Activity by Progressive/Democratic-Aligned Groups in Arizona

Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 7th, 2020
Media Contact: Abril Gallardo

Voters Rejected Hate, Xenophobia, and White Supremacy from Trump and Republicans

PHOENIX — It’s official! The nation has flipped from red to blue. And Arizona’s youth and voters of color brought on the most significant victory for progressive elected officials and policies in recent history. In response to the results, Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA) has released the following statement:

Co-Directors of LUCHA, Alejandra Gomez and Tomas Robles, Jr.:

    “In Arizona and across the country, we have seen our communities show up in record numbers to reject hate, xenophobia, and white supremacy. More than 2.5 million Arizonans voted by mail and hundreds of thousands voted in person. This is the result of decades of work to ensure that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities are represented.

    Today, we are witnessing the beginning of a healing process, where voters blatantly rejected Trump’s nativism and racism. Voters decided and they showed up for immigrant youth and their families. They showed up for people with pre-existing conditions. They showed up for our planet and climate change. And they showed up for workers’ and women’s rights. Voters were there for all of our loved ones who left us too early as a result of Trump’s failure during COVID-19.

    Now, we turn the page and start a new chapter, knowing that our efforts have gotten us to this victory. We are ready to continue to push for bold, innovative and unapologetic agendas that center the needs of our communities. For the last decade many grassroots organizations with little to no resources built spaces for our communities to participate in and build their political power to achieve this victory. We changed the electorate by continuing to invest in our members who have made sure our community has a voice and seat at the table. From endorsements, to calls and knocks made, our members will continue leading and deciding. This is the Arizona we have built collectively and we will not let the leaders we helped elect forget it. Our eyes are set towards our path forward and winning more victories for our people. ”

Yenni Sanchez, 21-year-old DACA Recipient and LUCHA member :

    “For the past decade, young mixed-status voters in Arizona have played a critical role to build the community and electoral power we have right now. Many of us have DACA and are part of immigrant families. I made hundreds of calls and put my health on the line to come out and knock on doors to make sure we elected Joe Biden and Mark Kelly into office and I did it because the lives of my loved ones were on the line. I am ready to continue to be bold and unapologetic about my demands for policies that provide a permanent solution for me, my parents and the rest of Black and Brown immigrants, our planet and working families in this county .”

LUCHA, alongside partners like Mi Familia Vota, Our Voice Our Vote, CASE Action, Chispa Arizona, and Progress Arizona, have been building and leading for this very moment. Together, we founded the MiAZ coalition that knocked on 1.5 million doors for the 2020 campaign cycle. And LUCHA, specifically, has been operating as a statewide organization, with offices in Pima, Coconino and Maricopa Counties, and had incredible milestones this year. For example:

    This election season, LUCHA launched the #LUCHABlue Campaign that yielded to knocking on more than 58,000 doors and made over 2.7 million calls to Arizona voters.

    LUCHA ran it’s largest digital, radio, TV, billboards and print ads, targeting Latinx voters across the battleground state of Arizona that generated more than 105,000,000 million impressions. These ads included 9 unique Spanish and English radio spots in 16 radio stations, targeting the Latinx community in Maricopa, Pima and Coconino counties.

    With almost 2.8 million ballots casted, Arizona participation already broke record from the 2016 election.

    Latino voter turnout in Arizona nearly doubled, representing the highest number of Latinx voters in the history of the Grand Canyon State.

This year, LUCHA members also endorsed and supported candidates that are from our communities — candidates that have knocked on doors with us and that have organized and want to co-govern with us. We are proud of to celebrate the following endorsed candidates who won their seats:

    Raquel Teraán | AZ House of Representatives LD 30

    Charlene Fernandez | AZ House of Representatives LD 4

    Martin Quezada | AZ Senate LD 29

    Reginald Bolding | AZ House of Representatives LD 27

    Diego Rodriguez | AZ House of Representatives LD 27

    Juan Mendez | AZ State Senate LD 26

    Athena Salman | AZ House of Representatives LD 26

    Adelita Grijalva | Pima County Board of Supervisor District 5

    Domingo Degrazia | AZ House of Representatives LD 10

    Andres Cano | AZ House of Representatives LD 3

    Gabriella Cazares-Kelly | Pima County Recorder

    Richard Andrade | AZ House of Representatives LD 29

    Stephanie Stahl-Hamilton | AZ House of Representatives LD 10

    Kirsten Engel | AZ State Senate LD 10

    Kelli Butler | AZ House of Representatives LD 28

    Victoria Steele | AZ State Senate LD 9

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• Arizona is one of twelve states targeted by SwingLeft as part of its Super State Strategy.

https://swingleft.org/p/arizona
Arizona
SUPER STATE STRATEGY

Our primary objectives in Arizona are to:  are to: 1) flip the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Martha McSally, 2) win the state’s 11 Electoral College votes, and 3) break unified Republican control of the state government by flipping one or both state legislative chambers.

We are currently targeting four districts in the Arizona State Senate and three districts in the Arizona State House. These targets are nested within each other and clustered near the Phoenix metro area with additional targets northeast of Phoenix.

At every level of the ballot, our pathway to victory runs through these key Arizona geographies, as demonstrated by Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s victory in 2018.

 
BY THE NUMBERS
3 Seats needed to flip the state senate
2 Seats needed to flip the state house
1 United States Senate seat to flip
11 Electoral College votes

U.S. SENATE RACE
Mark Kelly
Martha McSally

STATE SENATE CANDIDATES
LD-6: Felicia French
LD-17: Ajlan Kurdoglu
LD-20: Douglas Ervin
LD-28: Christine Marsh

STATE HOUSE CANDIDATES
LD-6: Coral Evans
LD-17: Jennifer Pawlik
LD-20: Judy Schwiebert


WHAT'S AT STAKE
553 accidental shootings per year in Arizona: According to the Giffords Law Center, Arizona receives an "F" rating for its gun safety laws, which are some of the weakest in the country. On average, Arizonans experience 244 gun homicides, 669 firearms suicides, 582 nonfatal shootings, and 553 accidental shootings per year.

10 years since Arizona's Senate Bill 1070: In 2010, the Arizona state legislature passed the anti-immigrant Senate Bill 1070, commonly referred to as the “show me your papers” law, which required police to ask for proof of legal residency status of anyone suspected of being undocumented. While this measure was diluted in a 2016 settlement, “show me your papers” has not been formally repealed.

45th in the nation for teacher pay: With an average teacher’s salary of $48,723, Arizona is in the bottom five states in the country as of 2019. Arizona is also in the bottom three states in per-student funding as a result of the state legislature’s underinvestment in public education.

What's at stake facts updated June 2020

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• Arizona Wins is a local affiliate of America Votes.
az-wins.org