WASHINGTON — With the conclusion of the Arizona primaries, Democrats are running their strongest slate of candidates ever while the GOP is boasting science deniers, extremist ideologues, and conspiracy theorists. Democrats running for state legislative office have broken fundraising records and have the energy of their communities behind them as their Republican opponents compete to be the biggest embarrassment to their party.
Introducing the Republicans who will lose to Democrats in November:
- Senate candidate Wendy Rogers (LD 6): Rogers ousted radical right-wing Senator Sylvia Allen in the primary, and she is even more extreme. Rogers has run for Congress several times and lost because of her outlandish views and fear mongering tactics. Instead of focusing on the issues in her district and the needs of those she is campaigning to represent, she’s pushed national conspiracy theories, praised white supremacists, complained about a cartoon character, and repeatedly lied about receiving endorsements from various GOP officials. Republicans allege she does not even live in the district.
- Senator J.D. Mesnard (LD 17): Senator Mesnard is actively working against Arizonans with pre-existing conditions. He has called for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and sued to stop the Medicaid expansion that covered 400,000 Arizonans without health insurance. He also voted to expand “junk insurance” plans that aren’t required to cover maternity care, mental health, or pre-existing conditions, and supported allowing insurance companies to charge those with pre-existing conditions more if the Affordable Care Act does get repealed.
- Senator Paul Boyer (LD 20): Senator Boyer is a science skeptic who has called into question the legitimacy and safety of vaccinations, supporting multiple bills to obstruct doctors from administering necessary vaccines to children. He’s danced around questions asking whether he supports children receiving vaccines and even introduced a piece of legislation to allow parents to exempt their children from school vaccination requirements if it goes against their personal beliefs.
- Senator Kate Brophy McGee (LD 28): Senator Brophy McGee has fought against health care access. She wrote a Trump-backed bill to allow insurance companies to discriminate against women and the elderly and deny coverage for hospitalization, even for those infected with COVID-19. She couldn’t be bothered to vote to protect those with pre-existing conditions, and she even voted against helping patients pay surprise medical bills. Despite masquerading as a moderate, she attended an indoor Women for Trump event without a mask.
- Representative Walt Blackman (LD 6): Representative Blackman has gone out of his way to make offensive comments about the Black Lives Matter movement, calling it a “terrorist organization” and attacking George Floyd’s character after he was killed by police. He has spent more energy on hurling insults at Black activists than he has on promoting safety during the pandemic, going so far as to suggest that masks are useless because “you are breathing in your own carbon-monoxide if you’re wearing it all day.”
- Representative Anthony Kern (LD 20): Representative Kern is infamous for making an offensive comparison between Japanese internment camps and Arizona’s stay-at-home order during the pandemic. He has dismissed the damage the coronavirus has caused on several occasions and even attended President Trump’s June 23 Phoenix rally without a mask. It’s no wonder he’s such a big Trump supporter — Kern has been accused of making offensive, discriminatory comments to women he supervised, including allegedly calling one an “overtime whore,” and was recommended for demotion as a result.
- Representative Shawnna Bolick (LD 20): Representative Bolick lied on her nominating petitions but is still allowed to be on the ballot this year because of a court decision in her favor. She has also led the crusade against voting by mail, making multiple unsubstantiated claims that absentee voting is rife with fraud despite no such evidence. As the coronavirus continues to spread throughout Arizona, Bolick is peddling conspiracy theories about Dr. Fauci profiting off of vaccines and still insisting that voters show up in person to cast their votes.
“These Republicans have proven themselves to be partisan hacks and Arizona voters are ready to show them the door,” said Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee President Jessica Post. “GOP lawmakers have shown us time and time again how little they care about what happens to the people they were elected to represent. They’ve ignored medical experts, advocated against a safety net for the unemployed, undermined health care, and spread lies about voting. Voters are going to put them in the minority in November — and they’ll deserve it.”
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