At a Chandler House Party for Very Enthusiastic Harris/Walz Supporters on September 13, 2024, both Arizona House Representative Greg Stanton and Colorado Senator Michael Bennet implored the attendees to work their hardest to propel high voter turnout in Maricopa County, telling them as Maricopa County goes, so does the rest of the Grand Canyon state.
Similar sentiments were expressed at a Republicans for Harris gathering featuring Mesa Mayor John Giles and former Pence National Security Advisor Olivia Troye the night before.
Senator Bennet was in Arizona as part of Vice President Harris’s New Way Forward Tour.
The New Way Forward Tour began after the Vice President’s masterful debate performance against Donald Trump last week. It is an aggressive travel swing across the battleground states to stoke enthusiasm and propel higher voter turnout on the November 5 elections. The New Way Forward Tour is also a chance for citizens to hear Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz’s message of protecting the American People’s fundamental freedoms, strengthening our Democracy, and providing an Opportunity Economy for people to get ahead.
Representative Stanton Speaks to the Guests First.
Telling the guests that there are 52 days to go and maybe “we can sleep on November 6,” Representative Greg Stanton spoke first, asking the guests what they were more excited about: the Vice President’s debate performance or the Taylor Swift endorsement of the Harris/Walz Campaign.
There appeared to be equal excitement for both.
Calling Arizona “the Battleground state to win this election in the entire United States of America,” he stressed that “We are the most important state and the most important county,” saying “In Maricopa County so we can win the county and therefore win the state right here in the East Valley…As Arizona goes, so does the entire election.”
Saying Harris would be historic as the first woman President of the United States, Stanton praised the Vice President for shifting $25 million of her campaign funds to down ballot races because she recognized the importance and necessity of having Democratic legislators in Congressional and Local offices to hope advance Harris/Walz policies like The Women’s Health Protection Act, Bipartisan Immigration Reform, the Pro Act for Labor, and expanding the Prescription Drug Benefit to Non Seniors.
Stanton closed by calling on the guests to continue to work hard the next 52 days, saying:
“So, if you have any plans on travel for the next 52 days, cancel it. If you have an open Tuesday night, don’t watch whatever you’re going to watch on TV. Pick up that phone. They’re going to give you a list of people to call and call through our list because we know how close this election is going to be here in Arizona. It’s going to be a nailbiter here in Arizona. And I’m going to tell you something that worries me. What keeps me up at night? There is still a hidden Trump vote in this state. Remember, Joe Biden was winning, Arizona. In every poll going up in 2020 by at least five Points. He won Arizona by less than one percentage point. There’s about four or five percentage points of people that don’t want to they’re embarrassed to support Trump, but they do. They don’t want to tell a pollster… So we got to win this. We got to make sure we’re working hard. Don’t rely on any, you see, a poll that has Kamela up one or two points. That means we’re losing. We got to keep fighting harder and harder and harder, and that’s why we have incredible talented elected officials from around the country that are coming to Arizona regularly.”
Senator Bennet Followed Representative Stanton.
Senator Bennet spoke next and echoed many of Stanton’s remarks, starting with relaying the political evolution of Colorado, saying, “We used to be a red state, and then a purple State. Now, it’s amazing. Sometimes when I’m watching Colorado blink blue even before Maryland has been called or Pennsylvania has been called. That could be Arizona because of all of you.”
Bennet touted his work on expanding, along with Senators Kamala Harris, Sherrod Brown, and Corey Booker, the Child Tax Credit for the simple reason that there should not be childhood poverty in the richest country in the world.
He praised Vice President Harris’s debate performance, declaring that she was the first candidate to “eviscerate” Trump.
He also cited the Biden/Harris American Rescue Plan’s provisions for expanding the Child Tax Credit that reduced child poverty in half before lapsing a year later.
The Senator reminded the guests that in her Opportunity Economy agenda, the Vice President has promised to expand the Child Tax Credit again and he hoped it would pass with a Democratic Congress because “I don’t want to live in a country anymore where all the benefits, go to the people at the very top,” saying “The real threat to our democracy is the lack of economic mobility that we have in the United States of America. The chance for people to get ahead and get their families…the inequality we have in our schools in America.”
