Steven Gomez
Steven “Steve” Gomez is president of Advancing Arizona (also known as Honest Arizona and Advancing AZ) a left-of-center political and policy advocacy organization. Advancing Arizona advocates for increased government involvement in health care, additional and expanded government welfare programs, and has attacked Republican policies and candidates. 1
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As president of Advancing Arizona, Gomez’s organization is largely funded through dark money from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a program of Arabella Advisors. Gomez has done interviews and appeared in a Democratic-aligned campaign ad espousing his experience paying for his son’s medical treatments as a reason for increased government programs and attacking Republicans. 1
Healthcare Issues
Steve and Laura Gomez have a son, Anthony, who was born in 2015 with a rare condition resulting in holes in his heart and a reversal of the positions of his heart’s major arteries. 2 Anthony had a heart transplant following his birth resulting in a cost of $2.5 million. 2 Anthony’s care and treatment was covered through Laura Gomez’s employment as a dental assistant, but he will need another heart transplant in his lifetime and his immune system is weakened by his condition. 2
After Anthony’s heart transplant, Steve Gomez needed his gall bladder removed. 3 Gomez has claimed that the combined costs of his and his son’s treatments have amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars for out-of-network doctors. 3 Gomez praised Arizona’s “No Surprises Act” that subsequently became law in 2020 that requires private health plans to cover bills for emergency services and out-of-network provider bills. 3 Gomez’s group, Honest Arizona, estimates the act will apply to $10 million in medical bills a year. 3
Political Activism
In 2019, Steve Gomez appeared in a video by Democratic Party-aligned Majority Forward criticizing then-U.S. Senator Martha McSally (R-AZ) for voting against forcing insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions using his son’s health problems as an example. 4 Gomez touts his son’s medical issues and potential bills when arguing for left-of-center health care policy. 5
In April 2019, Gomez filed articles of incorporation for Advancing Arizona, and later the same year, Advancing Arizona received almost $4 million from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a “dark money” campaign organization managed by the philanthropic-consulting group Arabella Advisors. 1 The money went into ads attacking then-Senator McSally for voting to overturn Obamacare, claiming she would hike drug prices for seniors, and she wanted to eliminate health coverage for Arizonans with pre-existing conditions. 6 Arabella Advisors also paid Advancing Arizona $2.75 million in 2022, $8.75 million in 2021, and $2,477,000 in 2020. 7
In November 2023, Honest Arizona along with the AFL-CIO and MoveOn protested outside the offices of U.S. Representatives Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ) and David Schweikert (R-AZ) in opposition to federal budget cuts. 8 In 2020, Honest Arizona, in partnership with the Human Rights Campaign, Planned Parenthood, the Sierra Club, Indivisible, and Arizona Health Care Voters, collaborated to host an empty chair town hall to attack then-U.S Senator McSally. 9
In 2023 to 2024, Honest Arizona has published articles on how President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act would build a fairer tax system, ensure seniors have affordable health care, and how the act provides economic security. 10 Honest Arizona published a “fact sheet” claiming that the GOP is pushing a tax system to only benefit the ultra-wealthy and corporations, and attacked Reps. Ciscomani and Schweikert. 11