“We Don’t Agonize We Organize” Was the Rallying Cry at the Harris/Walz Office Opening in South Phoenix

Photo from David Gordon. In the Center from Left to Right are Phoenix Councilwoman Kesha Hodge Washington, Arizona House District Three Democratic Nominee Yassamin Ansari, and State Representative Junelle Cavero.

With a larger than expected crowd in attendance, the Harris/Walz Presidential Campaign hosted several local leaders, Deputy Harris/Walz Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks, and Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost at the opening of the South Phoenix Field Office this evening (August 28, 2024.)

The Florida Representative headlined events at the University of Arizona and Arizona State University earlier in the day.

Photo from Juan Hinojos Zapien.

The theme from all the speakers at this evening’s event was intensifying the campaign ground game and bolstering voter turnout.

In the 2020 Presidential election, “three of the South Phoenix area precincts were in the 70-79% range, nine were in the 60-69% range and one precinct was at 56%.”

Anticipating a close election in Arizona like in 2020, the Harris/Walz Campaign would like to improve on those numbers and run up the vote score in the metro areas of the state, and cut into MAGA-Trump strength in rural regions.

Drawing on the vital issues of the campaign including the achievements of the Biden/Harris Administration, the policy goals such as affordable housing, expanding the Middle Class, extending the Prescription Drug Benefit to all eligible Americans, making schools safe, and protecting reproductive freedom for the Harris/Walz Campaign, and the threat to Democracy, the economy, and basic freedoms of a second Trump term governed by the pages of Project 2025, each speaker implored the attendees to help increase voter turnout in the South Phoenix area.

State Representative Junelle Cavero spoke first and emphasized:

The Democratic Party Campaign cannot be won without each of you…Every single vote will matter. Yes and we have to show up. We’re not showing up just to support the Vice President and Governor Walz, which that’s a big deal, but we’re showing up for ourselves for your grandchildren because they need you to look back at this time and ask us what were we doing? Yeah. I want to say, I was on the front line showing up knocking on door talking to people and registering people.”

Phoenix Councilwoman Kesha Hodge Washington spoke next and asked the audience “What is your next job?”

The Councilwoman responded that it was to help elect the Vice President and other Democrats by helping improve area voter turnout. Among her remarks were:

“We do not have the greatest turnout in this area, but we are going to change that right because we are all employees now. We are all on the same job market. We got this same responsibility. Our job is to make sure that each and every one of our neighbors knows the difference between the candidates and they know which candidate is going to represent them...We are informed and we are each committing to reaching out to at least 10, or 15 people and holding them accountable (to turn out and vote.) We need to make sure that every vote matters…”

Yassamin Ansari speaking. Photo from her social media.

Former Phoenix Vice Mayor and Arizona Congressional House District Three Democratic Nominee Yassamin Ansari spoke next and cited all the ways Biden/Harris’s Achievements like the Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Law, and the American Rescue Plan, have helped the residents of South Phoenix, including the construction of a new light rail line right outside the new campaign office.

Among her comments were:

So when I tell you what I am seeing, we could not do the work that we are doing in Phoenix; to make sure we tackle extreme heat. Make sure we tackle our affordable housing crisis. Make sure we tackle income inequality and the fact that wages are not keeping up with the cost of living, without the policies that this Administration has had. Because of that I am so thrilled to be here and to work with you all to make sure that we elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as the next President and Vice President.”

