The Arizona Democratic Party (ADP) is heading into the second quarter of this pivotal election year with a negative cash balance exceeding $720,000.
Their latest campaign finance report, filed last week, reflected total-to-date expenditures that nearly tripled their income: over $2.8 million compared to $1 million.
For this first period, ADP’s expenditures did fall below their income: about $67,500 compared to $151,500.
ADP experienced much stronger fundraising in the first quarter of 2022, the last midterm election year. The party’s reported income was over $370,000 and expenditures were $146,000 in that first quarter.
A stark difference was evident between ADP’s campaign finances for the last two off-years as well.
The party’s campaign finance report data for all of 2025 reflected income just below $857,000, but expenditures totaling over $2.7 million. In the first quarter of 2025, the party raised only about $210,000 and spent nearly $360,000.
Comparatively, by the end of 2023, ADP had $1.5 million more in income than expenditures. In the first quarter of 2023, ADP raised nearly $1 million and expended about $227,000.
Some among ADP leadership did warn last summer that the party would go broke by the end of the year. The party has dealt with publicized infighting for about a year.
Unlike other transfers listed, shared expenses with the Navajo County Democratic Committee (NCDC) were categorized as an “unlimited transfer” routing arrangement for ADP funds.
NCDC has a surplus of nearly $1.6 million. Since the beginning of last year, NCDC has sent over $61,000 to ADP.
In that same time period ADP sent back over $107,000 to NCDC, or $46,000 more than NCDC has sent. Their cycle to date reported a cash flow between the two totaling nearly $150,000.
Navajo County accounted for ADP’s second-largest expenditure last year.
AZ Free News contacted ADP about the state of their finances and their fiscal arrangement with NCDC. ADP didn’t respond to our inquiry.
Apart from NCDC, ADP’s number-one expenditure last year by far was $1.7 million last August to the Copper State Values PAC, established and run by Gov. Katie Hobbs’ campaign manager Nicole DeMont and treasurer Dacey Montoya. Since DeMont set up the PAC in December 2024, its primary function has appeared to be a funding arm for the Hobbs reelection campaign.
The PAC sent back $94,500 a few months later, last December.
Discounting the $49,000 received from NCDC last year, ADP’s biggest sources of income were:
United Food and Comm Workers (UFCW) Union Local 99, the largest private-sector union in the state: $100,000
Estate of the late Janet Delesanti: $49,000
Arizona Public Service: $30,000
Elevance Health Inc (formerly Anthem), an Ohio-based insurance company: $25,000
Donalyn Mikles, former attorney for the defunct Arizona Summit Law School and director of the California-based Kling Family Foundation: $20,000
Moms Fed Up, a D.C.-based political activist organization: $20,000
William (Bill) Roe, former chair of the Arizona Democratic Party: $15,000
Pam H. Grissom, founder and longtime (not current) board member for Arizona List: $15,000
AFSCME People, AFSCME’s D.C.-based political action arm: $15,000
The following donated about $10,000 each: University of Phoenix, PMI US Corporate Services, Nextera Energy Resources, Arizona Education Association Fund for Public Education, Arizona State Association of Electrical Workers, and Daniel T. Ling.
None of the Democrats’ other legislative districts or county parties in the state have reported a negative cash balance, with the exceptions of Santa Cruz County Central Democratic Committee and La Paz County Democratic Central Committee.
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Arizona households are carrying higher debt, seeing declining credit scores, and falling behind on payments at rates above the national average, according to a new analysis from the Common Sense Institute of Arizona (CSI).
The report, which examines credit data and financial trends, found that Arizona’s average credit score dropped by seven points in 2025, placing the state 30th nationally with an average score of 666.
The findings also show long-term growth in household debt. Since 2003, per capita debt in Arizona has increased by 129%, reaching approximately $74,000—one of the largest increases among U.S. states.
A new CSI report finds that Arizona credit scores are falling faster than most states: • Arizona credit scores dropped 7 points in 2025 • Arizona ranked 30th nationally with an average score of 666 • Credit scores fell 10th fastest among states
— Common Sense Institute Arizona (@CSInstituteAZ) April 1, 2026
Across major categories, Arizona borrowers carry higher balances than the national average. Mortgage debt per capita is 22% higher, while auto loan balances are 7% higher and credit card debt is 8% higher, according to the report.
Missed payments are also more common in Arizona. The report found higher delinquency rates at multiple stages, including accounts 30, 60, and 90 days past due, as well as higher levels of derogatory marks on credit histories compared to national benchmarks.
The analysis also includes a measure of “Household Liquidity Resilience” that assesses households’ ability to withstand financial stress. By that measure, Arizona households are estimated to be 23% less prepared for financial disruptions than the national average. The report identifies the source of this unreadiness emerging from “generally higher than average debt, higher change of delinquency, and a lower cash cushion than the average U.S. household.”
