Holly Lyon knew it was a gamble for Democrats to run two candidates for the Arizona House in Republican-leaning Legislative District 17. But the retired Air Force colonel had never been particularly afraid of a challenge.

Lyon, who spent 26 years in the military, including assignments at NATO headquarters and the Pentagon, will take office in January as part of the new Democratic majority in the Arizona Legislature. She defeated incumbent Republican Rachel Keshel, while Democratic incumbent Kevin Volk won reelection, giving Democrats both House seats in a district that Lyon says leans Republican by about eight percentage points.

“It was a little dicey, a bit of a bet,” Lyon told the Arizona Globe.

Volk had won a single-shot campaign in 2024. This time, Democrats decided to go for both seats. Lyon entered the race late, filing her candidacy on January 30 and beginning her campaign in February.

She had two priorities: Raise money and knock on doors.

“Money gets you visibility,” she said. But meeting voters face-to-face was equally important. “You always think you know when you’re starting a campaign, but when you knock on doors you can find out what voters actually care about.”

Beginning in March, Lyon estimates that she knocked on between 6,500 and 7,000 doors, with about 18 percent of residents answering.

What she learned surprised her.

She expected affordability and education to dominate conversations, but education, while always a talking point, had slipped down the list.

“Affordability has usurped that in their mind,” she said.

Water was a much bigger issue than she anticipated, particularly with proposed data centers in the Marana area and near the Pima County Fairgrounds. Voters also expressed frustration with political corruption, especially at the federal level.

Lyon isn’t a political newcomer, although this will be her first elected office. She previously ran unsuccessfully for the Legislature in 2014 and 2018, including races against Republican Mark Finchem, in a district she describes as considerably more conservative than her current one.

Before entering politics, Lyon taught seventh-grade math, served in the Air Force, and worked as an information technology consultant after retiring as a colonel. During her military career, she held two command assignments and helped negotiate major communications contracts. She moved to Arizona in 2008 to care for her aging mother and subsequently became involved in education funding campaigns and community service.

Now she’ll have an opportunity to turn those experiences into legislation.

Lyon said she wants to address affordability, water security and government ethics. But she readily acknowledges that she has some learning to do about the ways of the Legislature.

“I’m just figuring out how all this works,” she said, noting that she doesn’t yet know which committees she will serve on or how much freedom she’ll have to sponsor bills outside those committees.

She’s particularly interested in strengthening ethical guardrails for elected officials, including separating legislators’ public responsibilities from their outside employment.

“Most legislators have to have another job,” she said. “And I think those two jobs have to be totally separated.”

For Lyon, who’s retired, that’s not a problem.

“I have no other job,” she said. “This will be my job.”

And though Democrats now control the Legislature, Lyon doesn’t intend to govern as a progressive ideologue. She sees her moderation as a political asset and a practical necessity in her district.

“I definitely consider myself a moderate,” she said, distancing herself from the Democratic Socialists of America and what she regards as the party’s increasingly progressive national wing.

“The DSA seems to be out-progressiving the progressiveness,” Lyon said.

Her takeaway from the election is straightforward.

“You can’t win as a Democrat in a Republican leaning district unless people see you as a moderate.”

Editor’s note: This is our third in a series of profiles of the new Blue Wave freshman class that will govern Arizona starting in January. Previous installments are here and here.