The surprise speaker of the event was Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks who conveyed:

“I think one of the things that is really embedded in our campaign in the core of it is not just waiting for change to come to you, is that if you see something wrong you do it. You heard Michelle, Obama say that. You heard the Vice President echo that and I think this is the first step in doing that. Obviously putting this office here. We need to update the numbers and make sure we’re getting our folks out to vote. I met with leaders from the community earlier today to talk about representation. I think gone are the days of the past that for one group to get ahead, another group has to suffer. We are running a campaign that is an opportunity campaign for everybody. And the Vice President’s, agenda will be an opportunity agenda for everybody. For Black or Latino. For White. For urban and suburban…”

“…We feel very good about where we are, but this is going to be a close race. And what the other side wants us to do is be complacent. But the other side wants us to do is be confused, but the other side wants us to do it to not turn out and express our right to vote. It is paramount that each of you have conversations with your friends and family members. They will believe you before they believe any television ad that I can run or any digital thing that I can get in front of them…They will listen to you. You are the most trusted validators in these people’s lives, to get them off the sidelines…”

Florida House Representative Maxwell Frost with House Nominee Yassamin Ansari to the left and State Representative Junelle Cavero and her daughter to the right. Photo by Yassamin Ansari campaign.

Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost was the last speaker and asked the question, “What does it mean to organize?”

He responded “First, you talk with one person, And then another person, and then another person. That is how we are going to win this campaign. That is how we’re going to get voter turnout here in South Phoenix…”

Frost went on to say:

“The second biggest thing you can do is go tell the world. And so, here’s what I’ll tell you right now. You all need to vote but your job’s not done. Because we have to go out and talk to our community about what is going on? Talk to our community about what’s at stake here. Talk with our community about the fact that we have a champion in Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Folks, this is on the ballot. It’s two visions for this country. It’s about representation at the highest levels. It’s about people who want to see the world through the eyes of the most vulnerable versus someone like Donald Trump who just wants to help himself and his billionaire, buddies.”

The Congressman also came up with the rallying cry for the event, calling the audience to not agonize but organize, saying:

I need you to prove that Arizona is blue… We can’t agonize. We got to organize with kids are dying in their schools because of gun violence. We don’t agonize we organize, because rent is too damn high. And we got to keep doing this work to get this housing crisis (solved.) We don’t agonize we organize because we know that the climate crisis is here because damn, it’s hot. We don’t agonize we organize.”

Florida House Representative Maxwell Frost. Photo by David Gordon.

After the event, Representative Frost graciously responded to a couple of questions.

  • With regards to the expanded Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, how will that help the residents of South Phoenix?

“Number one, when we originally did this, It cut child poverty in half. So what the Vice President wants to do, is make sure number one, we expand upon that and we make it permanent so that way it’s a permanent tax cut for middle class, families, working families and that is going to translate to so many families here in Phoenix. And right now, we’re in South Phoenix, which will really help folks here as well. Here’s the thing about Kamala Harris. She comes from the Working Class. She comes from the Middle Class and she understands that people need that need relief. They need help in terms of many different things like housing but also, in terms of the fact that it’s expensive to raise a child right now. So she sees that. She hears that it’s going to help families here in Phoenix but also across Arizona.

  • What are the Vice President’s and the Governor’s views on Community College tuition and also apprenticeship programs?

“This is really important to the Vice President. She understands that we need to continue to create pathways to good-paying jobs for all people, whether you decide to go to higher education or maybe decide to go straight into the workforce. That’s why her Administration with President Biden, the Biden/Harris Administration is the most pro-union working class Administration we’ve seen. And that’s not just about the people currently working. It’s also about thinking what people who are going to work in five years and ten years. So, she’s a huge proponent of apprenticeship programs and making sure that college is affordable. Making sure that we cancel a lot of this student loan debt.”

Donald Trump? Not only, does he not have a plan for this, but he wants to continue to tell people who are experiencing hardships to pull themselves up by their bootstraps when he’s the one who has been handed everything his entire life. He doesn’t know what it means to struggle and to do this work. Kamala Harris does and her education agenda is transformational for families in South Phoenix and working families with across Arizona, 

Free community college? is that on the table? 

Build Back Better had that originally…I know that she wants to ensure that we get to a place where we do have free community college and where four-year college tuition is affordable for all people.

 


Discover more from Blog for Arizona

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Discover more from Blog for Arizona

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading