Arizona has been garnering lots of attention in the national media as one of a few swing states that might go either way in the 2024 presidential election. The U.S. Senate race to succeed independent Senator Sinema is also getting coverage, but for Arizonans, this election is also about other critical issues.
A MAGA defeat in battleground Arizona is crucial to defeating Trump and can also be the dawn of a new political direction in a state long ruled by right-wing Republicans and conservative Democrats.
For decades Arizona’s legislature has been controlled by right-wing Republicans who have steadily moved further and further to the most extreme ultra-right and fascist positions. Their ranks have included members of the Oath Keepers, indicted fake elector conspirators, Christian nationalists, and assorted white supremacists.
None support democratic American institutions like public schools, progressive taxation, or workers’ rights. Bills submitted by Democratic legislators seldom get a hearing in committee while outrageous ultra-right bills are continuously attacking public education, health care, working people, and especially immigrants.
The racism is thick and vile. Fortunately for us, Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs who was elected in 2022 has been kept busy breaking the all-time veto record.
Now the popular forces are gathering to change the legislature once and for all. Arizona has a two-chamber legislature with 30 senators and 60 in the House of Representatives.
Each of the 30 legislative districts elects two reps-at-large and one senator. The current division favors the GOP 16 to 14 in the Senate and 31 to 29 in the House.
A small gain by the Democrats is enough to wrest the Legislature from the ultra-right. Electing a Democratic Legislature does not guarantee progressive legislation, but it will be a chance for the people’s movements to press for long-awaited changes, like repealing laws that forbid cities from enacting rent control, to give just one example. It won’t be the end of the battle – only the beginning.
Fight for abortion rights critical
Overshadowing all the electoral battles is the fight for abortion rights.
A broad coalition of women’s organizations, labor unions, and community groups, spent months petitioning for a ballot initiative to provide full rights to abortions as a constitutional amendment.
Organizers collected over 820,000 signatures to get the initiative on the ballot, over 20 percent of the state’s registered voters. Support for abortion rights is overwhelming and progressives hope that proposition will help defeat Republican legislators, none of whom are in support.
They also hope it will include a big anti-Trump vote because his Supreme Court appointments caused the need for this proposition. Republican MAGA US Senate Candidate, Kari Lake, who campaigned against abortion rights in the past, and has tied herself firmly to Trump, is trailing in recent polls.
Her TV commercials are mostly racist anti-immigrant and vile.
Democrats are also targeting two Congressional House seats. Former Democratic state legislator Kristen Engel is in a tight race to defeat CD-6 Incumbent Rep. Juan Ciscomani in a district that includes a wide swath of Tucson, much of the wealthier suburbs, and some rural areas.
This is a repeat of the 2022 race in a district composed of an area Biden carried in 2020, and a race that could be impacted by abortion being on the ballot. This is also the case in CD-1 which includes mostly Northwestern suburbs of Phoenix where Dr. Amish Shah, also a former state legislator, is trying to unseat Republican Rep. David Schweikert. Both Ciscomani and Schweikert won by narrow margins in 2022.
The Arizona ballot will also include 13 propositions. Prop. 139, the Abortion Access Act, will amend the state constitution to restore all abortion rights, and Prop. 140 will create open primaries. Both have been placed on the ballot by voter initiatives which required hundreds of thousands of signatures.
The other eleven propositions were placed on the ballot by the legislature after Governor Hobbs’ vetoes. They are allowed to do so, and putting them on the ballot can’t be vetoed.
All eleven are attacks on working people. Prop 138 wants to slash minimum wages for tipped workers. Prop 134 would kill the ability of citizens to use voters’ initiatives. Others are attacks on homeless folks, more attacks on democratic processes, and punishing of children who are victims of sexual crimes.
Worst of all is Prop 314, another “Show me your papers” act that, if passed, would further victimize immigrants and anybody who is Native American, Mexican-American, or happens to have dark skin. This anti-immigrant proposition is part of the national Republican tactic to use immigration as the wedge issue to divide working-class voters.
Democratic candidates are stressing abortion rights and public education. Republicans are mostly concentrating on anti-immigrant racism, and personal attacks on their opponents. Working people need to press the candidates on the need to slash military spending and stop U.S. support of Israeli murderous policies and funding the war in Ukraine.
Arizona’s labor movement is in the thick of the fight. Working-class activists are hoping that the 2024 elections will bring Democratic control of both Congress and the Arizona legislature. Instead of always fending off attacks we will be able to struggle to expand our democratic rights, enact real comprehensive immigration reform, eliminate homelessness, triple the national minimum wage, and much more. Just don’t think that the Democrats will give it to us. Winning anything will still take hard work and broad organizing.
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