By Staff Reporter |
State Rep. Alma Hernandez (D-LD20) spoke out against top Democrats for endorsing her primary opponent for the state senate seat, Rocque Perez.
Hernandez said Perez’s history of posting pornography and violent rhetoric online were antithetical to the values of the Democratic Party following an announcement that Rep. Adelita Grijalva and Tucson Mayor Regina Romero had endorsed Perez.
“I have proudly delivered for my district for the last eight years. If these women want to support a flawed candidate who posted his porn and violent political rhetoric online[…] good luck explaining that to voters,” said Hernandez. “I have won four terms without their support and will continue to do so!”
As reported previously, Perez advocated for the murder of conservatives and Republicans in posts to one of his accounts on X (at the time, Twitter). Perez advised a friend to “kill” her family members as her “duty,” and called on the public to “throw [Ivanka Trump] off the capitol building roof.”
Other violent posts by Perez:
- In reference to a classmate: “This vapid white girl is defending Trump[’s] response to COVID in my Zoom public relations class, do I end her or do I end her.”
- In reference to assaulting President Donald Trump: “Honestly I would take one for the team and knock him out if I could.”
- In reference to conservative activist and pundit Kaitlin Bennett: “How has she not gotten beat yet? Like… hath no one the bravery to literally hurt her cause…?”
- In reference to the 2020 election: “Roses are red, violets are blue, vote for Joe Biden, or I’ll cut you.”
On another X account around the same time, @localanthony, pornographic videos were posted publicly which allegedly featured Perez promoting a similarly-named OnlyFans account, That Local Boy. The profile picture for that account appeared to be a mirror selfie of Perez.
Perez denied to media outlets that he posted the pornographic content, but refused to confirm or deny whether the content belonged to him.
One post that appeared to have come from Perez on the pornographic X account claimed engagement in sexual activities with an unnamed professor and later being solicited by that professor’s husband.
In another post from March 2021, the account owner claimed to have masturbated while at work at the University of Arizona. Perez was employed as the University of Arizona’s marketing and communications strategist at the time.
“Guys I’m so horny I might jerk off somewhere at work, stay tuned,” posted Perez. “Update: loads of bro butter at work.”
At least one minor engaged with this pornographic account allegedly belonging to Perez, the California Globe reported.
Following widespread reporting, the porn-focused account apparently associated with Perez has been excluded from the web archiving services where it was previously available to the public.
It appears Grijalva and Romero chose to endorse Perez over Hernandez based on their past ties with him.
Perez was the executive director for Grijalva’s nonprofit, the Metropolitan Education Commission, which makes recommendations for Pima County’s K-12 education.
Last year, Perez served for six months as an appointed member of the Tucson City Council representing Ward 5.
Other Democrats have spurned Hernandez for her shows of bipartisanship in the legislature.
LD20 Democrats issued a public statement condemning Hernandez, though they stopped short of censoring her.
Perez was also on the board of directors of the now-defunct Tucson Pride, once the state’s oldest pride organization.
Perez platforms himself as both a fourth-generation Arizonan and the son of an undocumented woman from Mexico.
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