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catbyte

(34,403 posts) Mon Jun 8, 2020, 01:15 PM Jun 2020

Arizona GOP's 10-Year Plan to Turn the State Blue

Are the state’s Republicans in trouble because of Trump, or is Trump in trouble because of the state party? Too close to call!

by Shay Khatiri
June 8, 2020

Recent polls suggest that Democrat Mark Kelly is likely to handily win the Senate race in Arizona against the incumbent Republican Martha McSally, who was appointed to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the death of John McCain. (She was actually the second McCain replacement: Jon Kyl, who left the Senate in 2013 after three terms, kept the seat warm briefly in late 2018.)

snip

Traditionally, conservative Arizonans have generally had a soft spot for Hispanics because they are their friends. This is why the Koch brothers’ libertarian infrastructure has been so influential on the right in Arizona, through organizations such as the Libre Initiative (a Hispanic empowerment nonprofit) and Americans for Prosperity. Both Gary Johnson and Evan McMullin performed above their national averages in the state in 2016. In fact, Johnson’s 4.1 percent of the vote in Arizona was greater than Trump’s 3.5 percent margin of victory in the state.

The state provides a good case study of what happens when a political party lets the inmates take charge. Arizona’s population is growing for several reasons: because of its economic boom since the 2008 crash, because it’s a destination for California tax refugees, and because of international emigration from Latin America. Overall, Arizona is becoming more and more brown; the population is now about 56 percent white, 31 percent Latino, and 4 percent black. And white people living in the state’s metropolitan areas, like Phoenix and Tucson, inevitably have Hispanic friends they want to protect. This hadn’t been a problem in the past for the Republican party. The GOP in Arizona had been associated with the likes of McCain, Kyl, and Jeff Flake, all champions of immigration and engagement with local Hispanic communities.

But more recently, Arizona Republicans decided to antagonize the Hispanic voters they needed to win at the state level. And by antagonizing and demonizing Hispanic Arizonans, the GOP has alienated many white voters, too.

The shift in the Arizona GOP began around 2010. How did it happen?

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https://thebulwark.com/arizona-gops-10-year-plan-to-turn-the-state-blue/

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Arizona GOP's 10-Year Plan to Turn the State Blue (Original Post) catbyte Jun 2020 OP

Superb article. One can't overestimate what a huge help Republican Kelli Ward Mike 03 Jun 2020 #1

My Mother in law lives in Arizona after retiring there kimbutgar Jun 2020 #2

Mike 03

(16,616 posts)

1. Superb article. One can't overestimate what a huge help Republican Kelli Ward

Reply to catbyte (Original post)

Mon Jun 8, 2020, 01:24 PM

Jun 2020

has been in helping to turn Arizona blue:

Why did Kelli Ward lose the GOP nomination to McSally? Because Ward is just awful. She liked to pal around with Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka. She won praise from white nationalists. She associated with alt-right figures like Mike Cernovich. A day after McCain’s announcement of his illness, she suggested that McCain should resign and the governor should appoint her. The day that McCain announced that he had stopped treatment, she claimed that the announcement was timed to hurt her Senate campaign. McCain would die a day later. Her husband is infamous for such acts as spitting on one of Ward’s former volunteers for switching allegiance to McSally.

With baggage like that, surely the state GOP would want nothing to do with Ward, right? Wrong: Five months after losing the primary, Ward was elected the chairwoman of the state GOP. Ever since, Ward has made headline after headline in the Arizona press for her ridiculous actions, outrageous tweets, and mismanagement—not to mention an allegation of corruption. In a fundraising email from last September, Ward wrote that “we’ll stop gun-grabber Mark Kelly dead in his tracks.” This is grotesque. Kelly, the Democratic nominee, is nationally famous in his own right for being a NASA astronaut (and the twin brother of another NASA astronaut) but also for being the husband of former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was shot in the head at point-blank range in an attack that nearly killed her and did kill six others.

Next up: we need to get rid of Ducey.

Thanks for posting!

kimbutgar

(21,163 posts)

2. My Mother in law lives in Arizona after retiring there

Reply to catbyte (Original post)

Mon Jun 8, 2020, 01:39 PM

Jun 2020

She is a liberal and was upset that they lost Janet Napalitano as governor when she joined the Obama Administration. She said the state was well run under her and then that crazy woman got elected which lead to doofus as she calls him!

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