Javan Daniel "J. D." Mesnard[1] (born May 15, 1980)[2] is an American politician and a Republican member of the Arizona Senate representing District 13 since 2023.
Mesnard spent eight years as a staffer for the Arizona Senate before being elected to the Arizona House of Representatives (where he was Speaker of the House for one term), from District 21 (Chandler, Gilbert, Sun Lakes, Mesa, Queen Creek) from 2011 to 2013, and then from District 17 (Chandler, Gilbert, Sun Lakes) from 2013 to 2019.
Prior to running for office, Mesnard spent eight years working at the Arizona Senate where he served as a policy advisor.
As House speaker, Mesnard was a key supporter of school voucher expansion legislation; the proposal passed the legislature, but a grassroots group collected enough signatures to refer the issue to voters.
[10] In 2015, Mesnard was among 36 current and former Republican lawmakers who filed an unsuccessful lawsuit seeking to overturn Arizona's Medicaid expansion on the grounds that an assessment imposed on hospitals was a tax that, under Proposition 108 (a ballot initiative passed in 1992), required the approval of a two-thirds majority of the Legislature.