Simon Rosenberg: We Must Elect Kirsten Engel to the US House

This is an edited video transcript. Scroll to the very end to watch the video.

Simon Rosenberg: This is Simon Rosenberg from Hopium Chronicles. This is our third interview in the series of interviews we’re doing for the 12 House candidates we’ve backed. If they win, they will flip the House and ensure that MAGA goes into the dustbin of history.

With me today is Kirsten Engel, an intrepid candidate running in Arizona Congressional District Six. This is a very competitive district. If she gets the resources she needs, we should be able to win.

Talk about your district. Where is it? What do we need to know about your district? Tell us about your opponent. Why did you go crazy and run for Congress?

Kirsten Engel: It is a highly competitive district but a district that we can win and add a seat to that Democratic majority that we need and make Hakeem Jeffries and bring functionality back to the U. S. House. I’m running for Congressional District 6 here in Arizona. It’s in southern Arizona. We call it the Gabby Giffords District (D 2007-2012). The Honorable Gabrielle Giffords is probably the most well-known representative of this district and an absolutely fabulous person supporting my campaign along with her husband, Senator Mark Kelly.

I missed winning by about 1% — 5,232 votes. So, it was an incredibly close race. And I was outspent 6 to 1. So I am running again. We now have somebody in that office that does not reflect the district. He ran as a moderate, but he has been anything but in Congress. I call him a MAGA enabler because his voting record has been very consistent with Marjorie Taylor Green.

Voting against reproductive rights and clean energy is a problem in this border district in southern Arizona. We are rejecting bipartisan border solutions. This seat is in a district that Biden almost won in 2020. It is on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s red-to-blue list.

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It is considered a toss-up district. And last quarter, our fundraising went up as people saw this as a winnable district and learned more about our race and our campaign. We actually outraised our opponent by half a million dollars. To this extent, I know that your listeners were part of that, and I want to thank all of them out there.

We’re trying to eliminate the cash-on-hand gap this quarter. We still have that with my opponent, but I think we can do it. People are riled up, and they want the seat back.

Reproductive rights

Simon Rosenberg: When you go to the door, and you’re knocking on doors, and you’re talking to folks, what’s most on everybody’s mind? What are you hearing from people about their concerns? There are things that they’re actually happy about. What are you hearing from folks on the ground?

Kirsten Engel: I am hearing people just really be concerned about reproductive rights and health care. You may know that our Arizona Supreme Court recently brought back an 1864 criminal abortion ban. The state Democrats repealed it very narrowly. It leaves in its wake actually a 15-week abortion ban with no exceptions. This is just unacceptable. People here are shocked and outraged that decisions over their own bodies, their own health care, and their own future should be made into political decisions.

I firmly believe that these are issues that should be left to the woman with her doctor or family her religious advisor, and these should not be decisions that politicians make. That is especially true that the 1864 law coming down has just really rattled people as they think, wow, a politician could dictate whether or not I have access to abortion care or reproductive care. It looks like there is going to be an initiative on our ballot in November that would guarantee these rights in our state constitution. There is an awful lot of support for that.

Anti-abortion incumbent

What people are saying is that my opponent [Republican Juan Ciscomani] has been somebody who wants to take away those reproductive rights that we have relied on. He cheered the repeal of Roe v. Wade when the Dobbs decision came down. He has been a reliable vote in Congress for restricting abortion. Even though he said, let’s leave it to the states, he has been voting time after time again for national abortion restrictions on the availability of medication abortion restrictions and on the ability of our military members to have abortions.

Just last week, he voted in committee to take away the ability of federal employees to have access to IVF. That’s 32,000 people in Arizona alone from whom he ripped those rights away. So, this is an extremist that just doesn’t reflect this district, and people are upset about that. So I’d say hearing about abortion rights and just healthcare.

At people’s doors is number one; people are just very upset with Congress’s lack of attention or progress on the issues that they’re dealing with. Many people here struggle with high-cost groceries. Housing has been very expensive. Rental costs, housing costs, availability of health care, and environmental issues, especially water, are also factors.

We are facing drought conditions on the Colorado River. We’ve got genuine issues with groundwater, especially in this district. I’m actually an environmental attorney, so I can’t wait to dig into working on those issues.

