SEARCH RESULTS.

PHOENIX — Earlier this year, our endorsement committee voted to support a slate of progressive candidates up and down the ballot. These candidates are grounded in their communities, dedicated to fighting for justice, and advocating for those most impacted by the issues we face today. We want to thank all of our endorsed candidates for running passionate campaigns and fighting for LUCHA values. With major electoral victories in Maricopa County, Pima County, and Southern Arizona for candidates like State Rep Raquel Terán, State Senator Juan Mendez and State Representative Athena Salman, Gabby Cazares-Kelly for Pima County Recorder, Adelita Grijalva for Pima County Supervisor, and State Representative and House Minority Leader Charlene Fernandez, one thing is clear. We have made some historic gains, and have set the groundwork for historic victories in key seats across the state of Arizona! Despite the COVID-19 Pandemic we have seen record-level turnout from the community. Per the Arizona Secretary of State over 700,556 voters showed up to vote by mail or in person, and in Pima County over 160,000 ballots were cast with still all precincts outstanding! Across the state, there has been a rejection of politicians funded by Dark Money Super PACs. Latinx and youth turned out by the hundreds of thousands in Arizona, they are single-handedly reshaping the electorate and will play a pivotal role in turning AZ #LUCHABLUE in November. Tomas Robles, Co-Executive Director: “Today’s historic election has showcased the power that our LUCHA members, supporters, and volunteers have created across the state over the last four years since the passing of Prop. 206. We have endorsed a slate of candidates that believe in Co Governance, and are not beholden to large corporations that fund Dark Money PACs. Our fight to turn Arizona LUCHA Blue in 2020 has incredible energy and passion that will take us into November’s presidential elections and beyond. Alejandra Gomez, Co-Executive Director: “This important primary election was held during unprecedented times. Despite COVID-19, community grassroots efforts by our members have continued. In Arizona, we have the opportunity to elect strong progressives up and down the ballot. Our endorsed candidates will work tirelessly for our communities and help us navigate through this crisis. With less than 100 days before the November election, LUCHA members will double their efforts and continue to register people to vote, and organize our community to the polls on November 3rd!” For Press Inquiries Abril Gallardo |abril@luchaaz.org Cesar Fierros | cesar@luchaaz.org

November 7th, 2020 Media Contact: Abril Gallardo | press@luchaaz.org | 602–503–7015 Voters Rejected Hate, Xenophobia, and White Supremacy from Trump and Republicans PHOENIX — It’s official! The nation has flipped from red to blue. And Arizona’s youth and voters of color brought on the most significant victory for progressive elected officials and policies in recent history. In response to the results, Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA) has released the following statement: Co-Directors of LUCHA, Alejandra Gomez and Tomas Robles, Jr.: “In Arizona and across the country, we have seen our communities show up in record numbers to reject hate, xenophobia, and white supremacy. More than 2.5 million Arizonans voted by mail and hundreds of thousands voted in person. This is the result of decades of work to ensure that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities are represented. Today, we are witnessing the beginning of a healing process, where voters blatantly rejected Trump’s nativism and racism. Voters decided and they showed up for immigrant youth and their families. They showed up for people with pre-existing conditions. They showed up for our planet and climate change. And they showed up for workers’ and women’s rights. Voters were there for all of our loved ones who left us too early as a result of Trump’s failure during COVID-19. Now, we turn the page and start a new chapter, knowing that our efforts have gotten us to this victory. We are ready to continue to push for bold, innovative and unapologetic agendas that center the needs of our communities. For the last decade many grassroots organizations with little to no resources built spaces for our communities to participate in and build their political power to achieve this victory. We changed the electorate by continuing to invest in our members who have made sure our community has a voice and seat at the table. From endorsements, to calls and knocks made, our members will continue leading and deciding. This is the Arizona we have built collectively and we will not let the leaders we helped elect forget it. Our eyes are set towards our path forward and winning more victories for our people. ” Yenni Sanchez, 21-year-old DACA Recipient and LUCHA member : “For the past decade, young mixed-status voters in Arizona have played a critical role to build the community and electoral power we have right now. Many of us have DACA and are part of immigrant families. I made hundreds of calls and put my health on the line to come out and knock on doors to make sure we elected Joe Biden and Mark Kelly into office and I did it because the lives of my loved ones were on the line. I am ready to continue to be bold and unapologetic about my demands for policies that provide a permanent solution for me, my parents and the rest of Black and Brown immigrants, our planet and working families in this county .” LUCHA, alongside partners like Mi Familia Vota, Our Voice Our Vote, CASE Action, Chispa Arizona, and Progress Arizona, have been building and leading for this very moment. Together, we founded the MiAZ coalition that knocked on 1.5 million doors for the 2020 campaign cycle. And LUCHA, specifically, has been operating as a statewide organization, with offices in Pima, Coconino and Maricopa Counties, and had incredible milestones this year. For example: This election season, LUCHA launched the #LUCHABlue Campaign that yielded to knocking on more than 58,000 doors and made over 2.7 million calls to Arizona voters. LUCHA ran it’s largest digital, radio, TV, billboards and print ads, targeting Latinx voters across the battleground state of Arizona that generated more than 105,000,000 million impressions. These ads included 9 unique Spanish and English radio spots in 16 radio stations, targeting the Latinx community in Maricopa, Pima and Coconino counties. With almost 2.8 million ballots casted, Arizona participation already broke record from the 2016 election. Latino voter turnout in Arizona nearly doubled, representing the highest number of Latinx voters in the history of the Grand Canyon State. This year, LUCHA members also endorsed and supported candidates that are from our communities — candidates that have knocked on doors with us and that have organized and want to co-govern with us. We are proud of to celebrate the following endorsed candidates who won their seats: Raquel Terán | AZ House of Representatives LD 30 Charlene Fernandez | AZ House of Representatives LD 4 Martin Quezada | AZ Senate LD 29 Reginald Bolding | AZ House of Representatives LD 27 Diego Rodriguez | AZ House of Representatives LD 27 Juan Mendez | AZ State Senate LD 26 Athena Salman | AZ House of Representatives LD 26 Adelita Grijalva | Pima County Board of Supervisor District 5 Domingo Degrazia | AZ House of Representatives LD 10 Andres Cano | AZ House of Representatives LD 3 Gabriella Cazares-Kelly | Pima County Recorder Richard Andrade | AZ House of Representatives LD 29 Stephanie Stahl-Hamilton | AZ House of Representatives LD 10 Kirsten Engel | AZ State Senate LD 10 Kelli Butler | AZ House of Representatives LD 28 Victoria Steele | AZ State Senate LD 9

Phoenix, AZ — Sunday night, after weeks of anticipation the Senate Parliamentarian announced her recommendation against including the legalization of millions of immigrants through the budget reconciliation process. While this is an unfortunate decision, offering a pathway to citizenship for the millions of Dreamers, TPS holders, farmworkers, and essential workers is still viable. Over 70% of Americans support a pathway to citizenship! Alex Gomez & Tomas Robles, Co-Executive Director for LUCHA said: “Let us be clear: The Parliamentarian serves at the pleasure of Senate Democrats. They offer opinions and expert advice over Senate rules and procedures. They are unelected public servants, they do not make rulings, and no Senator who supports a pathway to citizenship should hide behind the words of a Parliamentarian. We call on President Biden, Vice-President Harris, the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and all Senate Democrats to seek all other avenues and approaches, to deliver a pathway for citizenship for our communities!” Tonight’s decision by an unelected senate staffer is unacceptable but it’s not the end. Democratic Senators Sinema and Kelly must deliver on their promises made to our communities. It’s been 35 years since the last time major reform was passed. We are in a once-in-a-generation opportunity to once and for all provide citizenship this year for Millions of immigrants who continue living in the shadows while providing essential services to our communities and the economy. LUCHA and allies will continue the work to hold the Biden administration and our Democratic Arizona Senators to deliver a pathway and leave no stone unturned, we expect no less. It is time to show some leadership, bravery, and to meet the moment.

By Alejandra Gomez, Co-Executive Director of LUCHA Too often in the halls of Congress, policy debates are sidelined for personality disputes or arguments about how working people should make their voices heard. Here in Arizona, people are still struggling to make ends meet during a pandemic, seniors still can’t afford their prescriptions, and undocumented people still don’t have a pathway to citizenship. Those issues are in the front of our minds, not the parlor games of the powerful in the Senate. That’s why we, the members of Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA), refuse to be distracted by debates around how or when people should try to talk to their elected officials. The Build Back Better Act, known as the reconciliation bill in Congress, represents the single greatest investment in Arizona we’ve seen come out of Washington in decades. The legislation addresses all the massive intertwined crises so many of us are facing. It includes the largest-ever federal action to address the climate crisis. It will create millions of new jobs to address the unemployment crisis. It will provide more affordable homes to address our housing crisis. Yet, one of our senators from Arizona who we worked so hard to elect, Kyrsten Sinema, is blocking this bill, despite 48 of her fellow Democratic Senators all supporting the legislation. LUCHA registered new voters and organized door-knocking across Arizona to elect Krysten Sinema. We put in that effort because we knew we needed a Democrat in the Senate to push forward important legislation. We finally have a majority in the Senate, but now President Biden’s agenda is being obstructed, not by Republicans, but by the very Democrat we worked so hard to elect. Adding insult to injury, Senator Sinema is not only ignoring her constituents when asked why she is blocking this bill, she won’t even tell her fellow senators what she wants out of negotiations. Senator Sinema’s silence is deafening. At a time when families across Arizona are facing unprecedented challenges, this obstruction from Senator Sinema is simply unacceptable. That is why we are refusing to be distracted from the goal at hand: Passing the Build Back Better bill. This week, we will be joining with grassroots organizations across the state, and country, to launch the “No More Excuses” Week of Action. We will be holding marches, rallies, and more to highlight the need for action. If you believe there are no more excuses for blocking President Biden’s agenda, no more excuses for delivering real, immediate relief for working families in Arizona and across the country, join us this week. Make your voice heard and demand action.

Statement by Co-Directors of LUCHA, Tomas Robles and Alejandra Gomez, and the entire organization. With all eyes on Arizona and Senator Sinema right now, many Arizonans are asking, is Sinema doing her job? The millions of Arizonans that include, Black, brown, and indigenous communities who elected her do not think she is. Sinema has shown zero interest to engage with her constituents, or meet her colleagues halfway on critical legislation. This is Sinema’s moment to do the right thing and stop blocking the Build Back Better Act. We - her constituents - need a pathway to citizenship, access to healthcare and lower drug prices, better-paying jobs, education funding, and the ability to keep our families safe. Senator Sinema must listen to constituents and support a Build Back Better agenda. LUCHA is dedicated to improving the lives of everyone in our state and that’s exactly what we want to see from the Senator. Sinema’s constituents have not been granted access to her office, they have been ignored, dismissed, and antagonized. We will continue to do the appropriate thing: listen to people across Arizona about what they need to thrive, meet our community where they are, fiercely advocate on their behalf, and meet the moment! ### Background on LUCHA: Since 2010, LUCHA’s membership has built community power across the country by knocking on doors, making phone calls, lobbying our local and national elected officials, endorsing candidates that align with the values of everyday Arizonans and that put our needs first. We raised the minimum wage and provided earned sick time for millions of Arizonans, removed a Sheriff who was racially profiling people of color, and was hugely impactful in electing a Democratic Senate in Arizona.

Latino organizers have the answers. When will party elites trust them? By Alejandra Gomez and Tomás Robles Jr. Ms. Gomez and Mr. Robles are co-executive directors of LUCHA, a grass-roots organization in Arizona. PHOENIX — First there were seven. Then 50. Then thousands of people, mostly Latino and many undocumented, who held a vigil on the lawn outside of the Arizona State Capitol in the spring of 2010, praying that Gov. Jan Brewer would not sign an anti-immigrant bill, the most punitive in generations, which had sailed through the Republican-controlled Legislature. A dozen undocumented women, the “vigil ladies,” set up tents and a four-foot-high statue of the Virgin Mary, borrowed from a church. Students walked out of their classrooms and marched for miles to the Capitol. Abuelas put out traditional Mexican food: pozole, tamales, frijoles. At night, around 50 people slept on the lawn. In the morning, they pulled grass out of their hair, clasped hands and prayed. The two of us were part of these protests, and we had good reason to be angry — and afraid. One night, Ku Klux Klan hoods were placed near where people prayed. Anti-immigrant groups patrolled close by. Such menaces had long found a haven under Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who ordered his deputies to target Latinos in traffic stops, workplace raids and neighborhood sweeps. Some were later deported. Despite the enormous opposition to the “show me your papers” bill, which essentially turned the state’s police officers into immigration agents, Governor Brewer signed it. Arizona Republicans no doubt hoped the law would chase out every immigrant, documented or undocumented. Some did leave. But many more stayed, determined to turn their fear and anger into political power. In less than a decade, many organizers who first cut their teeth fighting that bill are now lawmakers, campaign managers and directors of civic engagement groups like Mi Familia Vota and the Arizona Dream Act Coalition. While it’s easy to dismiss mass protests as short-lived eruptions of anger, Arizona offers a model for how this energy can become real electoral power: It happens when people learn to work with one another, build deep connections and create something bigger than themselves. In the wake of the vigil, we built an organization called LUCHA, short for Living United for Change in Arizona, that serves as a political home for people of color. We talk to working-class families about the issues important to them and how to get involved in politics. Civic groups and political parties used to do more of this work, but they have become disconnected from real people, too focused on donors and elite influence. While the anti-immigrant bill was propelled into law by Republicans, Democrats were also to blame. They have long treated communities of color as instruments of someone else’s power rather than core progressives who should be instruments of their own power. This neglect created the space for the bill to pass so easily. The vigil stretched into the early summer, 103 days in total. It was a training ground for novice organizers like us who would stop by the snack table, gather clipboards and then head out to laundromats and convenience stores to register neighbors. Since then, activists have brought hundreds of thousands of voters into the political process, increasing turnout among Latinos in Arizona from 32 percent in 2014 to a whopping 49 percent in 2018. With this power, people of color have ousted racist lawmakers and passed statewide legislation that helps low-wage workers, among a string of surprise victories. Activists accomplished what was unthinkable in 2010: Arizona is a battleground state in 2020. Progressives who obsess over white swing voters in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania should pay close attention to Arizona because it’s a model for how to mobilize Latino people nationally. Here is the story of how, under Joe Arpaio’s reign of terror, Latinos built progressive governing power. The first order of business was to dismantle the anti-immigrant law. Undocumented people like Maria Jesus drove all across the state to register voters. A vigil lady, Paty Rosas, set up tables with voter registration materials every morning at the vigil. One of us sold his plasma for $105 each week to pay his bills so he could knock on doors in Maryvale, a Latino neighborhood in Phoenix. Students registered partygoers outside bars and nightclubs on weekends. By Election Day 2010, hundreds of volunteers had registered 13,000 new voters. The law had also set off a nationwide boycott, costing the state some $140 million in tourism and convention revenue. But it was not enough to prevent a Republican supermajority in the Legislature where a state senator, Russell Pearce, the chief sponsor of the bill, became the Senate president. Veteran activists like Randy Parraz knew that the long-ignored Latino voters in Mesa, Mr. Pearce’s district, could help unseat him. So organizers gathered signatures there to have Mr. Pearce recalled, ignoring Democratic elites who warned this was impossible — no state legislator in Arizona’s history had ever been removed that way. This strategy of bringing in new voters of color, rather than trying to change the minds of frequent voters, paid off. Mr. Pearce was recalled in a special election in 2011 and replaced with a more moderate Republican. Then, a number of groups turned their attention to removing Sheriff Arpaio, who had been in office since 1993. He ran a sprawling outdoor detention center he once referred to as a “concentration camp” where he subjected detainees to cruel theatrical practices like chain gangs. Jacqueline Garcia, a young leader whose father was deported in 2012, registered hundreds of voters and trained new volunteers. Despite efforts like this, Mr. Arpaio won another term in an election that was marked by irregularities. The Maricopa County recorder’s office sent out Spanish-language fliers to Latino neighborhoods that misstated the date of the election. Officials called it a clerical error. Voters reported being denied provisional ballots and turned away at the polls. Joe Arpaio won again. But with scores of young people turning 18, Joe Arpaio’s empire was shrinking. In 2016, the leaders of LUCHA, Puente and Poder in Action created a campaign called BAZTA Arpaio, featuring neighborhood canvasses that were more like block parties. Mary Ramirez, a powerful señora originally from Hidalgo, Mexico, invited women to “Zumba vs. Arpaio” before they knocked on thousands of doors. The goal was not to reach the entire electorate, but to continue to prove that investing in communities of color could make the difference in a close race. The thing is, people want community. They want to belong to something that helps them make sense of the political world. But they don’t trust politics or Democrats because both have failed them. They can be persuaded, however, by a neighbor or a friend that they can work collectively to solve problems. On Election Day 2016, Joe Arpaio lost to a Democrat, and the Maricopa County recorder was replaced by Adrian Fontes, a champion of voting access. Around that time, the “show me your papers” law was diluted in the settlement of a lawsuit brought by civil rights groups. Election Day 2016 held another victory that had been in the works for a while. We learned at listening sessions with our 2,600 members, whom we’ve cultivated through neighborhood teams and high school civics clubs, that they wanted us to fight for higher wages and paid family leave. Such sessions are where we and our members commit to standing with one another. Because we could not ignore their needs — even when our donors or party leaders pressured us to do so — we decided to try it ourselves through a ballot initiative. Some influential progressives doubted the ability of a grass-roots organization, led by us, two young Latinos, to organize and pass a statewide ballot initiative. One person said its failure would set back progressive politics in Arizona for a decade. But we knew the signature-gatherers, most of whom were working for low wages in their regular jobs, would pound the pavement. In July 2016, activists delivered 275,000 signatures to the secretary of state to place the minimum wage increase on the ballot that year. To build support, organizers talked to small businesses and found that most of them were already paying their employees far above the minimum wage. So about 350 small businesses endorsed the campaign, effectively countering the argument that the ballot initiative would hurt them. On election night that year, Proposition 206 passed with 58 percent of the vote. The new law provides up to five days of paid sick time for all workers and will raise the minimum wage to $12 per hour by 2020. Contrary to opponents’ fearmongering, economic forecasters found that Arizona’s wage increase benefited the state’s economy, especially food service employees. The 2016 victories allowed the movement to get stronger. In 2018, local organizations started the MiAZ campaign, knocking on one million doors and adding new tactics to contact voters by text, billboards and TV and radio ads. All of this helped elect a community organizer, Raquel Terán, to the Arizona Legislature and Kyrsten Sinema to the Senate, succeeding a Republican. And since 2010, Republican legislators in Arizona have been less aggressive in pushing through harmful immigration-related bills, the noted political scientist Hahrie Han and her colleagues found. In February, enormous pressure from the Latino community forced the governor and lawmakers to decline to pursue bills that could have enshrined the ban on sanctuary cities into the constitution. The “show me your papers” law was intended to destroy Latino families who make up one-third of the state, but it had the opposite effect. Since 2010, organizers have registered more than half a million new voters in Arizona. Continuing to expand the electorate could tip the state to the Democrats next year. Donald Trump won Arizona by fewer than 92,000 votes in 2016. An estimated 271,000 more Latinos may cast ballots here next year, according to Latino Decisions — but only if local organizations have resources to conduct robust voter mobilization. Of the billions of dollars the political industry will spend before Election Day, a negligible amount will go to grass-roots groups. But for the left to achieve 2020 electoral victories and long-term governing power, the entire political industry — donors, party elites, campaigns, voters — must invest in authentic grass-roots political organizations. Early investment allows voter-engagement programs to be bigger and more effective. Year-round investment lets groups prepare for the next election cycle, rather than suffering through the boom-and-bust of last-minute get-out-the-vote funding. Presidential candidates are spending tens of millions of dollars on TV ads that communities of color either won’t see or won’t pay attention to. They should put this money toward face-to-face voter contact instead. And they would be wise to hire local people to do this engagement who know sending a message in Spanish using Google Translate isn’t going to cut it, but canvassing with cumbia and banda music just might. If the Democratic Party’s old guard learns nothing else, it must stop using a majority of its resources to chase white swing voters and instead pay more attention to the millions of voters of color. For too long, they have treated us like cheap laborers who can knock on doors to deliver them 51 percent of the vote. In exchange, they run candidates who are out of touch with Latinos. In Tucson’s mayoral primary, the old boys’ club endorsed a white man over Regina Romero, a popular and highly qualified Latina who eventually won, even though the city is almost half Latino. The story of Latino political power is playing out across the country. Latino voters had a bigger increase in turnout than white or black ones between the 2014 and 2018 midterm elections. They will be the largest minority group in the electorate next year. But demographics are not destiny, so groups like the Texas Organizing Project, the New Florida Majority and the New Georgia Project are building the electoral power of communities of color. And LUCHA now travels to Texas and other states to teach others how to create ballot initiative campaigns and help everyday people become elected officials, as well as leaders of campaigns and nonprofit groups. Defeats did not destroy this movement and victories will not end it. At the vigil in 2010, Latino people found safety in numbers. Since then, they have proven that their power will always be rooted in their community. Link to Original Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/21/opinion/sunday/latinos-arizona-battleground.html

Mayor Regina Romero, Councilwoman Santa Cruz wins signal bigger political shifts By Staff Reports, Digital Free Press Living United for Change in Arizona is celebrating the election victories of Mayor Regina Romero and Councilwoman Lane Santa Cruz during last week’s Tucson municipal primary election, unofficial results show. Following the official canvass of the votes recorded, the victory for the pair of community advocates, political supporters contend, will mark a significant milestone in efforts to advance progressive leadership and champion the priorities of working families and marginalized neighborhoods. Political thought leaders suggest Tucson has served as a model of progressive policy and this most recent pending election victory suggests the road to the White House will run through Tucson as Arizona emerges as a battleground state on the national political stage. Mayor Romero’s approach to sustainability and resilience has positioned Tucson as a leading city in tackling the urgent challenges posed by the climate crisis. Her dedication to clean energy initiatives, sustainable infrastructure, and smart urban planning has set a strong foundation for a greener future and sustainable economic growth for the city, campaign officials contend. “We are so proud to have supported Regina in this race and in her previous successful run for mayor,” said Alejandra Gomez, executive director of Living United for Change in Arizona. “Mayor Regina Romero and Councilwoman Lane Santa Cruz represent the progressive future that Living United for Change in Arizona strives to achieve for the entire state of Arizona. Their victories reflect the collective efforts of passionate organizers, volunteers, community leaders, and voters who came together to shape the city’s political landscape and ensure that it remains in the hands of leaders who prioritize the needs and aspirations of working families and marginalized communities.” LUCHA is also celebrating the election victory of Councilwoman Santa Cruz. Her dedication to social, racial, and economic justice, coupled with her commitment to empowering communities, has made her an exemplary leader for progressive values in local governance. LUCHA, representatives there say, talked to tens of thousands of voters through door knocking, mailers, and phone banking to help elect Mayor Romero and Councilwoman Santa Cruz. Link to Original Article: https://arizonadigitalfreepress.com/tucson-mayor-regina-romero-az-election/

July 31, 2023 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: press@luchaaz.org Historic Legislative Session Concludes with Major Victories for Arizona Communities: "Community Groups like LUCHA Prove Progress is Possible with First Legislative Session under Gov. Hobbs and Democrats. PHOENIX - As the Arizona Legislature motions to Sine Die, Living United For Change in Arizona (LUCHA) celebrates significant victories they accomplished in partnership with Legislative Democrats during the first Legislative Session under Governor Katie Hobbs. Most notably, they secured $150 million for the Arizona Housing Trust Fund and $40 million for the Arizona Promise Program in the FY2024 State Budget, defeated increased tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, and held the line on protecting voting rights from special interest conspiracy theorist groups and far-right legislators. Alejandra Gomez, Executive Director of Living United for Change in Arizona, said, "Our two organizations have spent over seven years advocating for many of the issues we have won solutions for this year. We talked and listened to our communities and their needs. They have been telling us the challenges they have encountered trying to find an affordable place to live while at the same time trying to put their children through college. Securing $150 million for affordable housing and $40 million for the Arizona Promise Program is a great example of grassroots policymaking that will do a lot of good for families. But I challenge us to do more because we can!" Gomez continued: "Our floor is an Arizona that offers ample affordable housing options and allows Arizonans to pursue higher learning at any of our state universities and community colleges tuition-free! This year will catapult us into 2024, where we will work to ensure this future we seek will become a reality." Through mobilizing community members, engaging in grassroots organizing, and working with Democratic leaders, LUCHA helped deliver real solutions that Arizonans have been calling for since before the Pandemic, particularly around affordable housing. "Community groups, Gov. Hobbs, and Legislative Democrats accomplished more on issues like affordable housing in a single Legislative Session than has been done by Republican-led state governments over the course of a decade," said Chris Gilfillan, Director of Political Strategies and Development at LUCHA. "We advocated for the most substantial investment into Arizona's Housing Trust Fund for years, but Gov. Ducey and Republican-majority Legislatures refused to act on our affordable housing crisis. For reasons like this, Arizonans elected Gov. Katie Hobbs last November, and we are proud to see Democrats we worked to elect to deliver real solutions for Arizonans." The Work That Remains For LUCHA, the work is never finished; this year, like many other years, is a building block for a better tomorrow. This year's victories lay the foundation for a significant political shift in the Arizona Legislature. For decades Republicans have been in complete control of the legislative process with majorities in the Senate and House. As their majority dwindles, we are one step closer to taking back the state legislature. Working to elect a Democratic Governor paid off, and our work to secure funding for critical services became a reality; the transformational potential lies in flipping the state legislature to Democratic control. LUCHA is poised and prepared to make this historic shift a reality in 2024. The work will continue to engage and mobilize our communities, amplify marginalized voices, and push for policies prioritizing the well-being and empowerment of all Arizonans. The tireless efforts of LUCHA, along with its coalition partners, have been instrumental in securing these landmark achievements. We have demonstrated the power of organizing and power building in shaping policy outcomes that genuinely prioritize the needs of Arizona families. We have achieved these milestones through our collective efforts, and it is with the same collective power that we will continue to forge a brighter future for Arizona. ### About Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA): Living United for Change in Arizona is a grassroots organization dedicated to building power with Arizona's working families. LUCHA fights for racial, economic, and social justice, striving to create a just and equitable society for all. Check us out on social media and our website for more information.

Living United for Change in Arizona has been organizing the state's most vulnerable populations and electing Democrats. By: Eoin Higgins Since 1952, Arizona has only voted for a Democrat for president twice—Bill Clinton’s re-election in 1996, and Joe Biden in 2020. The former can be explained away by the presence of Ross Perot on the ballot and the relative weakness of the GOP’s standard bearer against Clinton, Bob Dole. But the 2020 result points to something else entirely, a political shift to the left in the Southwestern state. One group that’s been working hard to make progressive change in Arizona a reality for over a decade is Living United for Change in Arizona, or LUCHA, a grassroots organizing group that works in the state’s communities for economic justice and electoral change. LUCHA is the 501(c)(4) arm of the Arizona Center for Empowerment, a 501(c)(3) that works to empower Arizonans for economic and social justice. But other than general voter registration, ACE doesn’t focus on politics and elections—the group’s focus is on policy and grassroots organizing. Elections are where LUCHA comes in. Building power in a once-red state Co-Executive Director Tomas Robles Jr., who has been working with the group since 2013 and in an executive role since 2014, told Blue Tent that LUCHA’s “overall goal is to build political power among vulnerable communities,” requiring a diversity of tactics. “Economic justice is our flagship issue,” Robles said, ticking off a number of concerns LUCHA has heard from Arizona communities: funding for adult education, affordable housing, assistance for pre-K child care, and more. And voting rights are part of the program, important to ensure that those priorities aren’t stopped at the state level. The group was founded in the wake of SB1070, the notorious anti-immigration “show me your papers” law that sparked outrage around the country for its similarity to the policies of autocratic regimes like the Nazis. Stopping legislation like that is a major goal for LUCHA, and in order to do that, they need to protect the right to vote. “A lot of our work is predicated on addressing bills that attack access to the ballot box,” Robles told Blue Tent. With an operating budget for 2022 of between $3.5 and $5.5 million, LUCHA intends to get out the vote for the midterm contest. A robust electoral project aimed at knocking on 500,000 doors and registering 100,000 new voters has a record to build on. According to Way to Win's overview of the 2020 election, 76% of the 120,000 voters LUCHA reached in 2020 voted; 10% were first-time voters. The group increased turnout in the state by an estimated 5,781 votes—in an election that Biden won by just 10,457 votes. And there are still many more voters who could be pulled off the sidelines: Way to Win estimates that Democrats have the potential to expand their base in Arizona by 876,000 voters. But that won't happen without greater investment in LUCHA and other groups that are doing the patient, long-term organizing to bring new people into the political process. What donors should know For donors looking at the group, Robles has a simple message: LUCHA’s work as a c4 is member-funded and member-driven, so your dollar is working within an organization that has grassroots accountability. “In the years when the organization started, from 2010 to 2016, our small-dollar donations were hugely important, and they still fund a lot of what we do today,” Robles told Blue Tent. “You can expect that money to go toward an aggressive approach to engaging our voters and communities about what's actually happening in the legislature.” Now’s the time to give, too. Robles said that funding the group’s work in the early months of an election year pays off more than giving during the heat of the election cycle. The early money means early connections with voters, which can be invaluable on Election Day. “A dollar in January or February or early March is equal to $10 in August, September or October,” he said. “Early dollars allow us to have much longer and deeper conversations with the folks that we need to turn out for November.” Link to Original Article: https://bluetent.us/blog/In-Arizona-LUCHA-is-Building-Power-and-Winning-Elections/

Sinema once criticized the filibuster and mocked Joe Lieberman. Now she’s helping kill progressive legislation By: Igor Derysh Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona Democrat who has perplexed the nation, once criticized the filibuster's 60-vote threshold and urged Democrats to pass critical legislation with a simple majority. But the onetime Green Party activist and self-described "Prada socialist" has transformed, somehow or other, into one of the most conservative Democrats in the Senate, and the activists who helped elect her can't help but feel a sense of "betrayal." Sinema, a former state representative, in 2010 lamented the "false pressure" to reach a 60-vote supermajority to pass significant legislation in a video unearthed by the progressive advocacy group More Perfect Union. Sinema urged Democrats to use the budget reconciliation process to pass major bills like health care reform instead of "kowtowing to Joe Lieberman," the centrist senator who served as a roadblock to the party's major proposals despite caucusing with Democrats throughout his career. When Lieberman briefly ran president in 2003, Sinema described him as "pathetic." "He's a shame to Democrats," she told a reporter at the time. "I don't even know why he's running. He seems to want to get Republicans voting for him — what kind of strategy is that?" Past comments like those have puzzled Arizonans who have watched Sinema ascend to the Senate only to become a Lieberman-like figure herself. The shift has particularly stung for activists who helped register and turn out a record number of voters in the 2018 election, when Sinema narrowly defeated Republican Martha McSally. Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA), a grassroots group that led a coalition that knocked on 2.5 million doors that year, say they've been shut out by Sinema since she was elected. Sinema "will not take meetings with us personally," César Fierros, the group's communications manager, told Salon, adding that meetings with her team have been "incredibly dismissive" and even "combative." By comparison, he said the group has had an "open line of communication" with newly-elected Sen. Mark Kelly (who also defeated McSally, in 2020, leaving the latter in the improbable position of losing two Senate races two years apart). "From the beginning, our members and our community went out to knock on doors for Sen. Kelly and showed up at the polls," Fierros said. "We have high expectations because that is what our community deserves. Our members expect our senators to address the needs of their community." Sinema's stance on the filibuster has further soured relations with the group. "Sinema's choice to obstruct the Biden agenda during her time in the Senate can only be described as a complete and utter betrayal to the good people of Arizona that cast a vote for her in 2018," Fierros said. "Her delusional defense of the filibuster is a major roadblock to not only the real reforms we campaigned for when electing Sinema but also the defense of our democracy. With so much on the line, the senator continues to turn her back on promises made for true progress on voting rights, minimum wage and immigration reform." Many young LGBTQ activists who were inspired by Sinema, the first bisexual woman in the Senate, also say she has broken her campaign promises by defending the filibuster rule, undercutting her support for legislation like the pro-LGBTQ Equality Act. Joan Arrow, a trans LGBTQ activist, was never politically inclined before the Trump presidency but quickly rallied behind Sinema's historic candidacy and volunteered for her campaign. "I wasn't out of the closet yet," Arrow said in an interview with Salon. But "I knew that if I was going to be safe coming out of the closet, I'm going to need members of the LGBTQ community and allies in positions of power who would vote for something like the Equality Act, who would put my interests first. I trusted the promises she made in her campaign. I knocked on doors for her, I argued up and down that she was better than Martha McSally. And now that she's in a position of power, I really feel left behind." Sinema is a co-sponsor of the Equality Act, which would grant civil rights protections to the LGBTQ community. But her defense of the filibuster means the bill has virtually no hope of advancing in the Senate after 50 Republicans used the rule to block debate on the legislation. Meanwhile, Republicans have introduced more than 250 pieces of anti-LGBTQ legislation in state legislatures, according to the Human Rights Campaign, which warned that 2021 is set to become the "worst year for LGBTQ state legislative attacks." Arrow, who now works with the Arizona Coalition to End the Filibuster, organized a coalition of over 140 LGBTQ groups and activists to sign an open letter calling on Sinema to "take the necessary next step of ending the filibuster," warning that if she refuses "we will have no choice but to seriously consider whether our support for you, including financial donations, may better serve our community if directed to another Democrat who will use their power as a U.S. senator to stand up for our rights." The letter was cathartic for many LGBTQ activists who felt frustrated with Sinema's direction, Arrow said. "I felt incredibly betrayed," she said. "Almost everyone I've spoken to has really echoed that feeling of betrayal. LGBTQ Arizonans need people to do what they say they're going to do, and when you have this historic candidate in our community getting elected to the Senate, who then turns tail and abandons everyone who lifted her up into that position — the LGBTQ Arizonans I've spoken to, we feel betrayed." The Equality Act is just one of the major pieces of Democratic legislation that has languished in Congress as a result of the filibuster. Republicans have also filibustered the For the People Act, a sweeping voting rights bill, and the threat of a filibuster has impeded progress on policing reform and the PRO Act, which would strengthen unions. "LGBTQ issues are the same as anybody else's," Brianna Westbrook, a vice chair of the Arizona Democratic Party who helped organize the letter, said in an interview with Salon. "LGBTQ people and people with disabilities, in particular, are two communities that really intersect with multiple social and economic classes and the filibuster is a barrier that's really restricting not only the Equality Act but other legislation that's important to the LGBTQ community like raising the wage, immigration reform, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and allowing LGBTQ people to organize their workplaces." Progressive groups have poured millions into campaigns to ramp up pressure on Sinema to reverse her position on the filibuster. Operatives who helped elect Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York have launched the No Excuses PAC, which threatens to back primary challengers to Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., if they continue to "join with Republicans" against their own party's agenda. Another group has launched the Pressure PAC to raise money for an eventual progressive primary challenger to Sinema. Just Democracy, a coalition of more than 40 civil rights groups, last month launched a $1.5 million ad campaign to urge Sinema to "deliver on her campaign promise to protect voting rights and stand up for Arizonans." Sinema "campaigned for her seat by telling Black and brown Arizonans that she'd have our backs in office," Stephany Spaulding, a Just Democracy coalition member and founder of Truth & Conciliation, told Salon. Sinema promised to "support fair wages, more and better jobs, climate justice ... promises that compelled Black and Brown people to turn out in record numbers. But instead of having our backs, Sinema turned her back on us. Her insistence on letting Republicans use the Jim Crow filibuster keeps her from delivering on the promises she made — the filibuster is a ubiquitous barrier to progress on all issues." Sinema's opposition to eliminating the filibuster to advance voting rights legislation comes as Republicans this year have introduced more than 350 bills to restrict voting access. In Arizona, Republicans voted to strip power from the Democratic secretary of state and to implement new voting restrictions amid a dubious "forensic audit" of an election where no evidence of widespread fraud has been detected. The Supreme Court on Thursday dealt another blow to the Voting Rights Act, upholding previously enacted absentee voting restrictions and making it more difficult to challenge new state restrictions in the future. "Senators like Sinema who insist on prioritizing 'bipartisanship' over crucial legislation aimed at strengthening our democracy are resurrecting the legacy of segregationists," Spaulding said. "Instead of protecting our democracy, they're placing a Jim Crow relic over the most fundamental right we have as Americans: the right to vote." Sinema has so far appeared entirely unmoved by the pressure campaigns, doubling down on her position in a Washington Post op-ed last month, arguing that the "best way to achieve durable, lasting results" was through "bipartisan cooperation." "I think she truly sees that if you can forge bipartisan compromise, it's going to be much more sustainable in terms of legislation. It's going to be able to withstand a turnover in party control," David Lujan, a former Arizona state legislator who served alongside Sinema, said in an interview with Salon. But Lujan said he also questions that strategy, "especially when you have Republicans who despise Democrats and think that they're pedophiles and are harming kids in tunnels. How do you negotiate with people that believe that?" In an era of "ultra-polarized" politics, Lujan added, "I don't know if her approach is necessarily going to work." Sinema argued in the op-ed that eliminating the filibuster would produce only "temporary victories" that were "destined to be reversed" if Republicans retake control of Congress, and noted that Democrats had filibustered police reform and COVID relief proposals under Trump "to force continued negotiations toward better solutions." Eliminating the filibuster to expand health care could open the door to Republicans passing legislation "dividing Medicaid into block grants, slashing earned Social Security and Medicare benefits, or defunding women's reproductive health services," Sinema wrote. Eliminating it to protect the environment or strengthen education could open the door to Republicans defunding or abolishing entire agencies and programs. But most of the programs she mentioned can already be cut or eliminated with a simple majority, using the budget reconciliation process, if Republicans regain a majority in Congress. In fact, that's what they unsuccessfully tried to do with their attempts to repeal Obamacare. "It's a lot harder to repeal legislation after it's been enacted," Westbrook said. "We saw the amount of blowback Republicans received anytime they tried to dismantle the ACA. When you get legislation that materially changes the lives of human beings, you're going to have people fighting tooth and nail to make sure that legislation stays in. I think it's a bad move to not take the opportunity that you have as an elected official in this moment to pass as much legislation as humanly possible. I see that premise that she's basically put in that article as, 'I won't do anything.' That's not the job we elected her to do." Sinema has tried to forge a bipartisan track herself, working on a bipartisan bill with Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, to raise the federal minimum wage to $11 after she joined Republicans and some Democrats in scuttling President Biden's $15 proposal. She was also involved in negotiations on a bipartisan infrastructure bill. But the wage bill has gone nowhere and Republicans are already threatening to blow up the bipartisan deal, which provides a fraction of the funding originally proposed by Biden, because Democrats plan to pass a larger bill including their top priorities using the budget reconciliation process. Sinema argued that voters expect her to be "independent — like Arizona — and to work with anyone to achieve lasting results." But her minimum wage bill would do little to help working people in Arizona, where the minimum wage already exceeds $11 despite years of Republican control, and the bipartisan deal rejected many top Democratic priorities that they now plan to advance themselves. "Arizonans are linking the issues to the filibuster because they understand what Sen. Sinema does not — that broken rules and systems impact people's everyday lives," Spaulding said. "They know the dangerous consequences of keeping the filibuster intact and allowing it to stop progress on policies that affect their loved ones directly." Sinema says that her critics have it all wrong and there was no big transformation ahead of the current filibuster fight. "I held the same view during three terms in the U.S. House, and said the same after I was elected to the Senate in 2018," she wrote in the Post op-ed. "If anyone expected me to reverse my position because my party now controls the Senate, they should know that my approach to legislating in Congress is the same whether in the minority or majority." On this, she has a point. Critics who questioning how the former Ralph Nader acolyte, who organized anti-war protests during the Bush era, became a conservative Democrat are ignoring much of her career in government. Sinema has also developed a persona of sorts, touting her working-class credentials by frequently recounting her childhood living in poverty. Republicans have helped shape Sinema's leftist image as well, frequently referencing her activist days and painting her as a radical leftist in unsuccessful efforts to defeat her. Sinema is a former social worker and criminal defense lawyer who tried to run for Phoenix City Council and later the state House as an independent, failing both times. Sinema's "first political compromise," as the socialist magazine Jacobin described it, came when she registered as a Democrat to run for a state House seat in 2004, beginning a long journey that led to a "complete 180 on almost every position she ever took on almost any issue." Lujan denied that Sinema has "changed what she believes in," but agreed that he saw a shift after she was elected to the legislature and was met with a Republican supermajority that "shut out" the Democratic minority. "When she first entered the legislature, if you look at the bills that she filed back then, you'd find that was a pretty progressive list of bills that never got a hearing or went anywhere," he said, adding that she soon started to introduce "more moderate legislation." Despite serving as a Democrat in a deeply red state, Sinema pulled off some big unlikely wins. The first was when she led the opposition effort to a 2006 ballot initiative that would have prohibited same-sex marriage. "Everyone I think at the time predicted that it was going to pass easily, but Kyrsten and our group were successful in defeating the measure," Lujan recalled, noting that it was the first such measure defeated in the country. "She did that by messaging people that maybe traditionally would not have opposed that measure," he said. "She really tried to cross party lines and ideological lines to have people join in opposing the measure. That was probably the first time I saw the value in that approach." Another "turning point" for Sinema was when she introduced a measure to prohibit state investments in Darfur and got strong bipartisan support to pass the bill. "That was probably the first bill she got through the legislature," Lujan said. "She then really started to look at, 'What's legislation that I can work across the aisle and find compromise on to get something done?'" That shift was accompanied by embracing the state's top Republicans. Sinema even defended then-state Senate President Russell Pearce, an anti-immigration extremist, saying that she "love[d] him" and "would love to see him run for Congress," declining to join a successful recall campaign against him because he was her "boss." Though she moved further right in the legislature while pushing progressive legislation, the shift was more dramatic after she quit the legislature to run for Congress in a more politically diverse district. After winning that election she joined numerous bipartisan groups that called for "reforming" Social Security and Medicare, cutting corporate taxes and regulations, and reducing spending. She joined numerous centrist or business-friendly groups like the Blue Dog Coalition, the Problem Solvers Caucus, No Labels and Third Way. After joining the House Financial Services Committee, Sinema quickly came under fire from progressives in her state for backing a bill written by Citigroup and supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to roll back some Dodd-Frank financial reforms. She later supported an even larger rollback of the law that deregulated most of the country's largest banks. In 2015, was one of just four Democrats to support giving the financial industry an advisory role on Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regulations. The financial industry responded by boosting its campaign contributions to Sinema from just $28,346 in 2012 to more than $890,000 by 2016. She has also won the Chamber of Commerce "Spirit of Enterprise" award, for members who vote with the group more than 70% of the time, seven years in a row and was the lone Democrat to receive the award last year It was a startling departure from an activist who decried the ills of capitalism two decades earlier. She has also voted to repeal the estate tax, which only applies to individuals with assets over $11.7 million, repeatedly supported increased military spending, and voted to repeal Obama's Clean Water Plan and block his Clean Power Plan. Sinema joined Republicans to delay the Obamacare individual mandate and allow insurers to offer plans that don't meet the Obamacare standards while introducing a bill to repeal the law's tax on insurers. After being recruited by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to run for Senate, Sinema immediately expressed opposition to Schumer serving as the party leader. After winning a close race over McSally in 2018, Sinema voted with Trump half the time and broke with her party more often than any other Democrat besides Manchin, particularly in approving Trump's nominees. She was singled out for praise by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and an ExxonMobil lobbyist was caught on video naming Sinema as one of 11 senators "crucial" to the oil giant's opposition to climate change legislation. Even Biden, who has touted bipartisanship as much as anyone, recently called out Sinema and Manchin as "two members of the Senate who vote more with my Republican friends." Lujan said that Sinema's conservative bent could help her among the more moderate electorate in Arizona, but said he didn't see it as a political calculation. "I think her approach to getting elected was the right approach, and I think she's taking the approach that she feels is the one that's going to help her get re-elected," he said. "But I also think she actually, truly believes that it's the right approach to take, that you're going to have better legislation if you work in a bipartisan fashion." It remains to be seen whether that approach will pay off. In a poll earlier this year, a large majority of Arizonans said it was more important to pass major legislation than to preserve rules like the filibuster. And while Sinema's popularity lags behind Kelly's, a recent poll showed that her approval rating is significantly higher among Republicans than it is among Democrats and independents. Sinema seems to have traded her progressive support "for a boost from Republicans in opinion polls," Arrow said. But she's skeptical that will work. "She's not going to get supported by those Republicans: They're going to vote for someone who represents their values. Sinema is going to find herself alone, because she's shown everyone on both sides of the aisle that she has no values." Westbrook argued that while Sinema's decisions are politically "calculated," her calculus is "outdated." "She is not changing with the electorate," she said. "Arizona is changing, the dynamics are changing. The people that Sinema should be appealing to are the people are disengaged in the political system. Those are the people that are going to get her back to Washington." Lujan expressed doubt that pressure from progressives would change Sinema's mind, predicting that the senator would continue pursuing a bipartisan path "until she figures out that it's not working" herself. "Then I actually think, if she does not have success in getting things done, she will look to see if maybe that's not the right approach. That's my hope," he said. "She is going to work very hard to forge bipartisan solutions, but I think she's also very pragmatic. My hope is that if it's not working, she will begin to see that it makes sense to do away with the filibuster rule." en. Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona Democrat who has perplexed the nation, once criticized the filibuster's 60-vote threshold and urged Democrats to pass critical legislation with a simple majority. But the onetime Green Party activist and self-described "Prada socialist" has transformed, somehow or other, into one of the most conservative Democrats in the Senate, and the activists who helped elect her can't help but feel a sense of "betrayal." Sinema, a former state representative, in 2010 lamented the "false pressure" to reach a 60-vote supermajority to pass significant legislation in a video unearthed by the progressive advocacy group More Perfect Union. Sinema urged Democrats to use the budget reconciliation process to pass major bills like health care reform instead of "kowtowing to Joe Lieberman," the centrist senator who served as a roadblock to the party's major proposals despite caucusing with Democrats throughout his career. When Lieberman briefly ran president in 2003, Sinema described him as "pathetic." "He's a shame to Democrats," she told a reporter at the time. "I don't even know why he's running. He seems to want to get Republicans voting for him — what kind of strategy is that?" Past comments like those have puzzled Arizonans who have watched Sinema ascend to the Senate only to become a Lieberman-like figure herself. The shift has particularly stung for activists who helped register and turn out a record number of voters in the 2018 election, when Sinema narrowly defeated Republican Martha McSally. Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA), a grassroots group that led a coalition that knocked on 2.5 million doors that year, say they've been shut out by Sinema since she was elected. Sinema "will not take meetings with us personally," César Fierros, the group's communications manager, told Salon, adding that meetings with her team have been "incredibly dismissive" and even "combative." By comparison, he said the group has had an "open line of communication" with newly-elected Sen. Mark Kelly (who also defeated McSally, in 2020, leaving the latter in the improbable position of losing two Senate races two years apart). "From the beginning, our members and our community went out to knock on doors for Sen. Kelly and showed up at the polls," Fierros said. "We have high expectations because that is what our community deserves. Our members expect our senators to address the needs of their community." Sinema's stance on the filibuster has further soured relations with the group. "Sinema's choice to obstruct the Biden agenda during her time in the Senate can only be described as a complete and utter betrayal to the good people of Arizona that cast a vote for her in 2018," Fierros said. "Her delusional defense of the filibuster is a major roadblock to not only the real reforms we campaigned for when electing Sinema but also the defense of our democracy. With so much on the line, the senator continues to turn her back on promises made for true progress on voting rights, minimum wage and immigration reform." Many young LGBTQ activists who were inspired by Sinema, the first bisexual woman in the Senate, also say she has broken her campaign promises by defending the filibuster rule, undercutting her support for legislation like the pro-LGBTQ Equality Act. Joan Arrow, a trans LGBTQ activist, was never politically inclined before the Trump presidency but quickly rallied behind Sinema's historic candidacy and volunteered for her campaign. "I wasn't out of the closet yet," Arrow said in an interview with Salon. But "I knew that if I was going to be safe coming out of the closet, I'm going to need members of the LGBTQ community and allies in positions of power who would vote for something like the Equality Act, who would put my interests first. I trusted the promises she made in her campaign. I knocked on doors for her, I argued up and down that she was better than Martha McSally. And now that she's in a position of power, I really feel left behind." Sinema is a co-sponsor of the Equality Act, which would grant civil rights protections to the LGBTQ community. But her defense of the filibuster means the bill has virtually no hope of advancing in the Senate after 50 Republicans used the rule to block debate on the legislation. Meanwhile, Republicans have introduced more than 250 pieces of anti-LGBTQ legislation in state legislatures, according to the Human Rights Campaign, which warned that 2021 is set to become the "worst year for LGBTQ state legislative attacks." Arrow, who now works with the Arizona Coalition to End the Filibuster, organized a coalition of over 140 LGBTQ groups and activists to sign an open letter calling on Sinema to "take the necessary next step of ending the filibuster," warning that if she refuses "we will have no choice but to seriously consider whether our support for you, including financial donations, may better serve our community if directed to another Democrat who will use their power as a U.S. senator to stand up for our rights." The letter was cathartic for many LGBTQ activists who felt frustrated with Sinema's direction, Arrow said. "I felt incredibly betrayed," she said. "Almost everyone I've spoken to has really echoed that feeling of betrayal. LGBTQ Arizonans need people to do what they say they're going to do, and when you have this historic candidate in our community getting elected to the Senate, who then turns tail and abandons everyone who lifted her up into that position — the LGBTQ Arizonans I've spoken to, we feel betrayed." The Equality Act is just one of the major pieces of Democratic legislation that has languished in Congress as a result of the filibuster. Republicans have also filibustered the For the People Act, a sweeping voting rights bill, and the threat of a filibuster has impeded progress on policing reform and the PRO Act, which would strengthen unions. "LGBTQ issues are the same as anybody else's," Brianna Westbrook, a vice chair of the Arizona Democratic Party who helped organize the letter, said in an interview with Salon. "LGBTQ people and people with disabilities, in particular, are two communities that really intersect with multiple social and economic classes and the filibuster is a barrier that's really restricting not only the Equality Act but other legislation that's important to the LGBTQ community like raising the wage, immigration reform, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and allowing LGBTQ people to organize their workplaces." Progressive groups have poured millions into campaigns to ramp up pressure on Sinema to reverse her position on the filibuster. Operatives who helped elect Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York have launched the No Excuses PAC, which threatens to back primary challengers to Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., if they continue to "join with Republicans" against their own party's agenda. Another group has launched the Pressure PAC to raise money for an eventual progressive primary challenger to Sinema. Just Democracy, a coalition of more than 40 civil rights groups, last month launched a $1.5 million ad campaign to urge Sinema to "deliver on her campaign promise to protect voting rights and stand up for Arizonans." Sinema "campaigned for her seat by telling Black and brown Arizonans that she'd have our backs in office," Stephany Spaulding, a Just Democracy coalition member and founder of Truth & Conciliation, told Salon. Sinema promised to "support fair wages, more and better jobs, climate justice ... promises that compelled Black and Brown people to turn out in record numbers. But instead of having our backs, Sinema turned her back on us. Her insistence on letting Republicans use the Jim Crow filibuster keeps her from delivering on the promises she made — the filibuster is a ubiquitous barrier to progress on all issues." Sinema's opposition to eliminating the filibuster to advance voting rights legislation comes as Republicans this year have introduced more than 350 bills to restrict voting access. In Arizona, Republicans voted to strip power from the Democratic secretary of state and to implement new voting restrictions amid a dubious "forensic audit" of an election where no evidence of widespread fraud has been detected. The Supreme Court on Thursday dealt another blow to the Voting Rights Act, upholding previously enacted absentee voting restrictions and making it more difficult to challenge new state restrictions in the future. "Senators like Sinema who insist on prioritizing 'bipartisanship' over crucial legislation aimed at strengthening our democracy are resurrecting the legacy of segregationists," Spaulding said. "Instead of protecting our democracy, they're placing a Jim Crow relic over the most fundamental right we have as Americans: the right to vote." Sinema has so far appeared entirely unmoved by the pressure campaigns, doubling down on her position in a Washington Post op-ed last month, arguing that the "best way to achieve durable, lasting results" was through "bipartisan cooperation." "I think she truly sees that if you can forge bipartisan compromise, it's going to be much more sustainable in terms of legislation. It's going to be able to withstand a turnover in party control," David Lujan, a former Arizona state legislator who served alongside Sinema, said in an interview with Salon. But Lujan said he also questions that strategy, "especially when you have Republicans who despise Democrats and think that they're pedophiles and are harming kids in tunnels. How do you negotiate with people that believe that?" In an era of "ultra-polarized" politics, Lujan added, "I don't know if her approach is necessarily going to work." Sinema argued in the op-ed that eliminating the filibuster would produce only "temporary victories" that were "destined to be reversed" if Republicans retake control of Congress, and noted that Democrats had filibustered police reform and COVID relief proposals under Trump "to force continued negotiations toward better solutions." Eliminating the filibuster to expand health care could open the door to Republicans passing legislation "dividing Medicaid into block grants, slashing earned Social Security and Medicare benefits, or defunding women's reproductive health services," Sinema wrote. Eliminating it to protect the environment or strengthen education could open the door to Republicans defunding or abolishing entire agencies and programs. But most of the programs she mentioned can already be cut or eliminated with a simple majority, using the budget reconciliation process, if Republicans regain a majority in Congress. In fact, that's what they unsuccessfully tried to do with their attempts to repeal Obamacare. "It's a lot harder to repeal legislation after it's been enacted," Westbrook said. "We saw the amount of blowback Republicans received anytime they tried to dismantle the ACA. When you get legislation that materially changes the lives of human beings, you're going to have people fighting tooth and nail to make sure that legislation stays in. I think it's a bad move to not take the opportunity that you have as an elected official in this moment to pass as much legislation as humanly possible. I see that premise that she's basically put in that article as, 'I won't do anything.' That's not the job we elected her to do." Sinema has tried to forge a bipartisan track herself, working on a bipartisan bill with Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, to raise the federal minimum wage to $11 after she joined Republicans and some Democrats in scuttling President Biden's $15 proposal. She was also involved in negotiations on a bipartisan infrastructure bill. But the wage bill has gone nowhere and Republicans are already threatening to blow up the bipartisan deal, which provides a fraction of the funding originally proposed by Biden, because Democrats plan to pass a larger bill including their top priorities using the budget reconciliation process. Sinema argued that voters expect her to be "independent — like Arizona — and to work with anyone to achieve