Republican Tony Rivero returns to the legislature this session to represent District 27 after a two-term hiatus. Rivero was first elected to the House a decade ago, and served until 2020. During his time in office, Rivero introduced and supported a range of criminal justice legislation. He proposed expanding opportunities for criminal record expungement and allowing judicial discretion in applying mandatory minimum sentences. In 2017, he successfully passed legislation allowing state licensing authorities discretion to issue regular or provisional licenses to an otherwise qualified applicant who was convicted of a crime. He continuously pushed to legalize syringe service programs, which provide sterile syringes to combat the spread of HIV, hepatitis and other bloodborne infections. Though Rivero never saw the legislation passed in his own time at the legislature, Sens. T.J. Shope and Nancy Barto passed similar legislation in the 2021 session. Rivero describes himself as an “advocate for Fiscal Responsibility and Open Government,” on his campaign website, which was on display during his time in the Legislature, too. He once introduced a bill to do away with state income taxes entirely and once threatened to be a holdover on the 2019 budget because he said it was “not a conservative budget.”