Some swing-district Arizona Democrats received an eye-raising endorsement for their reelection bids.
Earlier this month, the Arizona Working Families Party issued its endorsements for state legislative races, giving support to Democrats across the state. Two of the candidates the party endorsed, Mariana Sandoval (LD 23) and Lorena Austin (LD 9), are from competitive districts in the state.
According to its website, the Working Families Party boasts of “building our own party on top of the two-party system in the United States – and it’s working. We organize outside the two parties, and then we recruit and train people-powered candidates up and down the ballot and run them to win.”
The website adds, “Sometimes we run candidates through Democratic Party primaries, and other times we run candidates on our own. We take on elections from city council to U.S. Senate — wherever there’s a path to win, and where winning will advance a people’s agenda, elevate visionary candidates, and help build the multiracial movement we need to win the America we deserve.”
State Representative Lorena Austin is running for reelection in Arizona Legislative District 9, which covers the city of Mesa. According to the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, the district is likely one of the most competitive in the state, with a 2.6% vote spread in the Commission’s nine focus elections. Democrats are slightly favored in the district, having won in five of those nine focus elections.
Despite her district being more moderate in its political makeup, Austin has demonstrated a propensity to become one of the most extreme leftist members of the Arizona Legislature on almost every issue.
Mariana Sandoval is running for reelection to the Arizona House of Representatives in Legislative District 23. According to the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, Legislative District 23 has a competitive vote spread of 16.9% between Democrats and Republicans over the past nine state elections. Out of those elections, Democrats have won all nine contests.
The full list of Arizona endorsements from the Arizona Working Families Party are as follows:
Sarah Ligouri
Arizona State House, District 5
Brian Garcia
Arizona State House, District 8
Juan Mendez
Arizona State House, District 8
Junelle Cavero
Arizona State House, District 11
Oscar De Los Santos
Arizona State House, District 11
Stephanie Stahl-Hamilton
Arizona State House, District 21
Mariana Sandoval
Arizona State House, District 23
Cesar Aguilar
Arizona State House, District 26
Quanta Crews
Arizona State House, District 26
Lauren Kuby
Arizona State Senate, District 8
Analise Ortiz
Arizona State Senate, District 24
Jennifer Allen
Pima County Supervisor, District 3
Raquel Terán
U.S. House, State of Arizona, District 3
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
The Arizona District Court declined to assume jurisdiction in the prosecution of Mark Meadows for his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
The court remanded the case back to the Maricopa County Superior Court. In the order issued on Monday, Judge John Tuchi said that Meadows’ actions concerning the 2020 election aren’t covered by the “color of office” afforded by his role as chief of staff to former President Donald Trump.
“The Court finds that Mr. Meadows fails to present good cause for his untimely filing of his Notice of Removal, and that in any event, an evaluation on the merits yields that he fails to demonstrate that the conduct charged in the state’s prosecution relates to his former color of office as Chief of Staff to the President,” wrote Tuchi.
An Arizona grand jury dropped felony indictments on Trump’s 2020 electors and their alleged conspirators, among them Meadows, earlier this year. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes accused the 18 indicted of participating in an organized “scheme” intending to “prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency.”
Mayes alleged that Meadows worked with members of the Trump campaign to coordinate and implement Arizona’s false Republican electors following the 2020 election. Meadows argued that his actions pertaining to the aftermath of the 2020 election were covered by his asserted official authority as chief of staff to the president. The district court disagreed, mainly due to Meadows’ lack of justification given for his argument.
“Indeed, rather than make any additional or alternative factual assertions to support his invocation of federal jurisdiction, Mr. Meadows simply quotes the State’s indictment verbatim,” wrote Tuchi. “Not only has Mr. Meadows not disputed any of the foregoing facts, but he has necessarily relied upon them. […] In other words, this is not a case in which opposing parties offer competing facts; rather, it is a case in which the parties offer competing characterizations of identical facts.”
Tuchi wrote that Meadows didn’t justify how his actions pertaining to the 2020 election fell under the proper scope and content of his job responsibilities as chief of staff, as Ninth Circuit precedent requires. Tuchi rejected Meadows’ characterization of his actions as a mere middleman of communication between the president and others.
“Contrary to Mr. Meadows’s assertions, the State has not indicted Mr. Meadows for merely facilitating communication to and from the President or for simply staying abreast of campaign goings-on. Instead, the State has indicted Mr. Meadows for allegedly orchestrating and participating in an illegal electioneering scheme,” wrote Tuchi. “To allow Mr. Meadows to recharacterize the State’s indictment at the level of generality that he seeks to do would be to vitiate both the federal officer removal statute and the Supreme Court precedent interpreting that statute, as every criminal prosecution of a federal officer will in some vague sense involve that officer’s staying ‘apprised of what is happening.’”