Zach Milne, senior economist at CSI, said the data reflects ongoing financial strain tied to rising costs and borrowing conditions.
“Arizona households are facing residual financial pressure from post-pandemic inflation on top of higher borrowing costs, which continue to strain budgets,” Milne said. “Declining credit scores, rising delinquency rates, and above-average debt levels all point to broader affordability challenges across the state.”
He added, “As households absorb higher costs for housing and other essential expenses, many are becoming more vulnerable to financial shocks and less financially resilient.”
The report compares Arizona’s credit and debt trends to national data, highlighting differences in borrowing levels, repayment patterns, and financial stability indicators.
The city of Phoenix is one of the cities with the most debt in the country, according to a new study.
Per a study from LendingTree, Phoenix ranks 18th among the 50 largest metropolitan cities for debts held. The average Phoenix resident has a debt surpassing $39,000. That’s higher than the average nonmortgage debt across all 50 of the country’s largest metropolitan cities (about $37,800).
The average Phoenix resident’s income amounts to $79,600 according to Census Bureau data, above the median household income for the rest of the country (over $75,100). The average Phoenix resident debt amount is nearly half of the city’s median income.
LendingTree retrieved its data using anonymized credit reports from around 210,000 users on their platform from April through June of this year across the 50 largest cities. Nonmortgage debt includes auto loans, student loans, credit cards, personal loans, and all other types of debt excluding mortgages.
Nearly 97 percent of consumers in Phoenix have nonmortage loan debts, per the study. That tracks with the debt averages for rest of the 50 most populated metros: on average, 97 percent of residents across all those cities have nonmortage debt.
45 percent of Phoenix residents also have auto loan debt, 85 percent have credit card debt, 24 percent have personal loan debt, and 24 percent have student loan debt.
Phoenix ranked even higher with its average auto loan debt, placing eleventh with the average auto loan debt sitting at nearly $14,000. That’s higher than the average auto loan debt for the state, which amounts to around $6,000. Auto loan debts accounted for the greatest portion of average debts held by Phoenix residents, which is also the case for 26 of the other 50 major metros included in the study.
Average credit card debt in Phoenix amounted to just over $8,200, average personal loan debt amounted to about $4,200, and average student loan debt amounted to over $10,300.
The average Phoenix resident’s credit card debt came out higher than the state’s: the average for all of Arizona amounts to over $6,300.
At the end of last year, Arizona ranked among the top ten states for the highest average unsecured personal loan debts: around $12,300. Arizona also ranked among the top 20 for highest average household debt increases from last year to this year: an increase of over $700, making total household debt in the state amount to over $429.6 billion.
The city’s student loan debt is lower than that of the state. As a whole, the state has an average student loan debt of nearly $35,700, with about 902,600 borrowers living in the state.
Phoenix was the only metro city from Arizona listed on the top-50 ranking by LendingTree.
The top three cities for debts held were all in Texas: Austin, San Antonio, and Houston, in order of highest to lowest.
The three cities with the lowest amounts of debt, in order from least to greatest, were: San Jose, California; Louisville, Kentucky; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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Hard to believe it was just four years ago that President Joe Biden was elected with a promise to unite the country. After the misery of COVID-19 deaths and lockdowns and the riots in the streets of major cities, Americans wanted to be united by a unifying national purpose.
Alas, it never happened. Instead, Biden and his leftist allies were drunk with power and swerved the Democratic Party even further to the left. This alienated half the country, with a ruinous and unpopular progressive agenda on every issue, from running up massive debts to rampant inflation to transgenderism to electric vehicle mandates.
The country was only further torn asunder.
Can President-elect Donald Trump learn from these blunders and be the president who unifies the country by embracing traditional American ideals? The Make America Great Again agenda has some rough edges for sure, but if presented right, led by a message of hope, not malice, Trump can deliver an idealistic policy that the vast majority of Americans can embrace.
The way to do this is for Trump, as we approach our 250th birthday, to strike up the theme of a New American Patriotism. This should be a red-white-and-blue message centered around a renewed appreciation and celebration of American virtue and greatness. What better way to pull the country together? It should be an extension of the Reagan message of America being a “shining city on a hill” and a “beacon of freedom” for the rest of the world.
Which we are.
For at least a generation and maybe two, our schools and our universities have denigrated America’s moral standing. We have been lectured that we should be ashamed of our nation’s past, not proud of our founding and our achievements of spreading freedom and free enterprise across the planet.
The hard left magnifies America’s failures — particularly slavery and segregation — not the magnitude of our successes and our virtue. Foreigners who visit the United States often can’t believe the extent to which our media, entertainment industry and intellectual class obsess over our moral failings.
Biden was particularly guilty of this, when he falsely accused the United States of being a systemically racist country.
Wrong, Joe.
