Those of us who are watching in horror as Trump and the entire MAGA GOP continue to take a sledgehammer to US institutions, healthcare, science and basic protections, might believe that the vast majority of Americans share our perspective. The Tuesday edition of the AZ Republic tells quite a different story – and it should serve as a wakeup call for each of us.
The paper’s top of front-page headline reads, ‘Blue wave’ could wash out in Arizona’ – Democrats losing ground to GOP in voter numbers (Ronald J. Hansen and Laura Gersony). The article goes on to provide data to support the very troubling lead:
“Through July, Democrats had added fewer than 4,000 new registered voters in Arizona since the November 2024 elections. By comparison, Republicans had gained a net 35,000 in that time. Put simply, for every new Democrat, Republicans have added nine new Republicans. The No Labels Party , with a little-known agenda and no prominent office holders, registered twice as many voters as Democrats in that span. Democrats have struggled nationally in the nearly 12 months since the 2024 election, with polls showing a drop-off in registration and identification across the country. But the Democrats’ numbers in Arizona look especially abysmal. Democratic fortunes are not any better within Maricopa County. Entering October, the number of Democrats had fallen by 10,000 since January – Republicans had added more than 600. ” Bottom line is that Democrats are trailing Republicans by more than before.
With national polls that showing Trump under water and sinking and most voters disapproval of the GOP economic policies, their attacks on independent universities, science, vaccinations and the violent treatment of immigrants – in fact, most Americans see the country heading in the wrong direction, how can we explain Democrats losing ground? Here in Arizona, we’ve seen the GOP push women’s reproductive rights back 160 years as they never quit trying to undermine the expressed will of the people regarding abortion access, universal vouchers and Dark Money – and yet, they seem to be kicking our ass in voter registrations. Where are we going wrong and how do we fix it?
It’s obvious that Americans’ current policy preferences and voter registrations don’t match up. The reasons for the disparity are numerous and complex but the problems are real. Quoted in the article, newly elected Arizona State Democratic Party Chair Charlene Fernandez acknowledges the problem, “The numbers tell a story, and the story is , we have to get to work and start registering Democrats again”. I’ve known Charlene Fernandez for many years. She was a fierce fighter for Arizona’s working families in the State Senate and for all American families working in the Biden administration. I fully trust her judgement and leadership without question. However, Charlene Fernandez cannot accomplish anything on her own – she’ll need each and every one of us to roll up our sleeves and get to work.
At stake in 2026 there are not only US House seats that we should have a chance to flip (CD 1 currently held by Schweikert, CD2 Crane and CD6 Ciscomani) but Arizona’s state legislative district seats as well. The November 2026 election will decide our next Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Arizona Corporation Commission and many county and local offices.
The question becomes; just how competitive will Democrats be? The answer is up to us!
Contact a Democratic candidate, the AZ State Democratic Party, your county Democratic Party or your Legislative District (LD) and find out how you can get involved and help get Democrats elected.
Discover more from Blog for Arizona
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Overwhelmingly, the primary reason for the plummeting popularity of the Democratic Party is the fact that it is decidedly UN-democratically run. The Democratic Party is completely owned and run by its ultra-wealthy pro-corporate leadership, who have entirely ignored the base of the Democratic Party (which is decidedly progressive).
People who actually work for a living are fed up with at least 4 decades of nominees who CLAIM to be on the side of working people, but once in office have utterly failed to even significantly slow the speed of our slide to the right! They have NOT fought for legislation or policies that would significantly help working people, and instead, have passed whatever their corporate donors want.
It is really sad that the progressive base of the Democratic party is being misled by influencers like Alan Minsky and Corbin Trent and others… who keep hyping the FALSE HOPE that the Democratic Party can be taken over by the progressive base… despite the fact that back in 2017 and again in 2019 the courts declared that there is literally no way to legally force the leadership to follow its own party’s rules! They can nominate anyone they want…. regardless of what the base wants.