The court also rejected Meadows’ reasoning for his untimeliness in filing his notice of removal: his pursuit of an effort to convince the state to drop the charges against him, and his awaiting a Supreme Court decision in the case Trump v. United States that would lend to his immunity defense.
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In a hearing on Wednesday with Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Frank Moskowitz, the fate of Prop 140, the open primary, ranked-choice voting initiative, could be decided.
The final report of the court-appointed Special Master, Retired Arizona Superior Court Judge Christopher Skelly, has revealed that of the original 41,387 pairs of signatures challenged, a total of 37,657 or approximately 99%, were in fact duplicates. In a press release on the case April Smith v. Fontes, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club noted that the determination by Judge Skelly now places Prop. 140 thousands of signatures short of the minimum qualification to appear on the Nov. 5th ballot. To be precise, it would be 3,300 signatures short of the standard reaffirmed in the Arizona Supreme Court ruling Mussi v. Hobbs (2022).
Scot Mussi, President of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club said in a statement, “As we knew all along, Prop 140 lacks the signatures required for this measure to even make it to the ballot in the first place, let alone be considered by voters in November. Even though they knew about the illegitimacy of these duplicate signatures, the special interests behind this initiative attempted to run out the clock on this challenge through obstruction and delay. They were caught, and now we hope the court does the right thing and enjoin the measure from tabulation in the fall.”
As previously reported by AZ Free News, the extent of the signature duplication was extreme and brazen with 250 individuals reportedly signing five or more times, and a single individual signing no less than fifteen times. You can see the exhibit here.
In the text of Judge Skelly’s determination, hundreds of the alleged duplicates were overruled and removed from consideration and 3,333 were removed from consideration by agreement of attorneys on both sides. While the signatures were classed into “exact matches” and “near matches,” Skelly writes that he was instructed to “not read anything into those descriptions and I did not.”
Judge Skelly found that “Plaintiffs had proved by clear and convincing evidence that 37,657 signatures were duplicates— that the same person had signed more than once.”
SHARE: The group that supposedly wants to “make elections fair” (including Adrian Fontes) is content to do so by counting duplicate signatures. 🤯https://t.co/RXH6xGdKCe
Writing about the dupicate signature issue in August, the AZFEC criticized the group behind Proposition 140, the “Make Elections Fair PAC,” stating that the group which seeks to import “California-style elections to our state—got very creative in their signature gathering efforts. In fact, you could say that in many ways, they excelled in duplicating their work. And that’s exactly why Prop 140 should be invalidated.”
“This is outrageous,” AZFEC wrote, encouraging readers to examine the evidence themselves.
“This isn’t a debate about dubious matches or concerns of same family members with the same name being confused as a duplicate. All the duplicates submitted to be removed were the same name and same address that aligned with what was on the voter file. Under state law, you are only allowed to sign a petition once, so they should have been removed. Instead, thousands of people were allowed to sign the initiative petition sheets multiple times, and those signatures were counted.”
Judge Frank Moskowitz will hold the next hearing on Prop. 140 on Wednesday.
An exclusive poll for AZ Free News conducted by Data Orbital shows that among likely voters in the November 2024 General Election, President Donald Trump holds a narrow edge on Vice President and Democrat-appointed nominee Kamala Harris. Taken between 9/7/2024 – 9/9/2024, the poll shows Trump leading by a margin of 0.2% with 46.2% of those polled against Harris’ 46%, with a 4.26% margin of error.
Remarkably, the poll shows approximately 7.7% of Arizona voters remain undecided or refused to answer and are theoretically up for grabs in the highly competitive swing-state race.
Speaking with AZ Free News, George Khalaf, President of Data Orbital, explained, “Independent voters are always going to be very close, so they were. It was still neck and neck depending on the survey. The results sort of oscillate in terms of who’s in the lead.”
“That 7.7% undecided number, I would say, is going to be one of two things: 1.) Either individuals that are saying that they are likely to vote but don’t end up voting or 2.) People that really are truly undecided. But I would be shocked if the true undecided number is in the high single digits,” explained Khalaf.
“I would guess that right now, the true percentage of people that are undecided is maybe one or two percent, if that. This is a high-profile race and so most people have made up their minds. But I think a portion of people that are undecided likely will not end up making a decision on November 5th,” Khalaf stated. “And even if they come out and vote, they may just not vote in the presidential election or will write in somebody random.”