lasting results." But her minimum wage bill would do little to help working people in Arizona, where the minimum wage already exceeds $11 despite years of Republican control, and the bipartisan deal rejected many top Democratic priorities that they now plan to advance themselves. "Arizonans are linking the issues to the filibuster because they understand what Sen. Sinema does not — that broken rules and systems impact people's everyday lives," Spaulding said. "They know the dangerous consequences of keeping the filibuster intact and allowing it to stop progress on policies that affect their loved ones directly." Sinema says that her critics have it all wrong and there was no big transformation ahead of the current filibuster fight. "I held the same view during three terms in the U.S. House, and said the same after I was elected to the Senate in 2018," she wrote in the Post op-ed. "If anyone expected me to reverse my position because my party now controls the Senate, they should know that my approach to legislating in Congress is the same whether in the minority or majority." On this, she has a point. Critics who questioning how the former Ralph Nader acolyte, who organized anti-war protests during the Bush era, became a conservative Democrat are ignoring much of her career in government. Sinema has also developed a persona of sorts, touting her working-class credentials by frequently recounting her childhood living in poverty. Republicans have helped shape Sinema's leftist image as well, frequently referencing her activist days and painting her as a radical leftist in unsuccessful efforts to defeat her. Sinema is a former social worker and criminal defense lawyer who tried to run for Phoenix City Council and later the state House as an independent, failing both times. Sinema's "first political compromise," as the socialist magazine Jacobin described it, came when she registered as a Democrat to run for a state House seat in 2004, beginning a long journey that led to a "complete 180 on almost every position she ever took on almost any issue." Lujan denied that Sinema has "changed what she believes in," but agreed that he saw a shift after she was elected to the legislature and was met with a Republican supermajority that "shut out" the Democratic minority. "When she first entered the legislature, if you look at the bills that she filed back then, you'd find that was a pretty progressive list of bills that never got a hearing or went anywhere," he said, adding that she soon started to introduce "more moderate legislation." Despite serving as a Democrat in a deeply red state, Sinema pulled off some big unlikely wins. The first was when she led the opposition effort to a 2006 ballot initiative that would have prohibited same-sex marriage. "Everyone I think at the time predicted that it was going to pass easily, but Kyrsten and our group were successful in defeating the measure," Lujan recalled, noting that it was the first such measure defeated in the country. "She did that by messaging people that maybe traditionally would not have opposed that measure," he said. "She really tried to cross party lines and ideological lines to have people join in opposing the measure. That was probably the first time I saw the value in that approach." Another "turning point" for Sinema was when she introduced a measure to prohibit state investments in Darfur and got strong bipartisan support to pass the bill. "That was probably the first bill she got through the legislature," Lujan said. "She then really started to look at, 'What's legislation that I can work across the aisle and find compromise on to get something done?'" That shift was accompanied by embracing the state's top Republicans. Sinema even defended then-state Senate President Russell Pearce, an anti-immigration extremist, saying that she "love[d] him" and "would love to see him run for Congress," declining to join a successful recall campaign against him because he was her "boss." Though she moved further right in the legislature while pushing progressive legislation, the shift was more dramatic after she quit the legislature to run for Congress in a more politically diverse district. After winning that election she joined numerous bipartisan groups that called for "reforming" Social Security and Medicare, cutting corporate taxes and regulations, and reducing spending. She joined numerous centrist or business-friendly groups like the Blue Dog Coalition, the Problem Solvers Caucus, No Labels and Third Way. After joining the House Financial Services Committee, Sinema quickly came under fire from progressives in her state for backing a bill written by Citigroup and supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to roll back some Dodd-Frank financial reforms. She later supported an even larger rollback of the law that deregulated most of the country's largest banks. In 2015, was one of just four Democrats to support giving the financial industry an advisory role on Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regulations. The financial industry responded by boosting its campaign contributions to Sinema from just $28,346 in 2012 to more than $890,000 by 2016. She has also won the Chamber of Commerce "Spirit of Enterprise" award, for members who vote with the group more than 70% of the time, seven years in a row and was the lone Democrat to receive the award last year It was a startling departure from an activist who decried the ills of capitalism two decades earlier. She has also voted to repeal the estate tax, which only applies to individuals with assets over $11.7 million, repeatedly supported increased military spending, and voted to repeal Obama's Clean Water Plan and block his Clean Power Plan. Sinema joined Republicans to delay the Obamacare individual mandate and allow insurers to offer plans that don't meet the Obamacare standards while introducing a bill to repeal the law's tax on insurers. After being recruited by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to run for Senate, Sinema immediately expressed opposition to Schumer serving as the party leader. After winning a close race over McSally in 2018, Sinema voted with Trump half the time and broke with her party more often than any other Democrat besides Manchin, particularly in approving Trump's nominees. She was singled out for praise by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and an ExxonMobil lobbyist was caught on video naming Sinema as one of 11 senators "crucial" to the oil giant's opposition to climate change legislation. Even Biden, who has touted bipartisanship as much as anyone, recently called out Sinema and Manchin as "two members of the Senate who vote more with my Republican friends." Lujan said that Sinema's conservative bent could help her among the more moderate electorate in Arizona, but said he didn't see it as a political calculation. "I think her approach to getting elected was the right approach, and I think she's taking the approach that she feels is the one that's going to help her get re-elected," he said. "But I also think she actually, truly believes that it's the right approach to take, that you're going to have better legislation if you work in a bipartisan fashion." It remains to be seen whether that approach will pay off. In a poll earlier this year, a large majority of Arizonans said it was more important to pass major legislation than to preserve rules like the filibuster. And while Sinema's popularity lags behind Kelly's, a recent poll showed that her approval rating is significantly higher among Republicans than it is among Democrats and independents. Sinema seems to have traded her progressive support "for a boost from Republicans in opinion polls," Arrow said. But she's skeptical that will work. "She's not going to get supported by those Republicans: They're going to vote for someone who represents their values. Sinema is going to find herself alone, because she's shown everyone on both sides of the aisle that she has no values." Westbrook argued that while Sinema's decisions are politically "calculated," her calculus is "outdated." "She is not changing with the electorate," she said. "Arizona is changing, the dynamics are changing. The people that Sinema should be appealing to are the people are disengaged in the political system. Those are the people that are going to get her back to Washington." Lujan expressed doubt that pressure from progressives would change Sinema's mind, predicting that the senator would continue pursuing a bipartisan path "until she figures out that it's not working" herself. "Then I actually think, if she does not have success in getting things done, she will look to see if maybe that's not the right approach. That's my hope," he said. "She is going to work very hard to forge bipartisan solutions, but I think she's also very pragmatic. My hope is that if it's not working, she will begin to see that it makes sense to do away with the filibuster rule." Link to Original Article: https://www.salon.com/2021/07/03/utter-betrayal-angry-activists-who-helped-elect-kyrsten-sinema-say-she-has-no-values/

Leaders like Alex Gomez and Tomás Robles connected the party to issues voters cared about By: Hahrie Han and Liz McKenna It’s not surprising that people’s attention is focused on the Biden administration and the internecine fights among Republicans. But how the Democratic Party faces its challenges and opportunities is just as interesting. The lessons of swing states like Arizona may have important lessons for the party’s future. The party succeeds when it connects to real-world problems The first big change from the past is that the Democratic Party has money and resources. After years of barely being able to pay its bills, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has over $75 million in the bank. The party controls the presidency, the House and the Senate, and DNC Chair Jaime Harrison has pledged to invest in building the party’s ground game. Of course, nearly every recent incarnation of the DNC has promised to revive its grass roots — to no avail. How might the Democratic Party do things differently today? Over the past decade, we have undertaken empirical analyses of the 2008 and 2012 Obama ground games (which became required reading for the 2020 Republican National Committee field teams — organizers had to pass an exam on the book). We also carried out a confidential analysis of the 2016 Clinton field program and have studied many of the statewide, grass-roots organizations in places such as Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin and Michigan that helped fuel change in 2020. The one consistent finding is that the party succeeds when it builds sustained, multiracial organizations on the ground that are rooted in real people’s real problems. Arizona offers some important lessons To connect to communities, parties often have to work with nonparty groups, which may work for years to change politics. The organizations that helped flip Arizona, for instance, first came together in a decade-long fight against restrictive anti-immigration laws. This coalition started to emerge in 2010, when a group of mostly youth and immigrant leaders organized a 104-day vigil outside the Arizona Capitol to protest the sudden passage of the nation’s most restrictive immigration law. That vigil cultivated leaders and organizers who then incubated a large network of groups across the state. As they matured, these organizations won local victories, helping elect a majority on the Phoenix City Council, winning the first statewide recall of anti-immigrant leader Russell Pearce, defeating Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and passing a landmark minimum wage and paid sick leave ballot initiative in 2016. These experiences laid the groundwork for 2020. Such coalition-building requires the cultivation of long-term relationships with constituents and strategic partners. In Arizona, Latino leaders like Alex Gomez and Tomás Robles of Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA) built deep relationships with constituents, fostered new leaders and developed organizational vehicles that enabled these leaders to act. It also required action on concrete issues, which sometimes led to surprising alliances. Just as Stacey Abrams has partnered with the tea party on legislation in Georgia, Gomez and Robles built partnerships with business leaders to advance a minimum-wage ballot initiative. By fostering strategic relationships and delivering concrete benefits, Gomez, Robles