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Endorses Winston

The race

District 2 is the Casa Grande Justice Court. A justice of the peace presides over the precinct's justice court — misdemeanor and traffic cases, civil claims up to $10,000, evictions, small claims, and orders of protection. Arizona does not require a justice of the peace to be an attorney. The term is four years.

This is a contested general-election race with a verified roster. The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission's official 2026 general-election candidate list for Pinal County names Reginald Winston (Republican) and Dean Dill (Democratic). The county's official nomination-petitions file shows how they got here: Winston and Roger Valdez contested the Republican primary on July 21, 2026, and the general list confirms Winston is the nominee (Valdez is not on it); Dill was the sole Democratic filer.

The candidates

Reginald Winston (Republican, incumbent) holds this bench by appointment: the Pinal County Board of Supervisors appointed him Casa Grande justice of the peace on March 5, 2025, after the seat fell vacant, and he now asks the voters to keep him. His record, from the board's appointment proceedings: roughly 25 years as a Casa Grande police officer, service as a pro-tem justice court judge since 2022, completed judicial and hearing-officer training, and military service as a veteran. He took an oath at his swearing-in to support the U.S. and Arizona constitutions and to discharge the office impartially. Credits: a quarter-century of Casa Grande law enforcement plus pro-tem bench time before the appointment, and more than a year since on the bench itself — he is the only candidate in this race who has done the job. Dirt: no documented controversy, discipline, or scandal surfaced in this pass's searches.

Dean Dill (Democratic) is the Democratic nominee, with a public campaign (vote4dill.com). He describes himself as a third-generation Casa Grande resident, a small-business owner, and a trained mediator: certified in dispute resolution through the Arizona Attorney General's Office, Civil Rights Division; a sitting board member of the Arizona Supreme Court's Foster Care Review Board for Pinal County; and a commissioner on the Casa Grande Historic Preservation Commission. His campaign's argument is judicial independence: "the gavel and the badge must remain separate. A Justice Court must be an independent, neutral forum," and he is self-funding his campaign to be "beholden only to the law and the people of Pinal County." He says he has stood in the Casa Grande Justice Court as a citizen seeking justice and found his voice unheard. A matter of public record: Dill has run for office before, as a Libertarian candidate for state senate in Pinal's old District 8 in 2012. Credits: professional mediation training, foster-care review service, and a specific, stated judicial philosophy. Dirt: no documented controversy or scandal surfaced in this pass's searches — and no Manchin-style break record (a documented fight against his own party toward our values) is documented or claimed.

Pros and cons

Record gaps

The searches behind this article are on its face: the Clean Elections Commission's official general candidate list (the roster), the county's nomination-petitions file (the primary field), the Board of Supervisors' appointment record for Winston, Dill's campaign site, the Pinal Democrats' general slate, and news searches (PinalCentral, azcentral, InMaricopa) for all three primary-season names. The remaining gap is presentational, not factual: neither candidate has a Vote411 entry or a local-news profile that this pass could find, and Roger Valdez's primary campaign left no locatable public record beyond his filing.

OUR CALL

Our call: endorse Reginald Winston (Republican).

An incumbent judge with twenty-five years of Casa Grande law enforcement and pro-tem bench service before he ever held the seat, confirmed by his party's voters in July, against a challenger whose honest strengths — mediation training and a neutrality argument — are a philosophy rather than a record, offered by the party our coverage opposes as a class with no documented break from it. Winston's file is this court's daily work. He is the call.

For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website.

Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.

--- Sources

Election result — November 4, 2026

Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.

AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.

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