Dem Campaign Caravans Hit a Snag as COVID Forces Them To Cancel Trips Into Arizona
California Democrats hoping to spread their liberal ideas to neighboring Arizona in the upcoming election are complaining that the coronavirus pandemic has frustrated a coordinated effort at flipping the state blue.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday that Democrats, mostly residing in the San Francisco Bay area, have lamented how the spread of the virus across the country has halted their efforts to push Arizona to the left.
The Democrat group Swing Left had big plans to target Arizona with “caravans” of hundreds of volunteers who would meet people face-to-face and try to persuade them to vote for the same policies that saw so many Californians relocate to Arizona in the first place.
Happy Thanksgiving! Today, and every day, we’re grateful for thousands of volunteers who have stepped up in little and big ways to make this country better. It’s what helped us take back the House last year. And it’s what’s going to carry us through in 2020. pic.twitter.com/QFQqGDY0jB
— Swing Left (@swingleft) November 28, 2019
But the would-be canvassers haven’t gotten the chance; the coronavirus has relegated them to peddling their agenda from home.
“The pandemic forced the cancellation of eight more planned for the spring. Organizers said momentum was building just before everyone had to shelter in place, as more than 200 people from across California made two weekend trips to the desert in February,” the Chronicle reported.
The caravan plans were dashed, and now Democrats are working to use technology and older methods of communication to reach potential Democratic voters.
A new campaign called “Canvassing from Your Couch” will see Democrats in California text, call and write letters to Arizonans until November.
Apparently, California Democrats believe that since so many of them have already fled the Golden State’s oppressive policies and expensive cost of living for the sanctuary of the desert, all they need to do is increase canvassing efforts from home to swing the state to the left.
The endgame is to defeat conservatism and change the face of the electorate in the once-reliably red state.
But the Chronicle, citing advice from left-wing operatives inside Arizona, warns California Democrats that the politics of Arizona are not like those of its western neighbor, at least not yet.
“California Democrats dabbling in Arizona politics should keep in mind that the state’s sensibilities are far different from their own, progressive activists say. Nonpartisans there are more truly middle-of-the-roaders than in California, where they are more likely be disaffected former Republicans or Democrats,” the newspaper said.
Nelson Morgan, a retired UC Berkeley professor who moved to Arizona, explained his view of the state’s politics to the Chronicle.
“Here, there are a lot of people who really are in the middle,” Morgan said. “You have people here who like their guns and are very interested in the environment.”
“Here, one of my best friends is a Republican,” he added. “I don’t know if I knew more than one Republican when I was at Berkeley.”
Democrats fleeing California have changed the electorate in Nevada, which Republicans no longer can count on, as the state hasn’t voted for a GOP presidential candidate since George W. Bush in 2004.
The state’s two senators are also Democrats, as are three out of Nevada’s four representatives in the House.
Republican Rep. Mark Amodei is the lone conservative representing Nevada in Washington, and Democrats hope to see a similar outcome in Arizona — and eventually Texas.
According to Census data reported by the Chronicle, 500,000 Californians moved to Arizona between 2010 and 2018.
At least one California Democrat said the effort to flip Arizona blue is not about attempting to transform the state into the morally and finically bankrupt pit that California has become.
“It is not about bringing our California way there. [Arizonans] are much more independent. Some of the issues they want to talk about don’t fit in a Democrat versus Republican box,” Swing Left California operative Colleen McCarthy said.
As we’ve seen with Colorado and Nevada, this simply isn’t true.
California transplants have flipped both states blue, and now the major population centers of Denver and Las Vegas have voices that are much louder than those living in the rest of both states.
Californians might be leaving the state in droves, but they’re bringing the worst parts of California with them, and they’re eager to vote for the same policies that ran them out of their homes to begin with.
While the coronavirus has temporarily snagged their in-person canvassing efforts, California Democrats are coming for Arizona, and they would probably resort to using carrier pigeons to target voters if Gov. Gavin Newsom found it necessary to implement communication blackouts as part of the draconian lockdown of his state.
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