Joe Biden may not have flipped Texas blue on election night, but he did take Arizona—a longtime GOP stronghold where changing demographics are making the Democratic Party an increasingly more viable prospect. Mark Kelly, the astronaut and husband of former Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords, won a special election for Senate in the state, as well, further strengthening the Democratic Party’s showings at the federal level.
How did this happen? Who flipped Arizona? Here are four groups whose work to turn the state blue paid dividends on election day.
LUCHA Arizona
Living United for Change in Arizona, or LUCHA, was founded in December 2009 to bring together the state’s low-income and otherwise marginalized communities as a political force. The group, based in Phoenix, had revenue of $2,525,302 in 2018 from grants, contributions and members.
As a 501(c)(3), LUCHA can’t get directly involved in campaigning or lobbying lawmakers. But the group’s sister organization, the Arizona Center for Empowerment, can.
“ACE is sort of the 501(c)(4) arm of LUCHA, which has been integral in raising wages here in the state of Arizona,” Imraan Siddiqi, former executive director of CAIR Arizona, told Blue Tent. “They’ve also shown how marginalized communities can build power by using our collective resources for a common goal.”
Through its VOTEriaAZ initiative, the #MIAZ Coalition, and civic education actions, LUCHA helped deliver the state to the Democrats.
CORAZÓN Arizona
A multi-faith coalition aimed at organizing congregations, schools and communities around Arizona, CORAZÓN works in the state’s East Valley and Central Phoenix regions to bring people together. It’s the Arizona chapter of national group Faith in Action, the five-decade-old, fifty-state-strong religious organizing group.
In the 2020 election, CORAZÓN’s “blood, sweat and tears, out there on the field, registering voters and educating folks” helped flip the state, the group’s Executive Director Alicia Contreras told The Intercept. A focus on voter registration and phone and text banking, along with canvassing across the state, were central to CORAZÓN’s efforts, they said.
A project of the group Neighborhood Ministries, CORAZÓN is set to continue working for economic and immigrant justice as it looks to the midterms in 2022.
Mijente
“Somos una mezcla,” “we are a mix.” That’s the message from Mijente, a national group that uses its Latinx-centric approach to fight for progressive change. The group, based in Arizona, was founded in 2010 in opposition to the harsh immigration enforcement law SB 1070.
The group’s work has expanded since then to help Latinx people in all walks of life and with a number of other issues, including the coronavirus crisis and voting rights.
The group took in sizable grants in 2018, netting $300,000 from the Ford Foundation, $245,00 from NEO Philanthropy, $134,250 from Tides Advocacy, $115,000 from Borealis Philanthropy, and $112,500 from the Marguerite Casey Foundation.
Mijente pushed hard to get people registered to vote for the 2020 election, the group’s Political Director Tania Unzueta told NPR.
“I’ve been organizing in Arizona since we were trying to take out Sheriff Joe Arpaio,” said Unzueta. “And I really think, you know, what we’ve seen in some of the people who were leading on both sides, on the electoral side, on the non-electoral side that have been leading on getting out the vote and turning Arizona blue.”
Mi Familia Vota
Launched in 2000 in California, Mi Familia Vota relocated to Phoenix in 2004 and has been working to harness the power of the Latino vote ever since. Led by State Director Eduardo Sainz, the group registered nearly 200,000 Latino voters in Arizona for the 2020 election.
Outside money helped. The group built a warchest over the last two years on the backs of large donations from big funders. In 2019, Mi Familia Vota took in $300,000 from the James Irvine Foundation and $249,300 from the Episcopal Health Foundation, adding to 2018’s $545,000 from NEO Philanthropy, $300,000 from James Irvine, and $180,000 from the Marguerite Casey Foundation.
The results—turning out hundreds of thousands of voters and a Biden win—felt like a “victory lap,” Sainz told the Tucson Sentinel. “This feels like looking at all of the hard work we’ve been able to do over the past 15 years, looking at real change, looking at real power, looking at our communities holding the keys to the White House,” said Sainz.
