Republicans have gained bare majorities in both state legislative bodies and will undoubtedly challenge for the Governor’s seat in November 2026. With the Dem party controlling the governor’s seat, the veto plays an important role in stemming attacks on environmental protection policies, voting rights, and abortion rights in the current right-wing frenzy. A focus on upsetting the balance of power in the Arizona State Legislature can help buoy opportunities for Dem party wins in the close races for U.S Senate in 2024 and retaining the governorship in 2026, as well as other legislative and regional victories. While the right-wing attempts at voter suppression and attacks on progressive issues like criminal justice reform, environmental justice and workers’ rights over the last two decades failed to produce the desired presidential and gubernatorial outcomes in 2020 and 2022 (respectively), years of gerrymandering and disenfranchisement has resulted stemming the retaking of both state houses and persistent battles for national office.
The Opportunity
While the national focus on the U.S. Senate race can help energize the landscape and provide justification for resources to the grassroots infrastructure (in the form of statewide coalitions like One Arizona), there are six competitive state house districts (2, 4, 9, 13, 16, 17, and 23) which provide an opportunity to break the Republican hold on both houses in Arizona’s state legislature. There will also be a retention election for 2 Arizona Supreme Court justices. Collaborating with partner organizations on strategic planning, field operations (canvass, phone banking and lit drop), narrative messaging, traditional (mail, TV, and Radio) and digital communications (email, social media, streaming, and text), will play an important role in getting the wins necessary to shift the balance of power in this key battleground state.
Strategy
While there has been significant investment and operations in Arizona over the past decade, it is imperative to get into Arizona early and execute a strong base building strategy over the course of the election cycles starting in 2023. The grassroots have done an outstanding job of initiating engagement and turnout for national office. That excitement and energy has not necessarily translated to wins at the state and regional level, nor in policies to address concerns of vulnerable communities. Starting in 2023 will allow us to execute a full strategy with key research and information that drives narrative formation (tying in environmental justice, social justice and governmental accountability), targeting and key operations.
There are four key components to successfully executing a plan to bump turnout of progressive voters by 5%:
- Strong analytics and targeting
- Local/regional battles (state house seats) tied into national priorities (US Senate race)
- Key operational grassroots partners (a coalition)
- Fully integrated digital communications (email, social media and text)
Plans
Local Partners
Build a strong collaboration with local partners that builds on their capacity to engage in power building beyond the election. Our technical assistance will help the groups build out their capabilities to engage voters at all levels with fully integrated platforms and tools.
National Partners
Network with national partners to focus resources on AZ to support our efforts and grassroots base building.
Voter Turnout
Target turnout of 200K voters in 2024 primary to boost turnout by 5% and close gaps for targeted seats in the AZ legislature and US Senate race.
Build Lists
Build a robust data and targeting effort to grow the target population. Set up expert data management and communications strategies that can help build on work cycle after cycle.
Budgetary needs:
For Arizona, we are hoping to raise $2 million for our efforts. If successful, this is how we would use the funds. The Targeted Field would also include regrants to support local power building. We have a formula that we use generally to fund this work. It is structured like this:
From Candidates to Issues
PowerPAC implements campaigns at every level.