Former Arizona Democrat Lawmaker Leezah Sun Launches Independent 2026 Gubernatorial Bid Amid Ethics Scandal and Legal Troubles

Former Arizona state lawmaker Leezah Sun has announced a bid for governor in 2026, launching an independent campaign following a brief and controversy-filled tenure in public office that included an ethics investigation, her resignation from the Legislature, a court-ordered probation sentence, and an active recall effort targeting her current local office.

Sun announced her candidacy in a video posted to Instagram on December 22, 2025, according to reporting by The Arizona Republic and other Arizona media outlets. Arizona voters will elect their next governor in November 2026.

In her campaign announcement video, Sun framed her candidacy around opposition to corporate influence in politics, portraying herself as an independent outsider.

“Arizona has been my home, and that is the reason why I am running for governor,” Sun said in the video. She recounted immigrating to the United States at approximately age seven after being born in South Korea to parents of Chinese descent, describing her parents as laborers who worked long shifts after immigrating.

Sun said she registered to vote for the first time in 2018 after witnessing what she described as corruption within the education system. She cited her 2022 election to the Arizona House as an effort to challenge “corporate greed,” and accused utility companies and insurance corporations of using campaign contributions to influence lawmakers.

“I refused to stay quiet. I challenged corporate power, and that made me unpopular with political insiders who expected loyalty instead of accountability,” Sun said. “I was pushed out for refusing to fall in line.”

Sun said her political approach is not centered on party affiliation.

“This fight was never about party labels,” she said, adding that she is running to “restore power back to the working class of Arizona.”

Sun is running without party affiliation and will be required to collect tens of thousands of valid signatures from registered voters to qualify for the 2026 general election ballot.

Sun was first elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2022, representing Legislative District 22, which includes portions of west Phoenix, Tolleson, and Avondale. She defeated incumbent Lorenzo Sierra and political newcomer Natacha Chavez in the Democratic primary and began her term in early 2023.

In January 2024, Sun resigned from the Legislature following an ethics investigation that found she engaged in a pattern of threats and abuse of office, according to findings summarized by AZ Family. House Democratic leadership initiated the investigation after raising concerns about Sun’s conduct toward municipal officials and her involvement in a private custody dispute.

Following her resignation, Arizona Rep. Elda Luna-Nájera was appointed to fill the vacant seat by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. She ran for re-election in her own right in November 2024 and still holds the LD22 seat.

Sun’s legal troubles continued after leaving the Legislature. Multiple Tolleson officials sought and obtained a restraining order against her following a contentious 2023 meeting involving city matters.

In October 2024, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge found Sun violated that restraining order by contacting the officials during a break in a court hearing, as reported by 12News. She was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay approximately $18,000 in legal fees after losing a legal challenge to the order, according to court records cited by The Arizona Republic.

Sun was elected in 2024 to the Tolleson Union High School District governing board, where her term runs through December 31, 2028. She served as board president until October 2025, shortly after the court ruling related to the restraining order violation.

She is currently facing an active recall effort. Petitioners have submitted signatures seeking to place a recall election on the ballot, and election officials are reviewing the signatures for validity, according to The Arizona Republic.

Recall proponents have cited concerns including district financial decisions, loans made to other school districts, proposed construction projects, and alleged violations of Arizona’s public meetings law.

Independent and third-party candidates historically have struggled to win major statewide offices in Arizona. In the 1986 Arizona gubernatorial election, independent candidate and former Democrat Bill Schulz finished third with 224,085 votes, or 25.85 percent of the total, in a three-way race, behind Republican Evan Mecham and Democrat Carolyn Warner. Schulz’s performance, while significant as a quarter-share of the vote, did not translate into victory. 

No independent candidate has since won a statewide executive or federal office in Arizona. Although Arizona has a large bloc of unaffiliated voters, at times surpassing either major party in registration, that growth has not historically resulted in electoral victories for independent candidates.