Representative Patty Contreras Contact information

Patty Contreras is an American politician and a proud Democrat. She is a member of the Arizona House of Representatives, elected to represent District 12 in 2022. She is one of the first out lesbians elected to the Arizona House of Representatives.

Contreras serves on the health and human services and transportation and infrastructure committees. Before her political career, she worked for the city of Phoenix, Arizona, for 31.5 years as a program manager in human services and parks and recreation.

Contreras is originally from Somerton, a rural farm town in southwestern Arizona near Yuma. Her family has been in Arizona for over 100 years. She has lived in the Phoenix valley for over 40 years and in Ahwatukee-Foothills for over 30 years. She and her wife have three grandchildren, two of whom attend schools in the Kyrene School District.

Contreras retired in October 2021 from the City of Phoenix after over 31 years of service to Phoenix residents. She worked in the Parks and Recreation and Human Services Departments providing programs, activities, and resources for youth, teens, adults, and seniors. Now that she is retired, she continues to serve the public as an elected official to help make policy that will benefit her constituents and all Arizonans.

She is a third-generation Arizonan. Her great-grandparents emigrated from Mexico before Arizona was a state and settled in Morenci where her great-grandfather worked in the mines. They became seasonal farmworkers after moving to the Yuma valley in the 1920’s. Her great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents were all at one time farm workers. They worked hard to provide for their families. Her grandfather eventually became a salesman in a department store in Somerton and her father became a successful businessman in Yuma.

Contreras is the second oldest of 8 children in her family. She was the first to graduate from college and six of her siblings graduated from ASU. She, and two of her sisters, have Master’s degrees. They all believe in public education, hard work, and caring for their neighbors.