When polled on the most important issues facing Arizona, 30.4% of the likely votes said “Economy, Inflation, Cost of living,” 28.7% selected the Border and Immigration, and at a distant third selection, 18.3% said “Abortion/Pro-Choice/Women’s Rights.”
Conversely, Gallup polling from as recently as August found nationally that Immigration dominated as the most important issue at 19% of those polled, followed by the economy overall at 18%, poor government/leadership at 16%, and High Cost of Living/Inflation at 15%. Abortion barely moved the needle at just 4%.
Given that the poll’s results pre-date the Tuesday Sep. 10th Presidential Debate, they do not represent potential changes in perception that followed. However, Rasmussen Reports has offered a more comprehensive dataset with polling through Sep. 12th posted to X on Friday showing Trump ahead by six points, with another six percent undecided.
Pollster Nate Silver has consistently shown Trump to be favored to win the election both before and after the debate with Trump’s electoral college probability, which ignores the popular vote unlike general polling, at 61% based on the outcome of 40,000 election model simulations.
🚨 BREAKING: Trump ticks back to being the 61% favorite in Nate Silver’s election model after more polls release
🔴 Trump: 61% (+22.3) 🔵 Harris: 38.7%
The model also gives Trump a 63% chance of winning PENNSYLVANIA, and a 52% chance at MICHIGAN.
Nate Silver’s latest result is an increase from the 60.6% probability on Sep. 12th and is only a slight dip from the high point on Sep. 8th at 63.8%.
Nate Silver's model is showing Kamala Harris campaign is collapsing. In 2 days, after Trump embarrasses her at the debate, the collapse will be in freefall.
But polls aren't votes. Gotta still work out asses off. Get as many friends, family, coworkers, strangers to the polls. pic.twitter.com/jMtV03qu6B
As of this report, Polymarket projection has President Donald Trump favored to win Arizona 61-40% and has Harris leading nationally by just one point. The projection has been fluctuating between the candidates by 1-3 points on a daily basis, with Trump leading by two points as recently as Sep. 11th and tied at 49% on the tenth.
As far as potential shifts in public opinion before the election, Khalaf told AZ Free News, “I don’t think we’re likely to see a large shift. I just think that obviously we all know the limitations of public opinion polling. There is a margin of error. And so I think the race is going to stay consistently in that range, which means that on election day, that’s why people are still saying it’s a toss -up, even though, again, I would say I would give Arizona a lean towards former President Trump, but I don’t expect a big shift. I don’t think that there’s much that could occur.”
Addressing the Sunday attempt on President Donald Trump’s life, he added, “I mean, look, we saw another assassination attempt, or at least that’s what they’re saying right now. They’re investigating an attempted assassination, and even then we’re not even hearing about it nearly as much as the first attempt. And so all that’s to say, there’s just so much information out there. There’s so much information that people are consuming. I’d be shocked if there was a major shift. I think all of the swing states: Arizona is no different.”
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
Another potential attempt on former President Donald J. Trump’s life was met with outrage from Arizona Republicans.
On Sunday, the world received shocking news when reports hit the airwaves that gunshots had been fired at one of President Trump’s golf courses in Florida. As more details emerged, it became clear that President Trump may have escaped another assassination attempt from an individual who appeared to be hiding in wait on the outskirts of the property for the former American Commander in Chief to come into his view. A Secret Service advance agent observed this gunman’s weapon, and shots were fired in the alleged attempted assassin’s direction. The individual escaped and was later apprehended by Florida law enforcement soon after the interaction on the golf course.
President Trump was unharmed. He later issued a statement with his thoughts on the second attempt on his life in the past few months, writing, “I would like to thank everyone for your concern and well wishes – it was certainly an interesting day! Most importantly, I want to thank the U.S. Secret Service, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and his Office of brave and dedicated Patriots, and, all of Law Enforcement, for the incredible job done today at Trump International in keeping me, as the 45th President of the United States, and the Republican Nominee in the upcoming Presidential Election, SAFE. THE JOB DONE WAS ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING. I AM VERY PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!”
Many Arizona Republicans expressed their feelings about the incident on their social media platforms.
Senate President Warren Petersen said, “2nd assassination attempt of Trump! Unbelievable. Thank heaven he is ok. Suspect in custody.”
2nd assassination attempt of Trump! Unbelievable. Thank heaven he is ok. Suspect in custody.
The Republican Party of Arizona posted, “The AZGOP thanks God for the safety of President Trump and we are grateful that law enforcement spotted the assailant before anyone was hurt. We stand with President Trump and President Trump will never surrender this country and he will never abandon the American people.”
The @AZGOP thanks God for the safety of President Trump and we are grateful that law enforcement spotted the assailant before anyone was hurt.
