By Staff Reporter |
One of the Arizona Democratic Party’s (ADP) political crown jewels has been arrested for breaking into a former romantic partner’s home with a knife.
Phoenix police arrested Brianna Westbrook, 41, former ADP vice chair and current education coordinator, last Friday for allegedly breaking into a former partner’s home brandishing a knife and carrying gloves and duct tape.
Westbrook, formerly a Peoria-area car salesman named Mike McDanel, allegedly forced himself into the victim’s residence, where he pushed the victim onto a couch. It was allegedly only after the victim screamed that Westbrook fled the scene.
Westbrook alleged that the incident was part of consensual roleplay, a “big misunderstanding” — a narrative the alleged victim denies.
A judge set Westbrook’s bond at $15,000.
Apart from the disputed nature of the alleged home invasion, Westbrook does have a history of advocating for violence.
As AZ Free News reported previously, Westbrook applauded a call for gun violence in the wake of the 2023 Nashville school shooting in which three children and three adults were slain by a transgender-identifying woman, Aiden Hale.
The year prior, Westbrook publicly expressed opposition to Blue Alerts, communications sent to the public and law enforcement notifying them of suspects who have assaulted, critically injured, or killed law enforcement officers.
It was around 2017 that Westbrook began a rise to prominence among Arizona Democrats as the state’s first federal elected official to identify as transgender. Westbrook told the Phoenix New Times that he began identifying as transgender about five years earlier at the age of 27. Westbrook once operated a YouTube account, since deleted, which reportedly documented his gender transition.
Westbrook has run for office multiple times since 2017, when he announced his campaign for what was then the 8th Congressional District as the first openly transgender candidate for federal office in Arizona.
Westbrook was not Arizona’s first transgender candidate overall: that title belongs to 2004 candidate Amanda Simpson, a Raytheon executive from Tucson who ran for the state legislature believed to be the first openly transgender presidential appointee. Neither could he claim the title as the nation’s first openly transgender federal candidate: that would be 2016 candidates Misty Snow, running to represent Utah in the Senate, and Misty Plowright, running to represent Colorado in Congress.
Westbrook lost in the general election to Republican candidate Debbie Lesko, the former congresswoman currently serving on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
Following a protest in 2018 in the thick of a congressional campaign, Westbrook publicized his alleged mistreatment at the hands of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office following his arrest for trespassing at former Republican Sen. Jeff Flake’s office.
Westbrook argued in an ACLU blog post that the sheriff’s office should have complied with his request to jail him with other women, not men. Law enforcement ultimately put Westbrook in a solitary cell, according to his account.
Westbrook went on to serve as a vice chair of the Arizona Democratic Party (ADP) from around 2019 to 2024.
Westbrook had also served as the at-large officer for Phoenix Democratic Socialists of America around the same time, and has belonged to the Democratic Socialists of America for years.
Westbrook ran for the Arizona House of Representatives in 2022, but lost the primary to former lawmakers Amish Shah and Jennifer Longdon.
In 2024, Phoenix Democrats nominated Westbrook and two others for the legislative seat vacated by Longdon. The County Board of Supervisors declined to select Westbrook.
As of this report, ADP has Westbrook listed as its education coordinator.
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