While national Democrats pull their hair out about progressives winning primaries, Southern Arizona voters are quietly electing candidates who embrace the democratic socialist movement.
That includes Miranda Lopez, who could be the first self-proclaimed democratic socialist lawmaker in Arizona if she wins a House seat in Legislative District 21, which covers southeast Tucson and stretches through Nogales, Rio Rico, Sahuarita, and a slice of Cochise County.
Lopez squeaked out a victory in a Democratic primary that ended up being one of the most interesting races in Southern Arizona.
She set her sights on unseating Rep. Consuelo Hernandez, whom Lopez criticized for supporting a constitutional convention that could put hard-won rights, like abortion, at risk. But Lopez ended up pushing out Democratic Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton instead, and by just a few hundred votes.
Now, Lopez and Hernandez are trying to beat Republican Christopher Kibbey in November to make sure the district’s House seats stay in Democratic hands.
They’ll probably pull it off with ease. The district is heavily Democratic, and Kibbey hasn’t really made a name for himself outside Republican circles despite this being his second run at a state House seat.
In other words, Southern Arizona is all but certain to add Lopez to the list of elected officials who got a bump from the democratic socialist movement, alongside Tucson City Councilwoman Miranda Schubert and TUSD Governing Board member Sadie Shaw (who barely lost a Tucson City Council seat to Councilman Kevin Dahl last year).
Lopez on the campaign trail with her trusty furry companion, Gracie.
Our intern, Nicole Camacho, caught up with Lopez after the primary election to talk about surviving her first campaign, working with former primary rivals and what she hopes to tackle at the Capitol — including housing affordability, public education and infrastructure.
The following was edited for length and clarity.
You and Rep. Hernandez had a pretty tough primary. What do you expect your working relationship to be like if you’re both serving together?
Yeah, I mean I expect it to be very professional. I’m willing to work with anybody, and I think that Rep. Hernandez is the same. Yeah, I think that we’ll be more than able to work together.
Was there anything about the campaign that surprised you?
Well, this is the first time that I’ve run for office, and so I knew it was going to be a lot of work going into it.
But just the amount of time and effort, and also the amount of support that I got from people in my community and from people that I had never met before.
Whether that was sending me messages on social media or talking to me at the door, I was very moved by the amount of support that I had.
On the campaign trail, you repeatedly promised a “different kind of leadership” if you won a seat in the Legislature. What does that look like?
I want leadership that holds itself accountable and does not simply sell out to corporations or corporate PACs that are lobbying for data centers or lobbying against the rights of tenants.
I believe in leadership that is fully transparent and makes sure that I stay accountable to the people who elected me.
Making deals with other state legislators to get bills passed often includes meeting your colleagues — including Republicans — halfway. How would you handle that?
My values are rooted in what is best for the community and what is best for working people, who are the backbone of our economy and our society. I plan to root my decisions in those values.
Anything that would compromise the health and safety or the general living conditions of working people is something that I will not be agreeable to.
The Tucson Democrat at the state Capitol, where she hopes to spend a lot more time next year.
What do you think Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature can work together on?
I think (the issues) where we disagree are how exactly those should be prioritized. My job as a legislator is going to be finding that common ground because ultimately we all want the best opportunities possible.
Any idea that is serving working families, holding corporations accountable, and forcing billionaires to pay what they owe — anything like that — I am definitely amenable. I don’t care if it comes from Republicans or Democrats.
What do you think is the biggest issue in LD21 right now?
Right now, I think most people are primarily concerned with the immediate day-to-day issues like affordability.
What specific policies would you support to make housing more affordable?
One of the first issues that I think is important to address is making sure that we are funding the Arizona housing department on a four-year basis instead of, I believe, the one-year or two-year basis it’s currently funded under.
Fully funding that will give the state the resources and the time that it needs to actually address a lot of these issues.
The other policy that I think we have to bring back is the low-income housing tax credits, and also, in general, increase the amount of funding that we are allocating to the Arizona Housing Trust Fund. Those are some of the more specific policies that I want to enact.
Now that the campaign is over, what do you want people who voted against you to know about how you’ll represent them?
I plan to represent everybody, whether they voted for me or not, to the best of my ability.
I hope that they have given me their trust as voters, and I hope that I can have them trust me in that I want what is best for our working families and our communities here in Southern Arizona. That is ultimately my goal in any decision that I make.
The Agenda team moderated two Southern Arizona legislative debates last week — if you can call quizzing Democrats about the issues a “debate.”
Sadly, none of the Republican incumbents in Pinal County-based Legislative District 16, or in southeastern Arizona’s Legislative District 19, took the time to counter their opponents and speak directly to voters.
But the Democrats had lots to say, at least!
Here’s a sample.
You can watch all of this year’s debates on the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission’s YouTube channel.
Democrat Bob Karp is running his fourth campaign for the Legislature in the district, this time challenging 10-term lawmaker Gail Griffin for the state Senate seat in LD19.
“I’m running because Gail Griffin is a professional politician,” Karp said during the debate. “She believes term limits are fine for the U.S. Congress, but not for herself.”
Meanwhile, Democrats Aiden Swallow and Jackie O’Donnell Anderson are seeking the two House seats against Republican Rep. Lupe Diaz and Republican Sen. David Gowan. (Gowan and Griffin are attempting to swap seats this year after each reached their term limits in their respective chambers.)
Swallow and O’Donnell Anderson fielded questions about their backgrounds and how they would govern, as well as their thoughts on issues facing the state, like data centers.
