Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event at the Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote Presidential Town Hall at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on July 13, 2024, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Photo by Drew Hallowell | Getty Images
Arizona Democrats are lining up to back Vice President Kamala Harris as the presidential nominee, hailing her as a revitalizing force for the party.
“As the last few weeks have made clear, Americans are looking for a new generation of leadership that will move past the divisiveness and unite us around our shared American values,” Gov. Katie Hobbs said in an emailed statement. “I believe that leader is Vice President Harris, and I look forward to working with her to lower costs for Arizonans, restore reproductive freedom, and defend our democratic rights.”
On Sunday, President Joe Biden announced he was abandoning his reelection campaign amid calls from within his party to step down after what many considered a disastrous debate performance. Democrats across the country worried that the Delaware native’s public stumbles, which had already led to a fall in voter confidence, would harm candidates further down the ballot.
In the Grand Canyon State, a critical swing state which Biden won by less than 11,000 votes four years ago and where Democrats are angling for a number of competitive seats in the fall, top party members praised Harris as the best candidate to defeat former President Donald Trump.
The Arizona Democratic Party touted Harris’ endorsement as a “new generation of leadership” and vowed to help support her campaign to defend against a second Trump presidency.
“We are united behind Vice President Kamala Harris because our democracy is on the line, and we will work around the clock to ensure she defeats Donald Trump once and for all in November,” wrote the party’s executive board in an emailed statement.
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U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly posted on X, formerly Twitter, that she is the right choice for the job. Kelly is rumored to be on Harris’ shortlist as she considers potential running mates.
“I couldn’t be more confident that Vice President @KamalaHarris is the right person to defeat Donald Trump and lead our country into the future,” he wrote. “She has my support for the nomination, and Gabby and I will do everything we can to elect her President of the United States.”
U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, who is mounting a campaign against Trump-endorsed Kari Lake to replace U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, highlighted Harris’ defense of abortion access. Democrats have looked to abortion to mobilize voters to elect pro-choice candidates, and Harris has made multiple trips to states with anti-abortion laws on the books, including Arizona, to rally voters on the issue.
“If Kari Lake is in the Senate and Donald Trump is in the White House, abortion will be banned and other rights taken away from Arizonans,” Gallego wrote on X. “As Vice President, @KamalaHarris has been crossing the country and visiting states like ours to defend the right for women to make their own health care decisions. I look forward to fighting with her to defend those rights as she works to earn the nomination.”
U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva called on Democrats to “coalesce” around Harris, saying that doing so would reshape the November ballot into a winning ticket. Grijalva was among the first Democratic members of Congress to urge Biden to end his campaign, and in a statement posted to social media site X, he said that Harris is best equipped to defend against Project 2025, a far right political agenda that includes banning abortion nationwide, dismantling public education, ending no-fault divorce and eliminating marriage equality.
“Moving forward, we cannot allow Trump and JD Vance to take the White House and for Republicans to reshape this nation through their Project 2025 — a right-wing manifesto that strips rights away from women, eliminates checks and balances, and lays the foundation for Trump to enact a radically undemocratic agenda,” Grijalva wrote. “It’s now time for Democrats to quickly coalesce around Kamala Harris, as President Biden has called on us to do, and form a ticket that will protect our democracy by helping Democrats win up and down the ballot this November.”
While Trump has attempted to distance himself from the plan, many of his current and former political advisors were involved with its creation, and it is explicitly designed to be a blueprint for Trump’s second term as president. Congressman JD Vance, Trump’s VP pick, has been a strong proponent of Project 2025, calling it an “incredible work on conservative policy.”
While Democrats in the Grand Canyon State lauded Harris as the right candidate to represent the party at the top of the ballot, Arizona Republicans denounced her as an extension of Biden and sought to shift the conversation back to the president’s health. Trump and Republicans have seized on Biden’s public blunders as proof that he is unfit for office, and made lampooning the Democrat over his health a key focus of their platform.
State Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, shared a post written Colorado GOP U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert accusing Biden of hiding a health issue. Biden has been isolating in Delaware after being diagnosed with COVID-19 last week.
“I demand proof of life from Joe Biden today by 5:00pm,” Boebert wrote in the post that Rogers shared. “He needs to get in front of some camera and discuss if he’s aware that he dropped out.”’
“VP Harris has to answer for her cover-up of Biden’s health issues and failed presidency,” echoed the official account of the Arizona Republican Party on Xr. “The GOP stands united behind President Trump and JD Vance, ready to fight to restore American greatness.”
In an interview with Arizona’s Family, AZGOP Chairwoman Gina Swoboda dismissed Harris as irrelevant, saying that Trump is likely to win no matter who represents Democrats.
“I don’t think it matters who the Democrats put at the top of the ticket or in the vice presidential slot,” she said. “I think that President Trump is going to win, and I think that’s because the Democrat policies have ruined the country.”
Republican candidates facing competitive races in the fall tied Harris to Biden’s policies, focusing particularly on border security and the economy — two areas Biden struggled to gain voter approval in.
“It’s the same bad policies in a slightly newer package,” wrote Lake. “What I want to concentrate on is what the America First Republican Party has to offer. If you want: Secure borders, Safe streets, A world-class education for your kiddos, A Strong economy, Affordable housing, A shot at The American Dream. Then the @GOP is the party for you.”
And U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, a Republican who represents a swing district spanning Pima and Cochise counties, criticized his Democratic opponent, Kirsten Engel, for supporting Harris, dubbing the vice president the “open border czar” in a post on X.
While Harris is widely regarded as the likely winner of the Democratic presidential nomination, she must still work to garner the support of 1,968 delegates to elect her at the Democratic National Convention scheduled to take place in Chicago from August 19 to 22. As of Monday, the 59-year-old had secured the backing of as much as 45% of those delegates, according to a count from USA TODAY. Afterwards, Harris’ campaign would need to file to run as the Democratic nominee across the country. In Arizona, the deadline to do so is August 25.
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