A strong case can be made that America is today the world’s greatest and perhaps only multiracial success story. The melting pot isn’t just a history-book fantasy. It is real. The rapid increase in interracial and intercultural marriages is making racial distinctions almost obsolete. The rapid rise in incomes of Asians, Hispanics and, to a lesser extent, Blacks should be celebrated.
Recent polling suggests that our citizens do appreciate American greatness. The only group that doesn’t is the ideologically isolated cultural and “highly educated” elite. The vast majority of Americans of every race and income category believe America is “the greatest country on Earth.” But many white liberal elites reject this notion.
Another example: White conservatives and Hispanics soundly reject the idea that America is systemically racist. According to Pew Research Center, “about six-in-ten Black adults say racism” is a problem in America today. But it is telling that many white liberals also believe this.
Is there still racism in America? Of course, yes. But it is not “systemic,” and the nation is becoming less racially polarized with every passing year.
America’s inventiveness, our innovation and our technological prowess, which propelled the world into the modern age and helped reduce poverty rates by 90%, are somehow sinister. Damn those fiends Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.
Fortunately, these are views of a class of modern-day intellectuals who never produced anything but instead sow the seeds of miscontent and division. They certainly have the right to hold these blame-America-first ideals, but we don’t have to allow them in our classrooms to pollute the minds of our kids.
This is an extension of the Reagan metaphor of America as a “shining city on a hill” and a “beacon of freedom” for all the world. It’s truer today than ever before, and Trumpnomics will make it all the more true.
Stephen Moore is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation and a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation. His new book, coauthored with Arthur Laffer, is “The Trump Economic Miracle.”
Congress’s Joint Economic Committee (JEC) warned that the Biden administration’s economic policies have caused an unsustainable debt crisis and historic inflation.
This assessment was announced formally earlier this week by JEC Vice Chairman and Congressman for Arizona’s first district, David Schweikert, through the 160-page Republican Response to the Council of Economic Advisers’ 2024 Economic Report of the President.
Schweikert stated in a press release that 2024 serves as a “critical juncture” for the nation’s fiscal health, one that transcends political parties.
“The challenge before us is neither Republican nor Democrat — it is our moral obligation to ensure American families aren’t left behind. Congress holds the keys to determine which path we choose,” said Schweikert. “We can either behave like adults and choose the path of fiscal responsibility or continue our partisan gamesmanship that will put the American dream further out of reach for future generations.”
Schweikert said that the problems and proposed solutions put forth by the JEC report were inherently bipartisan, focusing on common-ground economy boosters like a healthier population and secure social safety net programs.
“Those of us on the Republican side, we built a report that offered actual moral, great economic solutions instead of the election year rhetoric.”
— Joint Economic Committee Republicans (@JECRepublicans) June 21, 2024
The JEC assessed that the Biden administration’s demand-side policies financed by increased borrowing have placed unsustainable pressure on constrained supply. As a result, JEC predicted that debt-to-GDP would grow from 99 percent to 116 percent by 2034, with interest costs rising. JEC noted that the labor force participation rates haven’t recovered to prepandemic levels; historic mortgage payments for new homebuyers, the highest in 30 years; constraints on budding American industries due to new restrictions on trade; and the cost of clean energy subsidies amounting to $1.2 trillion over 10 years, despite emissions from electricity production declining.
Further exacerbation of the economy comes from an aging population, declining fertility rates, and decreased prime-age labor force participation among men, per the JEC. The aging population is anticipated to drive Social Security spending to 6 percent of GDP by 2035, an increase from the present 5.2 percent and the 1970s at 3.1 percent, though no major expansions have occurred in over 20 years. The JEC reported that one in nine prime-age men remain out of the labor force; if just 25 percent of those entered, the economy would grow by $215 billion.
JEC disputed the Biden administration’s belief that increased taxes of wealthier individuals would amount to their desired revenue, a dwarfed amount of around 1.1 to 2 percent of GDP compared to future deficits. JEC stressed that only reduction in spending would improve fiscal consolidation.
Another demographic with an outsized impact on the economy, according to the JEC, is the rapid increase in obesity. Excess medical expenditures are anticipated to amount to over $9 trillion, as well as federal government spending of over $4 trillion within the next decade. Labor productivity and supply reductions impacted by obesity are projected to cost nearly $3 trillion and $12 trillion, respectively.
As for a positive solution to the nation’s current and looming fiscal woes, JEC indicated that artificial intelligence could grow the economy and improve government efficiency.
JEC also issued a lengthy assessment of the Congressional Budget Office’s revised budget and economic projections for the next decade. This included a $400 billion increase in projected FY2024 deficit, with about 80 percent of the increase coming from President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation failing to recover payments from 2023 bank failures quickly, new legislation, and higher than expected Medicaid outlays.
CBO recently released its updated budget and economic projections for 2024-2034 from the original forecast in February 2024. Below are some key takeaways from the revised estimates 🧵
— Joint Economic Committee Republicans (@JECRepublicans) June 19, 2024
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