“It’s time to buck up and get serious. O’Callaghan is our best bet…”
Miguel Medrano is Conor O’Callaghan for Congress Co-Chair, an elected member of the Penjamo Yaqui Pueblo Board of Directors, located in Congressional District 1, former Obama 2012 state director; and former executive director of the Maricopa County Democratic Party.
It has been a long time since I have seen a Congressional candidate with the charisma, confidence, and substantive policy ideas that Conor O’Callaghan exudes. These are just some of the many reasons why I have opted to support him in the AZ-01 primary.
The AZ-01 race to defeat David Schweikert has taken on even more importance in the last month. Taking control of the U.S. Senate appears tenuous, retaining the White House now looks much better with the ascension of Vice President Harris as the nominee but is still not certain. Our main bright spot is the U.S. House where we must flip four seats to gain the majority. AZ-01 is on that list. Should we fail to flip these seats and if we lose the White House, we will have no backstop against Trump’s infamous Project 2025. If we can take the House, we have a chance.
To do that, we need to elect candidates that can win. Conor O’Callaghan has demonstrated that he doesn’t just have the education (4 Ivy League degrees), the policy ideas (he has the most thorough policies of any candidate), the resources (he has the most cash on hand of any candidate), or the best story, (an immigrant who grew up in the district and is raising his family here), but he’s shown us he can win a fight.
While many Democrats have clutched their pearls at O’Callaghan’s edginess in differentiating himself from his opponents, those same Democrats may be forgetting that Secretary Fontes did the same thing in his 2022 primary before going on to curb stomp his opponent Mark Finchem. AZ-01’s Democratic nominees have lacked fighters for too long. O’Callaghan changes that. Candidates are now taking a page from O’Callaghan’s playbook and are attacking each other in the waning hours of this election.
Moreover, Schweikert has been able to survive all these years due to a false understanding among voters that somehow he is some economic wizard (he’s not). O’Callaghan with his nearly twenty years of Wall Street finance expertise shoots holes through Schweikert’s greatest asset. The stakes for the country and our Democracy are just too high.
Frankly, Marlene Galan-Woods lacks the substance and grit to go the distance (not to mention she has enormous baggage that the GOP will annihilate her with). Amish Shah has never shown an ability to fight and has never had a GOP challenger. The other candidates are just not up to par.
It’s time to buck up and get serious. O’Callaghan is our best bet and so I encourage all AZ-01 voters to vote for him by tomorrow, July 30th. Only with O’Callaghan can we flip this seat and perhaps save Democracy.
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Haha! The Wall Street millionaire guy was labeled an unindicted co conspirator in a Federal fraud case with his employer, Nomura who settled millions with the government. He’s disparaged his Democratic opponents unmercifully and used his dark money to pay for it. His attorneys actually issued a ‘cease and desist’ letter to the AZ Republic and 2 local journalists who spoke about the DOJ case.
He’s purchased endorsements from various Democrats and used his wife’s name to double the campaign contribution according to FEC records. And his campaign team including the man who authored this OpEd bullies anyone who speaks the truth. Character and integrity matter in this important primary. Conor O’Callaghan has neither.
While I don’t actually own any pearls to clutch, I prefer a different campaigning style, and I do personally prefer a different candidate (Kurt Kroemer, though there are others that I respect as well). Being tough against someone with entirely different views on issues (as is the case for opposing Rep. Schweikert) is a different thing than providing arguments for the other side about competitors in the primary when you don’t know if you will win.
Regardless, I will of course support whoever wins tomorrow, as we need to get this Congressional seat. My main hope is that all of the candidates that lose this primary will get fully behind the winner, as all but one have promised.