So, people want to function in Congress. I served in the Arizona legislature., I actually had a reputation as a law school professor who does her damn homework. Because I want to, I’ll work with anyone. People want Congress to work on these issues. They’re sick of the dysfunction.

Simon Rosenberg: Do you think that Kari Lake running again has made it easier for you to make the argument that your opponent is an extremist? Is there a sense that the Arizona Republican Party has lost its way and gone too far as a backdrop to this race?

Kirsten Engel: Kari Lake is an outwardly facing extremist, and she’s very open about it.

She says crazy things about how she continues to insist that she won the election. When it’s so clear that she hasn’t, I do think that the fact that she was defeated means that we also defeated other extremists. From the person who was running against Senator Kelly, the opponent for the Secretary of State or Attorney General, the very open and loud MAGA extremists have been defeated in Arizona.

That is making people feel like, wow, we actually can change this state. And it now is putting a spotlight on people like my opponent, Juan Ciscomani, who vote reliably for all of those MAGA extremist policies.

So Juan Ciscomani has endorsed Trump, Trump has endorsed him, he’s taken extremist positions on abortion and other issues, and we have now learned that he’s actually got a long history of extremism. He was the founder of the Arizona chapter of the Patriot Academy.

I don’t know how many of your voters your viewers may be familiar with this organization. Still, it’s basically a Christian militia organization, a Christian nationalist organization that trains kids as young as 11 years old in how to use handguns, doesn’t believe in the separation of church and state and is interested in rewriting the Constitution to make this a Christian nation. That’s extreme; that is not a pluralistic society that is welcoming of all viewpoints and a democratic future. That says a lot about where this person comes from and why they’ve been a bad fit for seven years.

Simon Rosenberg: I was lucky enough a couple of months ago to be a speaker at the Maricopa County Democratic Party annual fundraiser. The Supreme Court’s decision on the 1864 law and the event raised more money than they’d ever raised before.

I was there early at a reception beforehand, and I felt the passion and intensity in that room. People were fired up. This seemed to have really woken people up to the stakes of the game, right to the stakes of the election, and the room was energetic. The speakers were lively and passionate.

This 1864 decision may have fundamentally changed the understanding of the stakes of the game for many voters and for many activists or people who may be making extra phone calls, knocking on doors, or giving a little bit more money, which fired people up. Do you see that in your canvassing and the work you’re doing on the ground?

How is the sense of the family coming together for you on the ground?

Kirsten Engel: Absolutely. We are about five months out from the election, four months out from when ballots drop, and you can feel it in the air. People are opening up their doors when we come down their driveways to talk to them as we have been carrying around the abortion access ballot initiative for collecting signatures.

I’ve had people pull it out of my hands. They want to sign it. They really want some control over these issues. And I think, in this country, for a long time, people have known that there are a lot of people who are anti-abortion. But I don’t think anybody really expected the Dobbs decision to take away 50 years of having that control over our reproductive rights.

And to see what kind of can of worms opens up in a state here in Arizona with this old 1864 law, a time during the Civil War. Women didn’t have the right to vote or even own property. The very concept that could come back into effect, I think, has been really jarring to people, and they are fired up.

They’re like, “This is unacceptable.” Why are these politicians telling me, my daughter, my niece or the women down the street what can happen with their health care? It already is impacting our ability to attract healthcare providers and doctors to the state.

I’m a teacher. I teach college-age and law school-age students. I want them to enroll in my classes. I want people to stay here and contribute to our state. And yet, what are we telling them about the future when we have just nearly missed having an 1864 criminal abortion ban go into effect?

Biden investments in Arizona

Simon Rosenberg: One other question for me is that Arizona has been one of the most fortunate states in the country in terms of investment. The big three Biden bills are pouring investment money into the Chips Act, the Infrastructure Act, and the IRA [Inflation Reduction Act], which I would like to describe as the climate bill.

Arizona has really benefited from the huge investment in the state in the last few years. Do you think that’s well understood among voters when you talk to them? Is there an understanding that the economy is really booming in Arizona and that people have more opportunities now than they may have had a few years ago?

How’s that playing out on the ground?

Kirsten Engel: That is absolutely the case, but we need to do a better job of getting that word out. It is something like $10 billion coming into the state as a result of that. As you say, the climate bill, and that’s not just federal money.

