Robert Branscom, the New Chair of AZ Democratic Party, in his Own Words

Arizona Democrats elected Robert Branscomb at the party’s state committee meeting on January 18, 2025. He defeated incumbent chair Yolanda Bejarano in her re-election run.

Following are the remarks of Robert Branscomb in a debate video released before the Party election on January 18.

My vision for the party is rooted in the idea that we need to bring back the working class. We have to reconnect with the communities that built this state and ensure the struggles are heard. It is time to make this party that truly fights for working families in Arizona who’ve been left behind for far too long.

When I look at Arizona, I see an opportunity, a chance to create policies that ensure every working family has access to health care, affordable housing, quality education, natural resources, and jobs that pay living wages. As chair, I won’t just focus on the status quo. I will relentlessly advocate for bold, progressive policies that elevate all communities, especially those struggling and bring people back to the table.

“If you believe in bold leadership, if you see the need for change, if you’re ready to fight to turn Arizona blue, vote for me,” Branscomb said.

We need leadership that has the courage to stand up to big corporations, fight for union workers and create an economy that works for everyone. The power of the working class should never be underestimated, and we will put that power back into the heart of the party’s vision.

I believe that together, we have the power to create lasting change that lifts every Arizona family, not just a few at the top. Being chair of the Arizona Democratic Party is more than just fundraising and cutting checks to the county parties. Those things are important, yes, but they’re not the end. They’re the means to a bigger vision.

I’m asking for your energy, commitment and shared belief that we can change the future of Arizona together by standing in solidarity with the working class and fighting for justice, equality and opportunity. We will build a stronger, more inclusive party that represents the people who drive our state, our communities and our economy.

Together, let’s show that progress, power, and a fair economy belong to everyone, starting with the working people of Arizona. Thank you for your time, support, and, most importantly, for your ongoing commitment to our shared vision. Let’s make this happen.

Successes to build on

The first thing you asked about was the success of the strengths we can build on. I think we can look at some examples. We have Ruben Gallego, who won. We have LD5, 11, 12, 22, 24, 26, 17 and 18. They all successfully got their people reelected or tried to be competitive in those areas.

One thing that I did after the election was take it upon myself to do a debrief for all the county chairs to ask the same type of question. What did you think ADP did? Some of those opportunities were in the communication. We didn’t communicate effectively with those rural areas, the LD, or the county chair. We need to support those rural areas.

So, many of those people out there felt unsupported and needed our support. We need it. We need to be the leaders of the messaging. We didn’t message properly. We need to do better than that. We let the Republicans define who we are and what we’re about and let them hijack that they’re now the working party for the people. And that’s not true.

Before his election, Robert Branscomb was Vice Chair of the Arizona Democratic Party.

Creating a strategy

What I would do is help us start organizing the state party, and that’s what we lacked. We lacked any type of plan, strategy or tactic going forward. And if we have that, then it’s easier enough for us to be successful. Also, we need to utilize the vice chairs. As a vice chair, I came in May but didn’t have any real direction.

I was told I could fundraise or do a town hall, but I want to do more. So, I took it upon myself to do more. So, we have to utilize the talent and the people there who want to make us successful. But overall, we have to realize that we got beat. And as I said before, we may have lost, but we’re not defeated.

A champion gets back up and fights another day, and that’s what we have to do now. We have to be strong with our messaging. We have to connect with our people. We have to listen to our people and our voters to understand their concerns and develop our messaging to continue expanding Democrats in the state.

We took a step back, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t go forward and regain their momentum and be prepared for the next round. We have to defend the governor, the secretary of state, the attorney general. We don’t have time to be in the seven stages of grief that has to be over.

We have to make sure that we are out in public, and we can do that. And as the chair, I can do that for this party.

Build a lasting structure

One of the things I would do specifically to make sure that the Arizona Democratic Party operates more as Democrats is to make sure that we have an operating plan and a structure within the party. I think that’s essential.

We can’t continue to change chairs and new staff this past election cycle. We lost three key staff members, making it very hard to recuperate. So we want to ensure we have a structure lasting for anybody who comes in.

The second thing is that we have to reconnect to our base. As I said before, we must go out and reach out to them, talk to them, and solidify that. We all know that we’re outnumbered as far as voter registration, so we can’t do it on our own, but we can’t do it without not having a solid base to reach out to the other parties.

How do I tend to make sure the ADP is transparent? Transparency is easy. You just report on it and tell the state party, which is state committee members, what we’re doing. I don’t believe that we’re all volunteers. As chair, I’m a part of the state committee, but other community members need to know what we’re doing. Now, I’m saying that.

If there’s some information we might want to keep in-house, keep it close to the vest because we don’t want the other side to know, but we need to be transparent, especially with the finance committee. We need to implement that and ensure they know that we’re using the funds we’re raising from people who have been spent right and well.

Solving countywide problems

And the last thing I want to say is that we must ensure that we are together as one. We had some issues with different counties operating, and they have problems, and we need to make sure that we do that and stay with them. We do that by having more regular meetings with the board.

Talk about it. Get information from the counties to present to us so we can help make some solutions. We didn’t meet as often as an executive board as we should, and I think it’s important to meet once or twice a month, whatever it takes, and act like a battleground state to ensure we communicate and prepare properly for the election.

We’re all Democrats. But one of the things that we can’t get distracted is the shiny object that the Republicans would put up, so we won’t know what they’re doing behind the chaos.

When I was growing up, during the Vietnam War, every night Walter Cronkite would come in and remind us how many Americans died that day during the war, or back in the 1920s in New York City, the NAACP put out a flag over a Broadway saying a black man was lynched today.

We cannot let Republicans hide what is behind the chaos and not let people know what they’re doing. That’s number one. We have to make sure that we keep it visible and open and that we let no one forget.

Better messaging

The second thing is that we have to take the lead in the messaging. As I said, we must define ourselves and not let them define us.

We have to use the verbiage from the people we’re talking to, our base, and repeat that back to our base so they can understand. We often get accused of being the elite party because we like to think that we have, we’re intelligent, and we try to have some education. But we must remember that people out there daily are trying to fight for food, housing, jobs, and schooling.

We have to make sure that we secure our base and speak the language of the base. We have to be more visible in the media. We were lacking visibility. If we need to battle, be a battleground state, and battle, we must be in the media.

We need to let the media see us, let the people see us, let us know how we feel, and protect the values of our party. And last but not least, we must remind Arizona how we got here. We got here to almost turn the state blue by talking to people knocking on doors, but we also have to think of different ways.

We have to think of different ways to reach our base. We have to inform them. We have to stop sending out so many emails and after each email. We’re asking for a donation and some of those are things I would like to do as chair.


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