Mesa Mayor John Giles Stands Up to the AZGOP’s MAGA Bullies for Democracy and the American Way

Mayor Giles has been here before. He stepped forward to endorse the election of Democrat Mark Kelly to the Senate over anti-democratic, anti-American values MAGA blowhard, conspiracy theorist, election denier, and insurrectionist fascist before and taken the blowback from his own party it has caused him with grace.

He’s now doing it again on the national stage by endorsing Harris/Walz over the Trump/Vance ticket this year.

Here’s Mayor Giles’s time on stage last night at the DNC, in which he tells moderates and traditional Republicans like himself, “John McCain’s Republican Party is gone, and we don’t owe a damned thing to what’s been left behind!”:

What you won’t see anywhere else, however, is Mayor Giles’ extended statement at the AZ Delegation breakfast that morning:

Now, some will minimize Mayor Giles’s bravery in doing this. They will say he’s already done it before by endorsing Senator Kelly in 2022, that he’s already suffered a censure by his party for that, and that among his Mormon base, coming out against Trump is not really so problematic, so he won’t lose much support.

All of that may be true, but it’s not the whole story. While the GOP’s support under Trump has cratered in the Mountain West Mormon Enclaves, still more than 70% vote Republican, and Mormons remain roughly split 50/50 for and against Trump. When you take a stand that half of your core constituents strongly disagree with, and many in your own party are willing and able to threaten, harass, and even commit violence against you for that stand, then you are showing tremendous personal and political courage.

They will come for him. They will bring the long knives. I would be surprised if Giles were not hounded out of the GOP entirely this time. I would not be surprised by death threats. I would not be surprised by violence and intimidation aimed at Mayor Giles. I hope none of that happens, but MAGA is more desperate, dangerous, and unhinged than ever before.

So, in a tip-of-the-spear battleground state where the margins have been so slender in the recent statewide elections, Mayor Giles deserves our appreciation and thanks for those votes his endorsement may bring. His political bravery may help immensely in creating the needed permission structure among Mormons, traditional Republicans, moderates, and Independents to cross over and actually vote for Harris/Walz and Democrats down the ticket – enough to make a critical difference in the outcome of the race in Arizona.

We in the Democratic Party need to create a big-hearted enough, wide-open-arms enough, and kind enough tent to welcome inside the refugees from the wreckage of the MAGA Republican Party. We must never compromise on our values in doing so, and need not compromise or water down our policies, however, because it is our shared American values that these real Republicans value, not our policies. They will tolerate our policy differences and may even come to appreciate our proven results in pursuing those policies. This is the most important work we can do as a party in helping American politics return to civility, democratic principles, and tolerance for one another’s differing views and solutions for our shared problems.

Thank you, Mayor Giles, from all of us here at BlogForArizona, and myself most of all.