Arizona has made the big flip. State Rep. Oscar De Los Santos was chosen by the Democratic caucus to serve as House Speaker following an Arizona Democratic tsunami in the midterm election last week.
It’s been 60 years since the Arizona House of Representatives had a Democratic speaker. De Los Santos will have a comfortable Democratic majority of 37 to 23. The party did even better in the State Senate, winning 20 of the 30 members, a two-thirds majority. Most of the newly elected members are women and quite multiracial.
Leading the ticket were incumbents, Gov. Katy Hobbs, Attorney General Kris Mayes, and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, all three winning with double-digit margins.
Democratic candidates also flipped all the other five statewide offices on the ballot. Especially sweet was the victory of Dr. Teresa Leyba Ruiz, who will be the new Superintendent of Public Education.
The MAGA Republican legislators have been on a rampage to destroy public education in the state. They have saddled Arizona with a legacy of laws that make it difficult to restore funding to schools.
Education advocates are already studying creative ways to get around these obstacles, and it will take a push from below, from teachers, parents, and students. Working people have learned that politicians need pressure from the community to put their campaign promises into play.
On top of all that, Arizona Democrats flipped two U.S. Congressional seats. Democrat JoAnna Mendoza defeated incumbent GOP Rep. Juan Ciscomani by 8% in a district that includes part of Metro Tucson and much of southeastern rural Arizona.
Former Democratic legislator Amish Shah flipped an open House seat in Phoenix’s eastern suburbs. Former Navajo Nation Chairman Jonathan Nez has apparently failed, however, to unseat Rep. Ely Crane, one of Congress’ most extreme right-wingers.
The race hasn’t been called yet, but Nez is behind by one percent with few votes left to count. This was a repeat of the 2024 elections, when Nez lost to Crane by a 10% margin. The district covers much of north-central and northeastern Arizona, including a large Native American population.
The three incumbent Democratic U.S. Representatives breezed to re-election, while far-right Republicans survived in three Congressional districts. Two of these were very close, though, surprising since they were in districts where Republicans had previously won by large margins. Arizona’s two Democratic U.S. Senators were not up for re-election.
Although small, Arizona’s labor movement played a very active role in the campaigns, with union and community supporters canvassing and phoning. Labor is hoping that Arizona’s working class will not only be safe from the constant attacks by the MAGA legislature but that working people can make some gains.
Fred Yamashita, Executive Secretary of the Arizona AFL-CIO, remarked during a discussion at Tucson’s Salt of the Earth Labor College that labor leaders are already meeting and listing the issues important to working people and their unions. He added that it’s time to start thinking about taking on Arizona’s right to work (for less) law. Yamashita also stressed the importance of labor working with community allies.
It feels liberating to shed all those fascist-minded Republican officials, but we still have the judges they appointed and the constitutional changes they made, not to mention who is still in the White House and his ICE thugs. We can’t expect the newly-elected Democratic government to deliver much without continued pressure from the people who elected them. We struggled to get them elected; now it’s time to put forward our demands.
As with all op-eds published by People’s World, the views reflected here are those of the author.
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