Arizona Democrats will bypass struggling state party in midterms, with key races on ballot

PHOENIX (AP) — Top Arizona Democrats said Tuesday they will bypass the financially strained state party and its embattled new chairman in next year’s midterms, as they looked to assure donors and activists that party dysfunction won’t hamper their efforts to win in the battleground state.

Gov. Katie Hobbs, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Attorney General Kris Mayes — who all are seeking second terms next year — said grassroots organizing will be outsourced to a small county organization rather than the Arizona Democratic Party.

The workaround comes as party disarray threatens to complicate Democrats’ efforts to hold on to a decade of successes in a state long dominated by Republicans. Arizona has no Senate contest next year but will have at least two battleground U.S. House races, and the campaigns for governor, other top state offices and legislature could dictate how Arizona handles the 2028 presidential election.

National Democratic committees, including the Democratic Governors Association, signed on to the move.

Conflict with Arizona Democratic state party

Arizona Democrats unexpectedly ousted former Chair Yolanda Bejarano after the party’s disastrous showing in the 2024 election, when Donald Trump won the state after losing it to Joe Biden in 2020. New Chairman Robert Branscomb promptly fired most of the senior staff.

Behind-the-scenes tension exploded into public view in April. Branscromb sent a letter to members of the state Democratic committee blasting Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, a highly unusual move against the state’s top Democrats.

Kelly, Gallego, Hobbs, Fontes and Mayes responded with their own letter saying they’d lost trust in Branscomb.

Last month, the party’s treasurer warned that Branscomb was spending more money than he was raising and the party was on track to run out of money by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the party is operating without a budget approved by the executive committee.

Allies of Branscomb, the party’s first Black chair, have said the pressure on him is racially motivated. He faces a potential ouster later this month but has refused to step aside.

After Tuesday’s announcement, Branscomb projected a united front with the officials who spurned him, predicting the split would not hold back Democrats.

“I think the people are ready to solidify our democracy, and democrats are in a position to win up and down the ticket,” he said. “Because we’re focused on different areas doesn’t mean we’re not together.”

Navajo County Democrats to run get-out-the-vote

The Arizona Democratic Party has traditionally housed the coordinated get-out-the-vote campaign designed to turn out voters for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot. Hobbs, Fontes and Mayes said Tuesday they’ll run it instead through the Navajo County Democratic Party for 2026.

Democrats are well-organized in Navajo County, which is small by population but large geographically in rural northeastern Arizona. The party has long invested in organizing there among Native American voters.

The county party can do most everything the state party can do, with one major exception—only the state party can send mail at a discounted postal rate. Branscomb said that won’t be an issue.

“We’ll still cooperate and work together on this,” he said. “We all have the same vision, we all have the same goal to get them all re-elected.”

Running a statewide campaign through a county party is not without precedent. Former Sen. John McCain leaned on the Yuma County GOP in his 2010 re-election campaign after a faction hostile to him took control of the Arizona Republican Party. In Nevada, Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto ran her 2022 coordinated campaign through the Washoe County Democratic Party after progressives took control of the state party.

In this case, the rupture between the officials and the party is not driven by ideology but by concerns of mismanagement and financial constraints.

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