Halloween pro tip: Don’t use blackface like this Mesa GOP candidate

Halloween is all about being outrageous and having fun — but some costume ideas remain deservedly taboo. Mary Ann Mendoza learned that the hard way.

Mendoza is a real estate broker and Republican running to represent west Mesa in the Arizona House of Representatives. She also has a documented history of dressing up in blackface, an old racist trope rooted in stereotypes that was meant to socially demean Black people. According to ABC15, the photos were on her deceased son’s Facebook page and were from October 2011 and a Halloween party in 2012.

The photos show Mendoza dressed as the offensive former syrup brand mascot Aunt Jemima, wearing dark black face paint with red face paint around her mouth. The photos, which also include Mendoza in redface as a Native American stereotype, surfaced thanks to an October 2022 story from the Copper Courier during Mendoza’s first state house run.

Two weeks later, she lost the race, coming in last place out of four candidates. Democrats Lorena Austin and Seth Blattman narrowly won the most votes and were sent to the Legislature.


Mendoza did not address the racist costumes at the time and declined to comment for this story through campaign consultant Patrick Moir. When the photos first surfaced, Republican U.S. Rep. Debbie Lesko — who is now running for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors — defended Mendoza to ABC15.

“Instead of focusing on decade-old Halloween photos posted by liberal opponents right before an election, voters care about a secure border and common sense policies that will keep Arizona strong. That is what voters will get with Mary Ann Mendoza,” Lesko told the station.

A friend and former congressional candidate, Kathleen Winn, told the station that Mendoza’s “heart is pure, and she deserves our full support,” adding that “whatever makeup she wore is no worse than a drag queen’s.”

Blattman declined to comment on Mendoza's use of blackface when reached by Phoenix New Times. Austin could not be reached.

The pictures aren’t the only manifestation of Mendoza’s concerning racial views. In 2020, she was supposed to give a speech at the Republican National Convention but was booted from her spot after she promoted a QAnon conspiracy theory that Jewish people were plotting to enslave the world.

A look at the district

This year, Austin and Blattman are fighting to keep their seats in the highly competitive swing district.

But Austin and Blattman, running together, are not facing a unified slate. Mendoza has effectively disavowed Kylie Barber, the other Republican running for one of the district’s two seats in the Arizona House. Barber is a lobbyist who has advocated for children with rare diseases. On the internet talk show TexasFullyLoaded, Mendoza referred to Barber as “a candidate who knows nothing, who is nothing, who is a Democratic plant.”

“They have picked these young, pliable — um — Democrats, uh, Republicans in sheep’s … They're Democrats, honestly, they're Democrat operatives — to pose as Republican candidates,” Mendoza said.

A first-time candidate, Barber has taken stances that are very much conservative and align with the Republican Party’s priorities, such as passing tax cuts, strengthening border security and expanding Arizona’s private school voucher system. She also has made anti-LGBTQ statements and was endorsed by at least three Republican state lawmakers.

Running to represent the district in the state Senate is Republican Robert Scantlebury, a small business owner and former Mesa police officer. Scantlebury previously ran for the same Senate seat in 2022 and also ran for Mesa City Council in 2018. He lost both races.

Scantlebury is known for his involvement in a 2014 excessive use of force case in which he watched an officer he was supervising bounce a man’s head on the ground and repeatedly punch his skull. The man suffered “painful, serious and permanent physical and psychological injuries,” according to the man's attorney. Scantlebury, who is endorsed by the Mesa Police Association, claimed it was just good policing.

“I stand by everything I did on that scene and everything the officers did on that scene, I think they handled it appropriately,” he later said.

Scantlebury is up against Democratic state Sen. Eva Burch. A nurse practitioner, Burch made national headlines when she revealed she needed to have an abortion for medical reasons following the reinstatement of Arizona’s 1864 near-total abortion ban by the Arizona Supreme Court earlier this year.

Voter registration rolls in the district show 32% of voters are Republicans, 29% are Democrats, and 36% are Independents. The three seats in Legislative District 9 are crucial to both parties’ ambitions to control either chamber. Republicans have only a one-seat majority in each.