About Oscar
Oscar De Los Santos represents District 11 in the Arizona House of Representatives, which includes Downtown Phoenix, Laveen, Guadalupe, and South Phoenix.
Elected by his peers as House Democratic Leader, Oscar is the youngest Democratic legislative leader in the nation. As head of the Arizona House Democrats, he negotiated a historic $17.6 billion state budget that:
- Made school breakfast and lunch free for working-class students,
- Delivered a historic initiative to make community college and public university tuition free for thousands of working-class students,
- Invested more in affordable childcare than at any time in the past 15 years,
- Created Arizona's first-ever plan to eradicate veterans homelessness,
- Secured millions in relief for Arizonans on the brink of eviction, and
- Expanded legal aid so workers can take on predatory corporations that violate their rights.
A stalwart champion for universal health care, Oscar fought for and won a landmark initiative to erase $2 billion in medical debt for one million Arizonans — and helped secure $122 million in lifesaving health care for people with developmental disabilities.
He has also introduced legislation to crack down on corporate landlords driving up rents, outlaw AI price fixing, and ban discrimination against LGBT Arizonans.
Oscar believes that government should serve everyday people, not the wealthy and well-connected. That’s why he has taken on lobbyists, special interests, and politicians who put profits before Arizonans.
Before his election, Oscar was a 6th grade public school teacher and managed public policy for the Arizona Food Bank Network, where he fought to end hunger. He also worked on President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign, helping organize communities to make their voices heard.
Oscar earned a J.D. from Yale Law School and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Oxford where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. Rooted in the Christian moral tradition, he also holds a master’s degree in Christian ethics from Union Theological Seminary.
