an energetic group of people and getting to roll up my sleeves was awesome.”
Prior to last Friday’s McDonald’s celebration, Glassman took a tour of the border with local officials, including Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels, who, like most Arizona law enforcement officials is not a fan of having to enforce Proposition 314, which voters passed in November and makes it a state crime for illegal migrants to cross the federal border and set foot on Arizona soil.
“At the end of the day, the attorney general’s job is to make sure that every police officer know they have an AG that has their back; that when someone violates the law or is suspected of violating the law and they pull them over — risking their own lives to pull over a stranger and ask them for their ID — they are not going to be second-guessed by a mayor and council, not second-guessed by the county attorney,” Glassman said, suggesting that the measure might be more popular with local law enforcement with the right support. “They want to be able to do their job and have an attorney general that is going to have their back.”
Arizona’s current Attorney General, Kris Mayes, made herself one of 21 AGs nationwide to file a lawsuit against Trump last week when he announced his plan to end ‘birthright citizenship,’ an ambition that would seem to fly in the face in the letter — if not the spirit — of the 14th Amendment.
“You have to come here legally to be able to start a family in this country legally,” Glassman said as to why he supports Trump on the matter before pivoting to criticisms of Mayes.
“She filed a complaint against the commerce authority for doing economic development; she refused to defend Arizona laws that says boys with a penis cannot compete with girls born as little girls in sports,” Glassman said. “That’s the kind of warped, cruel logic Mayes is applying.”
In 2022, Glassman finished second in the attorney general primary to Abe Hamadeh, who wound up losing to Mayes by less than 300 votes. To get his chance to go toe-to-toe with Mayes in 2026 he’ll have company in the Republican primary, starting with Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen, who announced his candidacy on Tuesday.
With the bombast of a seasoned battle rapper, Glassman tried to take on both his known competitors with the very same diss.
“The irony of Kris Mayes is that prior to winning by 200 votes in 2022, she had never been hired by anyone to be their lawyer in any courtroom and she had never prosecuted anything, ever,” Glassman said before turning his aim to Petersen. “He passed the bar in 2023. Kris Mayes had never been in court, never had a client, but she tremendously trumps Petersen. I know Warren Petersen is objectively unqualified to be our attorney general because he’s never practiced law, period, and I’m confident that Republican voters aren’t going to nominate a guy like that.”
As for his own bona fides, Glassman points to more than a decade as a judge advocate general (JAG) at Luke Air Force Base, where he ranks as a Lt. Col. as well as private practice including business law, and currently, catastrophic personal injury.
“If you look at the role of the attorney general it’s a combination of providing all the legal services for all of the state agencies, protecting cops and leading appellate work,” Glassman said. “I want to work with President Trump on securing the border and his agenda for protecting our country.”
Glassman says he’ll be spending considerable time in southeastern Arizona with State Sen. David Gowan (R-Sierra Vista) named his ‘honorary chair’ for Cochise County.