and other activists could reach voters and communities in 2020 that the Democrats rarely reach, and become trusted sources of information in an era of disinformation. People of color are emerging as leaders There has been a lot of attention paid to the organizing energies of groups of primarily White women activated by 2016. These groups have played a vital role, but so too have groups led by people of color. Some have branded organizations grounded in communities of color as the “ideological left,” implying they are unstrategic because they seek to pull the party toward bold ideas, or accused them of being unwilling to work with the party. Implicitly or explicitly, White leaders are often assumed to be more “moderate” and thus more “strategic.” Our research shows this is misguided. Often, the party resists leadership by people of color, only to ask later why they resist involvement with the party. When Gomez and Robles first sought to lead the 2016 minimum-wage ballot initiative, they got strong pushback from Democratic leaders. Party leaders wanted a White professional consultant to run the campaign. Gomez and Robles persisted, earning Robles the right to lead — and win — the campaign. In a pattern we saw repeated across many states, leaders of color had to fight so that they weren’t relegated to being mere foot soldiers for turnout operations, but instead, as Robles described it in 2017, “both brains and muscle. It may sound like a platitude to say that parties need to invest in sustained organizations rooted in the constituencies that constitute their base. If so, it is a platitude that is widely ignored. Typically, the national party expends most of its resources on advertising with dubious benefits. It also provides data and money to state and local parties, which are, in theory, responsible for building sustained relationships in the local community. Yet many state and local parties lack ideas about what to do between elections, and thus do nothing or run halfhearted voter registration programs. Without strong grounding in a community, campaigns are left blind during election season. They then rely too much on big data to make crude estimates of voters’ preferences, which can lead to catastrophicerrors and defaults toward focusing disproportionately on White, middle-class voters most likely to turn out. Actually expanding the base requires better voter lists that differentiate strong, middling and weak supporters, and that, in turn, requires humans talking to humans year-round. When parties become disconnected from their base, they have a hard time connecting to the complex, practical issues that communities face. When they work with humans with concrete problems to solve, however, a different kind of politics, a politics that makes democracy work, can emerge. In Arizona, Raquel Terán, another organizer who emerged from the 2010 vigil, was just elected as chair of the state’s Democratic Party. Her election acknowledges the importance of the years-long work these Latino organizers led throughout the state. Perhaps this time, the Democratic Party will indeed start to deliver. Link to Original Article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/02/09/learn-about-democratic-partys-future-look-what-latino-organizers-did-arizona/

"I voted for the candidate that would most help my family and community, and Donald Trump is not it," said a Las Vegas-based young Latina voter. By: Suzanne Gamboa and Anita Hassan Tomas Robles was 12 years old when a police officer pulled up to his family, who had become stranded on their return home to Phoenix from a vacation across the border. The officer didn't ask whether they needed help. He questioned his father about weapons and drugs and then forced his father to put his hands on the hood of a searing hot car, rummaged through their belongings without a warrant and left without assisting them. Years later, in 2010, Arizona implemented one of the nation's strictest anti-immigration laws, SB 1070, which allowed police to racially profile people and question them about their citizenship and immigration status. "2010 was like a powder keg for the state. The organizations that were built in response to SB 1070 ... would not exist without that law being passed," said Robles, co-executive director of Living United for Change, one of the organizations formed as a result of the law that helped mobilize Latinos politically. The group's acronym, LUCHA, means "fight" in Spanish. Robles, 38, watched as the organizing that he and other young people immersed themselves in a decade ago had its biggest impact yet as the Republican-controlled state flipped Democratic this week, its voters choosing Joe Biden over President Donald Trump and voting for Democrat Mark Kelly for the Senate. "This was 10 years in the making," said Robles, who started as LUCHA's executive director in 2013 with two employees. Today, with co-Executive Director Alejandra Gomez, he oversees offices in three counties and a staff of about 48. Joe Biden's supporters promote the importance of the Latino vote in the majority Hispanic neighborhood of Maryvale in Phoenix on Oct. 31.Edgard Garrido / Reuters In Arizona and Nevada, states with substantial Latino populations, Biden won the majorities of Latino voters, many of whom were propelled to the polls through established on-the-ground Latino organizing. The Latino support from the two states opens up a new path to the White House through the Latino-rich Sunbelt states. The Latino populations in Nevada and Arizona, about 30 percent of the overall population in each state, are predominantly Mexican American. Latinos are about 1 of every 5 voters in Arizona, and Biden got 63 percent of their votes, while Trump drew about a third, according to NBC News' analysis of exit polling. The electorate grew from 2016, when it was about 15 percent, and Biden improved slightly on the performance of Hillary Clinton, who got 61 percent of Latino votes that year. Trump won Arizona by 80,000 votes in 2016. In Nevada, where former Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid pulled out a tough re-election victory in 2010 by turning out Latino voters, Trump improved his share of Latino votes from 29 percent to 37 percent, according to exit polls, while Biden's performance of 56 percent was below Clinton's 60 percent in 2016. Knocking on nearly half a million doors Nevada's powerful Culinary Workers Union deployed door-to-door canvassers starting Aug. 1 — earlier than it has in previous years because of the pandemic. The union endorsed Biden. Many of its 60,000 mostly Latino members work in the state's casinos, hotel and service industry and associated tourism, which was brought to a halt as Covid-19 case numbers rose and as workers were sickened and others were furloughed or let go. The union's mobilizing machinery became key as the pandemic also pulled the plug on person-to-person contact with Latino voters and large campaign events for months — and as early polls showed soft enthusiasm for Biden among Latinos nationally. Bethany Khan, the union's spokeswoman, said canvassers knocked on nearly half a million doors in Las Vegas and Reno and spoke to 40,000 Latino voters. "Ever since Trump took office, he's been a threat to the livelihood of workers and our families," Khan said, adding that 54 union members or their family members have died from Covid-19 since March. Leo Murrieta, Nevada director for Make The Road Action, said years of outreach and organizing made Latino voters more discerning about disinformation in Spanish-language advertising. He pointed to Trump's telling Spanish-language voters that he was handling the pandemic and to his downplaying of its dangers. "The Trump campaign spent a lot of money in Spanish-language media to divide and break off Latinos from Democrats, trying to divide families and just lying to Latinx voters," Murrieta said. "That wasn't met soon enough by the Joe Biden campaign. We had to pressure every campaign to do more." 'We go to the community' Some of Biden's most active outreach to Latino voters ended up being in Arizona and Nevada. The campaign hired local Latino leaders and bilingual staff members who pushed his message in Spanish-language and Latino media. Biden's first visit to Arizona was in October. He was more cautious about traveling and holding public events than Trump because of the coronavirus. Trump made several visits to the state, but he had to cancel one when he was hospitalized with Covid-19. Robles said the Biden effort in Arizona was the most culturally competent engagement he'd seen from a presidential campaign. The campaign sent former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, the only major Latino presidential candidate in 2020, to Arizona and Nevada a few times to help rally Latino voters, once to preside at a lowrider-themed "Ridin' with Biden" event in Phoenix. In Nevada, after being asked by the campaign for ideas to reach Latinos, Nevada state lawmaker Edgar Flores worked with others from east Las Vegas to organize a cabalgata, a parade on horseback that is traditional to the community. Video of the event went viral, and a second event was held. "The Biden campaign knew that getting the Latino vote was going to be absolutely essential and came to me and said, 'What can we do?'" Flores said. "I said whatever we do, we go to the community. Nothing about this will work if you want our community to go somewhere else." He also insisted that the event amplify the community. Liliana Trejo-Vanegas, 26, of Las Vegas, said her vote was more anti-Trump than pro-Biden. She, her mother, her father and her sister filled out mail-in ballots and dropped them off at polling locations because of Covid-19 concerns. Trejo-Vanegas, a freelance photographer who shoots weddings and events, lost work because of the pandemic. She said she felt that Trump disregarded the impact of the coronavirus on Latinos. Immigration policies were also important to Trejo-Vanegas. While she said she believed Biden could have done more for immigration reform as vice president, she said she felt that Trump's policies and rhetoric were "terrible." "So I voted for the candidate that would most help my family and community, and Donald Trump is not it," she said. Trump gained Latino support in Nevada But 37 percent of Nevada's Latino voters didn't agree with Trejo-Vanegas and cast their ballots for Trump. The share is an 8 percentage-point improvement on his showing in 2016. Republican former state legislator Victoria Seaman, who in 2014 was the first Republican Latina elected to the Nevada Assembly, tied Trump's increased Latino support to his economic policies. Nevada was one of the hardest-hit states during the 2008 Great Recession, but like others, Latinos were experiencing better economic times before the Covid-19 pandemic, said Seaman, who said she is of Spanish and Mexican descent. "Latinos and Hispanics want the same thing that everyone else wants," said Seaman, who is now on the Las Vegas City Council. "They want good jobs. They want to be able to put food on the table, good health care, good education, and they feel as though President Trump delivered that." Similar to Republican-voting Latinos in other states, Seaman said the Nevada voters don't hold Trump responsible for the pandemic and see him as being able to pull the country through it. 'We educated the voters about their power' Latino organizations hope the 2020 results will finally draw the investment and year-round interest in mobilizing Latino voters that many grassroots groups have been urging for years. Arizona "represents the great example of why having vision, long-term investment, really can make a difference," said Hector Sánchez Barba, executive director and CEO of Mi Familia Vota. Aside from its longtime voter registration efforts, Mi Familia Vota spent $14 million on its #BastaTrump campaign (which translates to "Enough of Trump"), mobilizing Latinos through canvassing, digital platforms and television and radio ads in the two states, as well as California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. "Organizations like ours, we built our relationships in this community, so we talk to them. They know they can trust us," Murrieta said. "This didn't happen because Democrats all of a sudden cared about our vote. We educated the voters about their power." Link to Original Article: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/years-making-established-latino-groups-helped-biden-arizona-nevada-n1246864