Like Stanton, Bennet closed by calling the guests to action, stating:
“The reason I’m here is that you are a Battleground State. You are ground zero. And we know this race is tied or if anything you’re slightly behind and part of the reason…So what I would ask you is to please not just take one shift. To take two shifts. To take three shifts and to feel the pressure of the rest of the country who’s relying on you…We know we live in a country where people’s votes are being suppressed. We know we live in a country where Donald Trump will lie, cheat, steal to retain the presidency and we know that the thing we have to do is win and drive up the vote and it is in your hands. Arizona, it is in your hands, Maricopa County. You don’t need a lecture from me, but I am begging you on behalf of the rest of this country, please embrace the challenge. That is in front of us between now and November. You take the power out of Donald Trump’s hands. You take the power out of the special interests. You put the Power in the hands of the children…That’s what this election is about, and we are counting on you.”
Exclusive Interview with Senator Bennet following the Event
Senator Bennet graciously responded to several questions about the state of the election, the stymieing of bipartisan immigration reform by Republicans, and the expansion of the Child Tax Credit and other social justice areas.
The questions and the Senators responses are below.
- Are you surprised that the polls are so tight given the former president’s record especially on how he handled COVID? How the economy went down in that last year? His criminal trials after he left office.
“The polls are tight and they’re going to be tight through Election Day. This race is in 50/50 in Arizona and 50/50 in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. And what we know is victory is in our hands if we do the work between now and election day and that’s what’s so important and it all could come down to Arizona and what we do between now and election day in Arizona. So, that’s why I’m here and I have a lot of faith that the hard work, these volunteers and these young campaign workers are doing is really going to pay off, not just for Arizona, but for the whole country.”
- On immigration, you’ve been in the Senate since the Obama Administration. Even before there have been three or four attempts at bipartisan immigration reform that have been torpedoed by extreme Republicans. Why do you think they still get more credit for that issue given their track record on torpedoing every recent bipartisan immigration measure.
“I’ll tell you something, One of the most important part of my life’s work is what I did in the Senate in 2012 and 2013 when I was part of the Gang of Eight that wrote the Immigration Bill. Jeff Flake and John McCain were two members of the Gang of Eight. Two Republicans from Arizona who had the guts to stand up and say, you know what, we can pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform in this country. A pathway to citizenship of the 11 million people. The most Progressive DREAM Act. We wrote all the Visa work that had to be done to make sure we saved American agriculture. We keep our farms and our ranches and forty billion dollars of border security. We were able to pass it with 68 votes in the Senate. And then it went over to the House and the Freedom Caucus killed it and that’s what they’ve done ever since every single Democrat in the Senate voted for that bill for. So for Donald Trump to say Democrats don’t call care about border security, forty billion dollars of border security was in that bill far, more than he ever spent on his medieval wall, but it was 20th Century border security that we had developed in Arizona, and that would allow us to see every inch of the border. Back then, there were two border centers that were Republicans that supported comprehensive reform. Now, we’re going to have two Democrats that are going to support it. And I think we’re going to have a chance to get it done because the American people want that Gang of Eight Bill passed. It doesn’t make any sense to them that when it gets to DC, the Republican caucus in the House and the Senate just collapses on even border security. They can’t even do border security.”
- The Vice President has proposed expanding the Child and Earned Income Tax Credit as well as the Earned Income Tax Credit. Would you like to see it also applied to expanded childcare and Universal Pre-K?
“This country needs a lot of things, and I guess what I would say is I really am focused on trying to reduce childhood poverty as much as we possibly can in this country. The Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax credit are two important ways to do that and fighting against the extension of the Trump tax cuts for the rich is the other part of that. If you care about childcare, if you care about the other domestic issues that we’re facing, the idea that we would borrow money from our kids and working people in this country to finance tax cuts for the richest people in the country is absolutely crazy. And that’s what Trump is going to try to do. We need to, we need to fight that and we need to win that battle so we have the resources to do the to do the kinds of things you’re talking about and do what I’m fighting for which is to get the Child Tax Credit over the finish line.”
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