← Election Series · Down-ballot coverage · Arizona

Endorses Stewart

The race

District 3 is the Central Pinal 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 — and it carries the biggest primary story in Pinal County. The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission's official 2026 general-election candidate list names Glenda Stewart (Republican) and George Arredondo Sr. (Democratic). The county's official nomination-petitions file shows the primary field: Stewart challenged the incumbent, Eustino Tarango, in the July 21, 2026 Republican primary, and the official general list confirms Stewart is the nominee — Tarango, after a four-decade career, is not on the November ballot. Arredondo was the sole Democratic filer.

The candidates

Glenda Stewart (Republican) is the Republican nominee, and her one hard fact is a significant one: she filed against a sitting justice of the peace with roughly forty years in Pinal County law enforcement and on its benches, and Republican primary voters chose her. Beyond that documented primary victory, this pass located no campaign site, no biography, no questionnaire or Vote411 entry, and no news coverage of Stewart or her candidacy. Nothing sourced describes her background, experience, or judicial platform. Under our standards the rest of her record is unproven — never-served is a watch posture, never a demerit — and we print the primary result and the gap, nothing more.

George Arredondo Sr. (Democratic) is the Democratic nominee. His public record, from azcentral's 2024 Pinal County candidate coverage of his run for the Board of Supervisors (District 1): a former member of the Coolidge City Council, with a career that ran from cattle ranching to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and then to work as an information-technology specialist for the U.S. Navy, including three combat tours of the Middle East. Credits: prior elected service on a city council, federal service, and Navy service with combat tours. Dirt: none documented in this pass's searches. No 2026 campaign site, questionnaire, or judicial platform for Arredondo was located — his record is a public-service biography, not a stated courtroom philosophy — and no Manchin-style break record (a documented fight against his own party toward our values) is documented or claimed.

Eustino "Tino" Tarango III (Republican, outgoing incumbent) is not on this ballot, and his absence is part of this race's record, stated here so it is not mistaken for an omission. Born and raised in Pinal County, he joined the Sheriff's Office in 1983, served as a deputy, SWAT sniper, commander, and 17 years undercover in narcotics, spent 22 years as a volunteer firefighter, and sat as a justice of the peace, past Presiding Justice of the Peace for the county, pro-tem judge, and Special Master. Republican voters replaced him in the primary. Whatever November's winner does with this court, she or he follows that tenure.

Pros and cons

Record gaps

Documented on the article's face: we worked the Clean Elections Commission's official general candidate list (the roster), the county's nomination-petitions file (the primary field), Tarango's campaign site and BallotReady profile (the outgoing incumbent's record), azcentral's Pinal candidate coverage (Arredondo's biography), and campaign, news, and questionnaire searches for Stewart across PinalCentral, azcentral, Copper Area, Vote411, and GoodParty. Stewart's side of the file came back with the primary result and nothing else. That gap is reported, not filled in — and it is the main reason this endorsement, below, is stated as narrowly as it is.

OUR CALL

Our call: endorse Glenda Stewart (Republican).

Stated plainly: this is the thinnest endorsement file in the Pinal county races. What is documented is that Stewart is the Republican nominee who unseated a forty-year incumbent in her own party's primary — a real, voter-delivered credential — and that her opponent is a Democrat with an honorable service biography, no judicial record or platform, and no documented break from the party our coverage opposes as a class. On those documented facts, and no others, the call is Stewart — with her record gap printed on this page's face for voters to weigh alongside it.

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.

← Full down-ballot enumeration