The ONLY hope for progressives is to LEAVE the Democratic Party and join the GREEN PARTY, which IS democratically run, takes NO corporate money, has an EXCELLENT, very progressive platform, and had ballot access in 42 states in 2024.
If even one eighth of the disillusioned base of the Democratic Party would join the Green Party, it would spur a greater exodus from the Democratic base to the Green Party and that would GUARANTEE that we would FINALLY get to have truly progressive candidates on the ballot in Congressional and Presidential elections.
The ONLY reason this has not taken place already is because the Democratic Leadership has made it one of their highest priorities to spread outright lies and take a multitude of actions at every level to sabotage the Green Party and its candidates! Obviously, they are far more fearful of true progressives winning major elections than they are of losing to Republicans.
One small example of how widespread and insidious their influence is, can be seen in something that happened here in AZ, involving the AZ Clean Elections and the educational pre-election booklet of candidates and their bios and stance on issues. The booklet is routinely mailed out to voters prior to the last election. But the last time it was mailed out, it did not include any info about the Green Party Candidates other than their names. Why? Because the Green Party candidates did not receive the forms to fill out with the pertinent info, until the evening before the deadline for the forms to be submitted, which was the following day. But all other candidates received the forms far ahead of the submission deadline.
This shows the lengths to which the Democratic Party leadership will go to destroy the ONLY genuine opponent of the corporate billionaires who donate to both the Democratic and Republican Parties’ candidates.
I urge people to please check out the Green Party and its excellent platform!
The answer is definitely up to us. Those who show up, speak up and are available to listen and answer questions with empathy and personal stories might be able to counteract the hate, fear, and misinformation that has seemed to be so persuasive in registering Republicans. Those of you who are able, learn how to register voters and be everywhere you can where people gather. We have no time to lose. Democrats with good hearts and consciences can prove their worth only with adequate numbers to pass legislation. We’ll only reclaim democracy from the billionaires who own our government if we never give up, not an inch. We the People must support each other.
Dem leaders are pussies elected by equally pussy voters.
You mean corporate Dem leaders who go out of their way to ensure voters have no say or choice.
Me – I’m voting for Bernie.
The DNC – Did you mean Hillary?
Me – No, Bernie.
The DNC – Then we agree, it’s Hillary!
DNC, DCCC, DSCC MOUSE! M-I-C-K-E-Y Mouse…
Bite my shiny metal ass. ~Bender.
Ralph, the article on which you based your story is misleading. It omits the key fact that the Arizona Democratic Party was leaderless for 6 months. Robert Branscomb ran the state party into the ditch from January to June 17 — failing to raise funds, register voters or run a working organization. He was ousted by an 89% margin.
Our new chair, Charlene Fernandez, was just elected ADP chair on September 14 — only 38 days ago. Let’s give her a chance to get rolling. She’s been on many TV news programs talking relentlessly about her plans to register more Democrats. See https://blogforarizona.net/charlene-fernandez-elected-as-chair-of-the-arizona-democratic-party/
I agree with you that there should be a lot of activity in the Democratic Party to register voters. I also support your conclusion — it’s time for armchair Dems to get active and contact their local Legislative District Democratic Party — just visit https://www.azcleanelections.gov/arizona-election/voter-education-guide/district-locator to find out which District you are in.
My intent was to highlight the problem and encourage participation. As I said, the causes are many and complex but with Charlene at the helm and with our hard work, we can succeed.
Thanks David for publishing this piece. And thanks for using my 2016 State Senate campaign photo – brought back some wonderful memories. How time flies…!
Latest registration stats from AZ Sec. of State:
Republican 1,603,141 35.63%
Democratic 1,269,886 28.23%
Libertarian 32,026 0.71%
No Labels 42,277 0.94%
Green 5,212 0.12%
Other 1,546,453 34.37% (Independents)
Total 4,498,995 —
https://azsos.gov/elections/election-information/voter-registration-statistics