Kyrsten Sinema

Kyrsten Sinema

Arizona Women Win 42 Legislative, State & Congressional Races

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Kyrsten Sinema
Arizona Senator-elect Kyrsten Sinema

Arizona has a history of electing women to public office. In 1932, Arizona elected Isabella Greenway to the US House of Representatives. In 1972, State Senator Sandra Day O’Connor was the first female president of the Arizona Senate. In 1998, Arizona voters elected five women to run the state government— Jane Hull (Governor), Betsy Bayless (Secretary of State), Janet Napolitano (Attorney General), Carol Springer (Treasurer), and Lisa Graham-Keegan (Superintendent of Public Instruction). To this date, Arizona’s Fab Five remain the most number of women elected to state government at the same time. In 2017, the Arizona Legislature had the highest percentage of women (40 percent) of any state Legislature in the Country.

In 2018, Arizona elected its first female US senator and 41 other women to political office. Out of 108 races, women won 39 percent of them this year. After inauguration in January 2019, half of Arizona’s statewide offices (4/8), 27 percent of our Congressional delegation (3/11), and 39 percent of the Arizona Legislature (35/90) will be women.

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Eight Reasons McSally Lost

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I have been a Republican my entire adult life, I was an active duty military officer and am a combat veteran and I, like many were fooled into believing that the GOP cared about veterans, fiscal stewardship of our military and, yes, I was even fooled into thinking they cared about women and minorities. Fox News and Right-Wing Talk Radio is quite the strong narcotic. But on the night Trump was nominated by the GOP, I had enough, I left the Republican Party the next day, and I never looked back, and I never will. I am a Democrat now, and while this political party is not perfect, it is not the toxic brew of hate bigotry and misogyny that the GOP has morphed into – with zero pushback from virtually all of its members.

When Democrat, Kyrsten Sinema announced she was going to run for Jeff Flake’s Senate seat, I was all in. I immediately volunteered in any way I could. I texted thousands of Arizonans, wrote articles, and helped tell her story to Arizona veterans. As a Tucson native, combat veteran and the spouse of an active duty military member – I wanted the voice of vets like me to be heard. I wanted to help Sinema win this seat and make sure that Martha McSally and her Trumpist rhetoric lost not only her Congressional seat in Tucson, but this coveted Arizona Senate seat as well.

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THE MCSALLY FORCES ARE UNAMERICAN: WE SHOULD COUNT THE VOTES

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Yesterday’s lawsuit by Republican operatives (on behalf of the McSally campaign) to inhibit county recorders from verifying mail-in ballots with disputed signatures now that the election is over is an attack on our democracy and another stain on the military and public service of Representative/Colonel Martha McSally. Despite the rise of the Trump Party (The … Read more

A Good Beginning Toward Building a Progressive Governing Majority in Arizona

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Yesterday was a good beginning toward building a progressive governing majority in Arizona. Democrats appear to  have prevailed in some state house races :

  • Jennifer Jermaine in LD 18
  • Jennifer Pawlik in LD 17
  • Aaron Lieberman in LD 28.

 

Democrats also prevailed in local contests (notably school board) laying the groundwork and foundation for future progressive advances.

Democrats should also take comfort in recruiting many capable and compelling local and congressional candidates who gave Republicans a run for their money and performed well against the odds. Hopefully, many of these candidates will decide to run again.

  • It may take until March but Kate Gallego appears to be the odds-on favorite to be the next Mayor of Phoenix.
  • Jennifer Longdon, a role model for people who can overcome great adversity, coasted to victory as a State Representative in LD 24.
  • Anne Kirkpatrick came back into the political arena to win in Congressional District Two.
  • Former Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, possibly on a career track to run for Governor in 2022, easily won Congressional District Nine.
  • Kathy Hoffman, who went from political novice to perhaps becoming the next Superintendent of Public Instruction, may be a rising star.
  • The races for Katie Hobbs and Kyrsten Sinema, as of Nov. 7, are still too close to call with up to 500,000 votes in Maricopa County still to be counted.

Youth turnout rose dramatically. Yes, yesterday was a good beginning.

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Are Republicans Voting for Democrats?

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It was not what I expected to hear. I was out canvassing one hot afternoon for Ann Kirkpatrick and Kyrsten Sinema when a man answered the door and said he was a Republican. I was politely backing away when he asked to see the literature I was holding.

“I’m going to vote Democratic this year to put a check on Trump,” he explained, to my surprise.

I recounted the story to another Democratic Committeeperson, and she said she had a similar experience. She was canvassing and the guy at the door said he had never voted Democratic, but he would this year, because of Trump.

I wondered if it was a general phenomenon. Before you write this off as my wishful thinking, hear me out.

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