John Backer was born and raised in a small town in Tennessee and is a lifelong Republican. The Air Force brought him to Tucson on July 4, 1984 to serve as an Aircraft Electrician on the A-10 at Davis-Monthan – later working on F-16s and A-7s at the Arizona National Guard in Tucson. John has spent most of his adult life in the Tucson area. He is married and the father of a blended family of 4 adult daughters and a teenaged son – John is also a grandfather of 5 children ranging in age from 1 to 12.

John has earned four college degrees including a Master, Bachelor, and two Associates degrees.

He is currently serving our community as:

  • The Chairman of the Town of Sahuarita Planning and Zoning Commission
  • Elected PC – LD19

Previously, John served our community as:

  • An Arizona Republican Party State Committeeman representing LD2 – 2018-2020, and 2020-2022
  • A Pima County Board of Adjustment commissioner for Pima County District 4
  • LD2 3rd vice chair
  • LD2 1st vice chair (for a short time prior to running for County Supervisor)
  • Served on the Town of Sahuarita visioning committee for the Sahuarita Square project
  • Served on the Pima GOP nominations committee in 2018

Additional Community Involvement:

  • Cub Master for pack 328 for 4 years
  • Assistant Cub Master for 1 year
  • Recreation league sports coach for soccer, basketball, and volleyball
  • Junior Achievement – taught elementary students the JA curriculum
  • Habitat for Humanity – volunteered to help build homes
  • Neighborhood Watch Co-Coordinator for 3 years – Madera Highlands
  • HOA advisory committee member for 1 year – Madera Highlands

In addition to running for public office himself twice, he has helped several Republican candidates including his daughter Brianna Hamilton who won a seat on the Flowing Wells School Board. John helped by:

  • conducting data analysis for the campaign
  • participating in flag waves
  • walking neighborhoods
  • leveraging social media
  • participating in events
  • texting voters

John has 30 years of technology experience – including 10 years working at IBM on a World-Wide Visual Analytics Team which helped clients:

  • Fight terrorism
  • Find fraud, waste, and abuse
  • Make sense out of large amounts of data

Over the 3+ years, John has been working for a Tucson based software company as their Director of Business Development and Client Success. As an integral part of the business, he has trained and coached staff in sales techniques and technical topics, spearheaded the company’s efforts to establish their social media presence and rebrand the company website – greatly improving the company’s ability to grow their business. The company is proud to serve the law enforcement community.

John is also a Realtor and leads The Backer Team consisting of real estate agents from Nogales to Tucson and reaching into Phoenix.