Arizona’s political leanings are a head-scratcher for political analysts. The state currently has a Democrat governor and two Democrat U.S. senators, but voters handed Donald Trump a convincing victory last fall with a 52%-46% win over Kamala Harris.
In its nine congressional districts, Republicans currently hold nine of those seats.
Looking ahead to midterm elections, now 16 months away, Arizona attorney Jeff Zink says the Arizona Democratic Party is currently in disarray after party leaders kicked out chairman Robert Branscomb in a controversial committee vote that was held July 16.
"I think they're very worried about this next election next year but more importantly the presidential election," ,” Zink says. "If they still can't get their act together, there's a good chance that they may continually lose the House, the Senate, and have the Republican president in there.”
According to an Associated Press story, Branscomb took over as state party chairman six months ago, in January, after he defeated then-chair Yolanda Bejarano. Tensions soon arose after he fired most of the senior staff, but the new chairman pretty much sealed his fate when he criticized both Democrat senators in a letter to the state committee.
Looking ahead to political races, Zink tells AFN he is excited that U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs is running for Arizona governor. That victory would mean defeating the Democrat, Katie Hobbs, who is despised by Republicans in the state for defending illegal immigration and for vetoing 100-plus GOP bills.
“You have such a strong congressional member that has been there for some time and has a lot of influence there,” Zink says of Biggs, a former state senator now serving his third term in the U.S. House.
Hobbs won the governor's race in 2022 by narrowly defeating GOP candidate Kari Lake 50.3%-49.6%. Lake lost a U.S. Senate race to Democrat Ruben Gallego last year, too, 50.1%-47.7%.
Zink, who represented Lake during her campaign, lost a race for Arizona's 3rd congressional district last fall.
