In the 14 months since President Donald Trump took office, political rallies in Tucson have only grown in size and sophistication, reflecting how Tucsonans have shown up to resist federal policies and protest his administration.
A year ago, thousands protested outside the Tesla dealership on the northern edge of Tucson and at Reid Park, but on Saturday, locals formed an eight-mile corridor of peaceful protests at key intersections linking Oro Valley to midtown Tucson as part of the nationwide #NoKings protests.
Organizers estimated there were as many as 8 million Americans protesting cuts to healthcare, the war in Iran, ICE raids and detention centers and executive overreach — what they describe as Trump acting like a king.
In Southern Arizona, an estimated 23,000 residents turned out in Marana, Oro Valley, Vail, Green Valley, Sahuarita, Arivaca and across several parts of Tucson to stand on street corners for hours. Informal car protests — for those with mobility issues — circled the demonstrations. People decorated their cars for the protests, passengers waved signs and drivers honked their horns in support.
Thousands of protesters lined both sides of Speedway between Tucson Boulevard and Palo Verde for hours on Saturday.
Protests at Reid Park were held later Saturday morning, giving some residents the chance to attend multiple events before Southern Arizona activists and politicians took the stage at the DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center.
While the protests were peaceful — as they have been for the last 14 months — the message sent back to Washington was fiery, as residents of the deeply blue greater Tucson region have grown increasingly frustrated with the Trump administration.
We spotted an increasing number of signs focused on the midterm elections urging people to vote out Republican members of Congress.
Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva told the crowd at Reid Park that she had just stepped off a plane an hour earlier.
The freshman congresswoman gave a shout-out to the generations of political activists who came before her, recognizing several union organizers in the crowd.
“We honor the fighters, the resisters who came before us, many of whom are here today and are my inspiration every day,” Grijalva said. “We will not go back. Right now, our communities are being asked to carry the burden of decisions being made in Washington that do not reflect our values here in Arizona.”
Thousands of similar #NoKings rallies were held across the country, and the rallies on Saturday at Reid Park shared the same thread we’ve seen at more than a dozen protests in the last year here in the Old Pueblo.
Several dozen people volunteered to hand out water, offer basic first aid to those who needed it under the hot Arizona sun and set up tents to help locals get involved in politics — whether you wanted to sign up for the Communist Party or join the local chapter of Vegans Against Fascism.
There was little police presence despite the massive crowds. A handful of Tucson Police officers largely stayed on the edges of the protests.
Tucson went all out with handmade costumes and signs for Saturday’s #NoKings protests in midtown Tucson.
The National Republican Congressional Committee called the rallies across the nation “Hate America Rallies” in a statement condemning Democrat JoAnna Mendoza, who will face two-term Republican Congressman Juan Ciscomani in Congressional District 6.
“These Hate America Rallies are where the far-left’s most violent, deranged fantasies get a microphone and Joanna Mendoza gets her marching orders” NRCC spokesperson Ben Petersen said. “Voters will punish Mendoza for refusing to condemn radicals who call for assassinations and violence.”
We received an identical release that swapped out Mendoza’s name and condemned all of the Democrats running in Congressional District 1.
Mendoza attended several of the protests in CD6, including the midtown rally at Reid Park, alongside her young son, who held a “No Faux Kings” sign.
Organizers are now calling for a general strike on May 1.
Mayor Regina Romero broke her silence on the abduction of Nancy Guthrie on Friday, telling radio host Bill Buckmaster that she has turned down countless interview requests.
While the national coverage of the Guthrie case often associates the case with Tucson, Romero said there is little for the city to do, as the jurisdiction falls under the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI.
She said she has directed the Tucson Police Department to help in any way it can and she has reached out privately to the Guthrie family.
“It’s devastating to see the Guthrie family suffer through this,” Romero said. “We’ve offered our sentiment (to the family.) I’ve made sure that our chief of police attends to whatever the sheriff’s department and any investigators need in the case.”
Green light for border wall: A federal judge in Tucson shut down a lawsuit aimed at stopping the Trump administration from walling off the border in the San Rafael Valley, Paul Ingram reports for the Tucson Sentinel. Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued waivers for nearly three-dozen federal laws to expedite construction of the wall, but the Center for Biological Diversity and Conservation CATalyst sued, saying the waivers violate the separation of powers in the U.S. Constitution. Judge Angela Martinez said DHS authority was “meaningfully bounded” and “exercised for a narrow purpose prescribed by Congress.”
Making their case: Tucson Electric Power executives took to the Star’s opinion pages to say Project Blue won’t lead to higher costs for residents, as Eric Bronner, a vice president at TEP, wrote in an op-ed. Meanwhile Dallas Dukes, a senior VP at TEP, lobbied voters to support a new franchise agreement with the City of Tucson and explained how franchise fees work.
You don’t have to wait until the next election to show your support for the Agenda. You can click this button any time you like.
Why bother?: Given the heat and lack of rain, midtown Tucson residents and business owners were surprised to see water flowing through a wash near Speedway, KGUN’s Eddie Celaya reports. They reached out to the city to get answers and learned about a water main break in a fenced-off, unused park near Rincon High School. The fact that the water flowed for nearly a week before anyone stopped it and wasted as much water as 134 households would use in a year “belies a bit of casualness in the local bureaucracy about how much water we actually have,” Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller writes.
Choose your own (water) adventure: A proposed plan for the Colorado River could lead to drastic reduction, or even a complete halt, to water flowing through Central Arizona Project canals to Southern Arizona, and that could require a culture change for how Arizonans use water, the Star’s Tony Davis reports. CAP has been a “lifeline, a security blanket and a guarantor of seemingly endless population and economic growth,” Davis writes, as he ponders “what happens next?” Possible scenarios include an expensive court battle, throwing caution to the wind and draining underground aquifers, skyrocketing water bills, or a new era of water limits.
Abusing power: A Pima County sheriff’s deputy was fired after he solicited sex from a woman he was transporting to jail, KGUN reports. Former Deputy Travis Reynolds called the woman “hot” and a “MILF” and then told her he could help her case in exchange for sexual favors. Meanwhile, Timothy Sonier, who coaches at Salpointe Catholic High School and teaches at Dodge Middle School, was charged with sexual exploitation of a minor after he admitted he had uploaded videos and images of minors engaged in sexual conduct with adults, Marissa Orr reports for KVOA.
Welp, things have gotten so bad for Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos that even the Arizona Sheriffs Association doesn’t want to be associated with him.