We stand with President Trump and President Trump will never surrender this country and he will never abandon the American people.
AZGOP Chair Gina Swoboda added, “We call for an IMMEDIATE increase in security to provide President Trump with the level of resources received by a sitting President. The chaos must be brought to an end, and we must ensure our leaders can serve without coming to harm.”
State Representative Leo Biasiucci stated, “This is getting Fing ridiculous. Give the man full protection, I don’t care if the GOP has to help pay for it. It’s obvious he is not being given adequate protection.”
This is getting Fing ridiculous. Give the man full protection, I don’t care if the @GOP has to help pay for it. It’s obvious he is not being given adequate protection. 🇺🇸https://t.co/AhVSuzfxY0
Justin Heap, a first-term state legislator and current Republican nominee for Maricopa County Recorder, wrote, “May God bless and protect Donald Trump. He is safe after a second assassination attempt on his life. Some things transcend political parties. Attempted assassinations are clearly one of them. Let’s come together to loudly condemn this kind of political violence.”
May God bless and protect Donald Trump.
He is safe after a second assassination attempt on his life.
Some things transcend political parties.
Attempted assassinations are clearly one of them.
Let’s come together to loudly condemn this kind of political violence.
Senator Janae Shamp said, “May God continue to keep the truest man of The People in His protective white light as he leads the fight to save the only Nation created in His name. Amen.”
May God continue to keep the truest man of The People in His protective white light as he leads the fight to save the only Nation created in His name. Amen https://t.co/zTcsDX6GgI
Reformed Democrats Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard pumped up the pro-Trump crowd at Arizona Christian University in Glendale on Saturday, railing against the hyperbolically left Democratic National Committee as having become the “party of war,” “the party of censorship.”
According to the New York Post, former Presidential candidate RFK, Jr., told the rapt audience, “Today it’s become the party of war, it’s become the party of surveillance, it’s become the party of censorship.” He added, “It’s no longer the party that I recognized.”
The event, entitled “Team Trump’s Reclaim America Tour,” was attended by approximately 600 people as reported by AZ Central, with more turned away at the door due to the size of the more intimate venue. The discussion was moderated by independent journalist Jessica Reed Kraus.
Kennedy’s showstopper moment came while explaining the withdrawal of his candidacy for President saying, “The reason I terminated my campaign is because it became clear to me my remaining in this campaign was going to bring to power a candidate who I believe will be easily manipulated by the deep state, by the national security state, by the intelligence agencies, to keep us in a state of continual war and seal the destruction of the United States of America.”
Reclaim America Tour in Glendale AZ. RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard answer Jessica Kraus' opening question about what led them to leave the democratic party and support the candidacy of President Trump. pic.twitter.com/9aD4043t0x
Gabbard echoed Kennedy’s sentiment, the outlet reported, noting that the Harris campaign would see America mired in “continual war,” citing the endorsement of anti-Trump GOP former Vice President Dick Cheney.
She referred to the Democratic Party as an “elite cabal,” and “warmongers,” asking, “How could I […] align with a party that stands for tyranny and war?”
The former Congresswoman cited efforts by the left to target both Kennedy and President Trump via “systematic weaponization of government.”
Gabbard countered, “We the people are far more powerful than them, which is why they are trying to destroy us, but we the people will not let them do that.”
RFK Jr. speaks about the weaponization of government, lawfare, and what that means for the American people.
Jessica Kraus' 3rd question on the Reclaim America Tour 9/14 tour stop in Glendale AZ. (I missed Tulsi's response, sorry) pic.twitter.com/BTpFa2ejem
As noted by the Post, Gabbard made a clear distinction between her and Kennedy’s message and the hyperpartisanship of the election at large. She told attendees the goal of their tour is to “point out the truth that this is not about Democrats versus Republicans. This is about our country.’
“This is about we the people standing up for freedom. This is about we the people standing up for peace.”
When asked about the pair’s future in the Trump campaign, Gabbard quipped, “Well I think Bobby and I are going to be on the road for the next 51 days,” and explained that despite her name not being on the ballot, as most politicians are who say it, “this is the most important election of our lives.” Wistfully noting that the waves in her home state of Hawaii “are really good right now,” she emphasized that the next 51 days will be filled with “conversations like this.”
Kennedy, answering the same, said his next trip home wouldn’t be for three weeks.
Brian Hughes, a senior Trump campaign advisor said in a statement released in late August that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard have been added to the Trump/Vance Transition team. He wrote, “As President Trump’s broad coalition of supporters and endorsers expands across partisan lines, we are proud that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard have been added to the Trump/Vance Transition team.” What roles the two will play in the second Trump administration remain unclear.
