Fifty days before the election, US Congress candidate Kirsten Engel (CD6) called on Arizonans to reject her extremist opponent and vote instead for abortion rights, jobs that pay well, fighting corporate farm water waste, and a secure border.
“We are fighting this race, up and down the ballot, against extremists. We are fighting for everyday Arizonans against these extremists who are trying to destroy that American dream for all of us. To those extremists who want to return this nation to a time of hate, division, and chaos, what do we say? We won’t go back!”
“To the extremists who want to suppress our vote and intimidate our hardworking election workers. What do we say? We won’t go back!”
“To the extremists who want to prevent us from controlling our own bodies and our own futures with abortion bans and inadequate exceptions. What do we say? We won’t go back!“
She spoke at a jam-packed rally in downtown Tucson that also featured Yolanda Bejarano, the Arizona Democratic Party Chair, former Congressman Ron Barber, Pima Supervisor Chair Adelita Grijalva, and Gabriella Cázares-Kelly, the Pima County Recorder.
<<Click here>> to campaign for Kirsten Engel.
Congressional District 6 is an enormous, 784-square-mile district with 800,000 voters in Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana, Green Valley, and Vail.
Incumbent Juan Ciscomani sold Arizona water to farms from Saudi Arabia, works to slash Social Security, aims to privatize Medicare, wants to restrict access to abortions, and opposed the bipartisan border security bill.
Engel calls for action
Engel summoned the energy in the room to call on Democrats to volunteer for her, knock on doors, and make phone calls to voters.
“So the real question folks is, are we ready? Are we ready to stand for freedom against those who would station government agents in every bedroom and hospital room to dictate our most personal decisions about our lives and our future? Yes, we are!“
“Are we ready to stand with our teachers, nurses, and warehouse workers in their fight for union jobs, career-building educational opportunities, and against the price gouging and corporate consolidation that is killing us with high prices? Yes, we are!“
“Are we ready to fight to protect our water against GOP giveaways to corporate industrial agriculture while tackling climate change to provide a livable planet for our kids and our wildlife? Yes, we are.“
“Are we ready to combat the drug smuggling and human trafficking at our border, which is ravaging our communities, especially our indigenous communities at the border? Are we ready to build a humane and fair immigration system that builds our nation and provides refuge to asylum seekers without sacrificing our safety and security for our communities? Yes, we are!“
“And are we ready to end the senseless gun violence that continues to take lives and rob our kids and communities of the sense of safety we need and deserve? Yes, we are!“
Bejarano blasts incumbent
Democratic Party Chair Yolanda Bejarano blasted incumbent Ciscomani for his many extreme positions:
- “He was the key architect in stacking our Arizona Supreme Court that gave us the 1864 abortion ban. An abortion ban before Arizona was even a state, when the age of consent was age 11? Just sickening.”
- “He was handed a bipartisan solution to the border on a silver platter. And Juan Ciscomani, like all the other Republicans, voted against it because Donald Trump told them to.
- “This is somebody who was part of the Patriot Academy, this extremist group that wants to rewrite our Constitution. They’re even training kids as young as 11 years old to use lethal force.”
- “Is Juan Ciscomani moderating his stance? No, he’s lying to all of us.“
“There’s the vision that Democrats offer, which is more protections, which is a vision where people are treated with dignity and respect,” she said. “And then there’s Donald Trump’s vision, Project 2025, where he seeks to ban abortion nationwide without exceptions for rape or incest, where they want to get rid of the Department of Education.”
“They want to get rid of the Department of Justice. They want to deport over 11 million immigrants. They want to cut Social Security and Medicare. They want to take us back a hundred years.”
“It will be up to every single one of us if we let them do this. We are not going back.”
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