Alma Hernandez, a Jewish Democratic legislator in Arizona who is known as an outspoken supporter of Israel, claimed victory on Wednesday in a bitterly contested primary for an open state Senate seat in Tucson, hailing the win as a repudiation of the far left.

Hernandez, who is 33 and identifies as a “proud Zionist,” faced off against Rocque Perez, a former Tucson City Council member, whom she accused of using rhetoric that crossed a line into antisemitism with no pushback from the range of elected officials supporting his campaign.

With all votes counted in Arizona’s 20th Legislative District, Hernandez pulled in 54% of the vote share, defeating Perez by 8 points, according to unofficial results on the secretary of state’s website. The election results have yet to be officially certified.

“The voters in my district rejected antisemitism and rejected the DSA’s agenda, and clearly rejected what the mayor, the congresswoman and the county attorney wanted,” Hernandez, a term-limited House member, said in a statement to Jewish Insider, referring to the Democratic Socialists of America. “We proved that elections are won by knocking on doors and talking to voters, not by social media or online outrage and your friends’ endorsements.”

Throughout the campaign, Perez, who had been endorsed by Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) and Pima County Attorney Gabriella Cázares-Kelly, among others, had fixated on Hernandez’s pro-Israel views, casting her as having been influenced by “foreign” and “overseas interests” and labeling her an enabler of “genocide” and “bankrolled” by AIPAC, which does not engage in state-level races.

In one fundraising message, Perez asked his supporters to contribute $5 to “unseat a Zionist!”

Jewish leaders in Arizona had raised concerns about Perez’s messaging, saying that his attacks were an example of how rising anti-Zionism on the far left has intersected with antisemitism and is met with silence from Democratic Party leaders.

Before Tuesday’s primary, the Center for Jewish Resilience at Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona, which monitors incidents of antisemitism in the area, distributed a letter to city council members backing Perez that highlighted what the group called his “repeated pattern of public rhetoric” espousing “longstanding antisemitic tropes and narratives.” It did not receive responses.

“It was our hope that these concerns would be taken seriously,” Carina Bien-Willner, the center’s director of public affairs, said in a statement to JI last month. 

Perez, who has not yet conceded, did not return a request for comment on Thursday.

Hernandez, whose pro-Israel sentiments and votes with Republicans in the state legislature have fueled tensions with Democrats, said her victory had made “clear that running a campaign centered on attacking a Jewish elected official and making ‘genocide’ the defining issue is not a winning message in Arizona.”

“Despite not being the establishment candidate, we won by staying authentic, working hard and focusing on delivering results,” she told JI.

Hernandez is all but certain to prevail in November in the safe blue seat.

The outcome of Hernandez’s race also represented a counternarrative to broader national voting trends that have seen left-wing populists make inroads in recent congressional primaries across the country, including in Colorado this month and New York last month. 

Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ) likewise fended off a left-wing challenger in Arizona’s primaries this week, winning a decisive 62% of the vote over Kai Newkirk, who lost by 25 points with most of the results tallied. 

“I’ll continue to be unapologetically myself, and I look forward to serving the people of LD20 in the Arizona Senate,” Hernandez said in her statement.