Brianna Westbrook

Born in Mesa, Arizona, in 1984, Brianna grew up in poverty, "moving from house to house because the family kept being evicted."  Following the divorces of her grandmother, aunt, and mother, her family moved to Tennessee, then Montana and Washington state. After her mother remarried, Brianna moved out and became involved in documenting street races, at one point also convincing a Spokane-area racetrack to provide a safe track for teens to race cars in.[3]

While in Spokane, she met her now ex-wife and raised a daughter together when Westbrook was 19 years old, working in construction to support the new family. At 22, she returned to Arizona and worked in car sales, becoming a sales manager at Arrowhead Honda in Peoria, Arizona, northwest of Phoenix.[4] While working at Arrowhead Honda, Westbrook began her transition, documenting it through YouTube, where her now-deleted channel once had several thousand subscribers.[3] Shortly after coming out as transgender, she also became an activist, advocating for LGBT and disability protections and protesting the passing of AZ SB 1432 in the state legislature.[5]

Westbrook began her foray into electoral politics in response to the rise of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, announcing she would run against Republican incumbent Trent Franks in the US congressional midterm election in 2018, before learning of his resignation.[3][6] The news of Franks's resignation following his sexual harassment scandal led to a rise in media attention of the subsequent special election, which gave Westbrook, running to become what would be the first transgender representative of in the US Congress, support from national figures such as Rosie O'Donnell, Chelsea Manning[5] and Cameron Russell.[7]

Although Franks's seat had been historically ignored by Democratic contenders,[3] Westbrook was joined in the Democratic primary election by physician Hiral Tipirneni. Public high school teacher Gene Scharer, who ran against Franks in 2012,[8] had intended to join Westbrook and Tipirneni in the primary, but fell hundreds of signatures short and did not qualify to run. The signatures for both Scharer and Westbrook's campaigns were challenged in court by a supporter of Tipirneni's campaign, but only Scharer was disqualified as Westbrook exceeded the number of valid signatures needed to qualify.[9]

Westbrook's campaign collected endorsements from Our Revolution,[10] Run With Pride,[11] Justice Democrats[12] and the Phoenix chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America by unanimous vote.[13] When she received a candidate endorsement application from the National Rifle Association (NRA), she responded by recording herself tearing the form in half.[14] Westbrook was not endorsed by the NRA.

The February 27, 2018, special election primary ended with Tipirneni taking 60.2% of the Democratic vote and Westbrook taking 39.7%.[15] After losing the primary, Westbrook actively supported her former competitor's run for the special election as she began a campaign for the Arizona Senate's 22nd district, sharing a mutual agreement with Tipirneni to support one another's campaigns.[16] Tipirneni ultimately lost the special election to Republican Debbie Lesko by 4.8 percentage points.[15] Westbrook's candidacy in the Arizona Senate’s 22nd district election primary for the state legislature was contested and won by radio announcer Wendy Garcia, who subsequently lost to Republican David Livingston in the general election by 26.6 percentage points.[15]

Westbrook endorsed U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders's 2020 campaign for President of the United States of America and is a national surrogate for the Bernie Sanders for President 2020 campaign.[17][18][19] On March 7, 2020, the Bernie Sanders for President 2020 campaign announced Arizona State Senator Martin Quezada and Arizona House Representative Richard Andrade; co-founder and lead organizer for Arizona Educators United Rebecca Garelli; Phoenix Councilman Carlos Garcia; East Valley NAACP President Roy Tatem; former state Rep. Wenona Benally; Tucson City Council Member Lane Santa Cruz and LGBTQ+ rights activist Brianna Westbrook Arizona state co-chairs the 2020 campaign.[20]

Westbrook is a Justice Democrat, and advocates for a number of key positions of its platform, including debt-free college and "Medicare For All".[21]