A lot of that is private money coming in because of federal investment. So we have new battery manufacturing, and we’re bringing manufacturing jobs back to America and back to Arizona. And it makes so much sense that it’s in clean energy here in Arizona since we have over 300 days a year.

It’s very sunny and hot outside of sunshine. And it just makes so much sense to be a world leader in solar technology and renewable energy. These are good-paying jobs. Many of the jobs do not necessarily need a college education. And a lot of them are increasingly union jobs.

It’s something that can really increase and help our economy, especially as we are dealing with other challenges, such as the water crisis. The Biden administration, working with a democratic Congress, has accomplished this incredible thing.

And the other thing is that there are a lot of seniors in our district in Arizona who come here for our way of life and our warm weather. The Inflation Reduction Act, and for the first time having that ability to negotiate the price of prescription drugs and capping the cost of insulin, is a real game changer and really helpful to the bottom line of so many families, their budgets, and so many seniors in the state.

We need to continue working on those kinds of things. We absolutely need to get the word out. Whenever I talk to people about it, they’re like, wow, that’s incredible. We’ve got to get you into Congress. We have to flip the House so that the Democrats control it so we can get more things done like that.

Simon Rosenberg: When I was in Phoenix for this dinner, I took an Uber, and we drove by one of the plants that was being built and was in its early stages. And I just said to the driver, wow, that’s an enormous facility.

Do you know what it is? Is it one of these new chip plants? And he said, yeah, it’s a new chip plant. This guy was in his mid-twenties or late twenties. And he said, “I’m driving an Uber now. I just quit my other job, and I’m taking a little break as I try to find my next job. But the reason I was able to do that is because there are so many jobs in Arizona right now.” He also said he had confidence because of the huge investments that were going on here.

But I think in places like Arizona, one of our opportunities as Democrats is to make that connection between the sense of investment and opportunity that people are feeling, our policies and who we are. What makes us best as Democrats is when we’re the party of opportunity and upward mobility.

Any last thoughts for everybody before we go?

Kirsten Engel: You really put that beautifully. You really hit the nail on the head. I think that’s one of the things that attracted me to Arizona. It’s a dream come true for my family and me to go to the States. We absolutely love this place.

It is a very open, welcoming society. It’s a beautiful place. And there is real economic opportunity here. What we’re seeing are people seeing that opportunity, seeing what they could accomplish, and seeing the things that they could do with their lives and for their families.

Yet, we are facing extremism among people in office. Some are just running for office. People are saying that’s not what I want. I want the opportunity that the Democrats are offering with Biden and with other Democrats like us. I don’t want those extremists trying to take us back.

I’m on the side of forwards, not backward, and I thank all of your viewers for their support and you for highlighting our race.

Simon Rosenberg: Listen, everybody, this is really important. We have three states that we’re really over-investing in, which are the battleground states that we’ve chosen.

And they’re Arizona, North Carolina and Nebraska, which is the blue dot with that extra electoral college vote.

My wife is from New Mexico. We used to go on vacation every year, bringing our three kids to Phoenix and Tucson when Tucson still had spring training teams. We would go to the Desert Museum with our kids in Tucson, one of the most amazing places. Our kids love that place. It was so remarkable that Arizona is one of my favorite places in America.

I’ve enjoyed the whole family’s time there, and I’ve been lucky enough to spend a long, long time there over a long period. I’m very proud that the Democrats have been able to take what was a lean-red state and turn it into a lean-blue state. Now, we have enormous opportunities this year because of the extremism of the Republicans in the state, as we do in places like North Carolina and with great candidates like Kirsten.

We’re going to bring this home in November, so thank you for running and for the tireless hard work you do to be a candidate. It is grueling work, but the stakes are high. That’s why we’re all fighting with everything we’ve got and leaving it all on the playing field; this election really matters.

And so, folks, I hope you’ll consider donating to our 12 candidates or Kirsten’s separately. You have a choice. You can either make a direct donation or support all 12. Hopefully, we’ll hear back from you in a few months and get a check in as you go out and win this election in November.

Kirsten Engel: Absolutely. EngelForArizona.com. If anybody’s looking for more information about us, I’d be happy to come back and give you all an update.

Simon Rosenberg: Thank you so much. Good luck. Thanks, everybody.