O’Donnell Anderson doesn’t think Arizona should be catering to data centers, since they bring only a few long-term jobs.
“I mean, all they could have is a night watchman, and then we’re still losing our water, which is going to take harder and harder to replenish,” O’Donnell Anderson said.
But Swallow said that if elected, she would try to serve all of the constituents of the district, rather than take marching orders from the Democratic Party or Democratic leaders in the House.
“I’m not a fan of the Democratic establishment,” Swallow said. “I understand I’m a Democratic nominee, but I have no issue breaking caucus if I need to.”
The two Democrats running for the Legislature in LD16 were also willing to buck their party, at least when it comes to taxes.
The district leans Republican, but it’s competitive — voters here elected one Democrat in recent years.
Democratic Senate candidate Elaine Aldrete is challenging Republican Sen. T.J. Shope. Democrat Julia Romero Gusse is running a “single-shot” campaign for the district’s two House seats against Republican Reps. Teresa Martinez and Chris Lopez.
Both Democratic candidates argued against Republican culture war issues, saying they planned to vote against Prop 318, which would bar trans girls from playing girls’ sports and require students to use the bathroom matching their biological sex as listed on their original birth certificate.
Aldrete said she thinks the issue is a distraction from more important things like the Epstein files.
“We’re more worried about whether or not a person can use a bathroom than we are about pedophiles out there harming our children,” Aldrete said.
But both candidates drew the line on new taxes, saying they wouldn’t vote to increase the state’s personal income tax rate. Repealing that tax rate, which was enacted under former Gov. Doug Ducey, has been a Democratic priority for years.
“I think we’re over taxed as it is,” Gusse, a former city councilwoman in Maricopa, said.
Still fighting, long after the bell: A seemingly inoffensive grant for the Southern Arizona Education Council is kicking up a lot of political dust, Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller writes. The core of the kerfuffle over the $122,000 grant is the fact that most of the money will go to the council’s director, Rocque Perez, who lost a tense primary election to Democratic rival Rep. Alma Hernandez this summer. Now, the Hernandez camp is trying flex their muscle against the Grijalva machine and squelch the grant, which they say amounts to insider dealing to political allies.
“The level of scrutiny to this contract is a carry-over from the primary, and that’s unfortunate,” Jen Allen, chair of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, told Steller.
Fizzle, then sizzle: Attorney General Kris Mayes said her office couldn’t find any evidence that Gov. Katie Hobbs engaged in a quid pro quo with Sunshine Residential Homes, a contractor that made a big donation to Hobbs’ inaugural fund and then swayed state officials to pay more for group home contracts, the Arizona Mirror’s Gloria Rebecca Gomez reports. Mayes and Hobbs are both Democrats running for reelection and their Republican opponents didn’t let Mayes’ decision slide by unnoticed. Senate President Warren Petersen, who’s running against Mayes, said she “shamefully shifted accountability.” Hobbs’ opponent, U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, said state lawmakers passed bills to block this type of “stinky stuff” from happening, but Hobbs vetoed them. Tucson-area Republican Rep. Rachel Keshel also jumped into the fray, calling Mayes’ decision “corrupt as hell.”
Teetering on the demographic cliff: Amid a drop in enrollment, the University of Arizona is closing four dorms for the upcoming academic year, per the Star’s Prerana Sannappanavar. UA officials say 900 fewer students stayed in the UA’s 23 dorms last year than the year before. Meanwhile, the school is now requiring first-year students to stay in dorms, while UA officials also hype a $250 million new dorm at Speedway and Campbell.
Quick strike: Auto technicians and other employees at Jim Click Nissan walked off the job last Wednesday and ended up getting better wages and working conditions by Friday, the Tucson Sentinel’s Mia Kortright reports. The strike came after Gee Automotive bought the well-known car dealerships and started charging customers more, while blocking employees from getting paid for their work, according to employees.
We’re our own bosses, so we can’t really strike against ourselves. But we still need to get paid for our work!
Everybody’s doing it: The Town of Sahuarita is going to hammer out zoning rules for data centers, the Green Valley News’ Jorge Encinas reports. As it stands, the town doesn’t have any rules specific to data centers, and officials say they’re aware the public is going to want to be a part of the decision-making process. Meanwhile, a Rancho Sahuarita representative confirmed at an HOA meeting that the company was talking to developers about building a data center on a property south of the resort, Encinas reports. Not to be outdone on the data center news front, Rural Arizona Action organizer Tara Clayton says Cochise County Supervisor Frank Antenori may have misspoken when he told the public that no data centers had been approved in the county. Clayton dug up records showing a modest-sized data center was approved last October, which is one of the reasons she’s calling for more transparency from county officials, Mark Hays reports for the Herald/Review.
“Approachable” isn’t the worst campaign slogan we’ve ever heard.
It doesn’t have the bells and whistles of a coordinated messaging campaign, but hey, who doesn’t like politicians who are approachable?
Follow it up with calling yourself “Dougster” on your campaign website and you’ve got the makings of a political persona right there.
Notice the “Paid for by Arizona Dougster Committee.”
That’s what Republican Doug Everett is putting together as he tries to unseat Democratic Sen. Priya Sundareshan in Tucson’s Legislative District 18.
It’s a solidly Democratic district and Sundareshan will probably clobber Everett in November. But the local Republican Party is still doing its best to “Make Tucson Great Again.”
Everett is doing his part by putting up signs like this all over Tucson.
If you see one, reach out to the Dougster, we hear he’s very approachable.