Yassamin Ansari
Yassamin Ansari, a Democrat who has represented Arizona's 3rd congressional district since 2025 and previously served on the Phoenix City Council, seeks reelection in 2026 against Republican write-in candidate Jacob Parkman.
2026 Races & Market Forecast
Live TruthIndex™ and prediction market consensus for races contested by Yassamin Ansari.
- Born
- April 7, 1992
- Birthplace
- Seattle, Washington
- Education
- Chaparral High School
Stanford University (bachelor's degree in international relations)
St. John's College, Cambridge (master's degree in international relations and politics)
Biography & Campaign Analysis
Background
Yassamin Ansari was born in Seattle, Washington, to parents who immigrated to the United States after fleeing Iran following the Islamic Revolution.
She grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona, and attended Chaparral High School, where she organized with the Arizona Democratic Party in support of Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.
Ansari earned a bachelor's degree in international relations at Stanford University, interning for Nancy Pelosi during college, and in 2016 she began a master's degree in international relations and politics at St. John's College, Cambridge, as a Gates Cambridge Scholar.
Career
After graduating, Ansari joined the office of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon through the John Gardner Fellowship Program and worked as a senior policy advisor to Ban and to his successor, António Guterres, including a year on the Paris Agreement.
She won a seat on the Phoenix City Council for the 7th District in a runoff on March 9, 2021, and took office on April 19, 2021, becoming the youngest person elected to the council and the first Iranian American elected to public office in Arizona.
On the council she created an Office of Heat Response and Mitigation, and she resigned on March 28, 2024, to focus on her congressional campaign.
Ansari won the August 2024 Democratic primary for the 3rd district by 39 votes and took nearly 71% of the vote in the general election, succeeding Ruben Gallego. She was elected Democratic freshman class president, and she serves on the Committee on Natural Resources, where she is ranking member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, and on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
2026 race
Arizona's 3rd district is majority-Latino and based in downtown and western Phoenix, and Ansari was elected there with 70.9% of the vote in 2024. She was unopposed in the 2026 Democratic primary, receiving 37,553 votes. In the general election on November 3, 2026, she faces Republican nominee Jacob Parkman, a write-in candidate on the general election ballot, along with No Labels nominee Alan Aversa and Green nominee David Redkey, both educators.