State DNC delegates ‘completely unified’ vs. Trump, they say
Nothing brings Arizona’s Democrats together like President Donald Trump.
The polarizing Republican president helps delegates to the Democratic National Convention look past their intraparty battles over health care, climate change and social justice, and focus instead on the one thing that unites them: defeating Trump.
Four years ago, Democratic delegates from Arizona and elsewhere allowed dissent between the factions loyal to Hillary Clinton, the presidential nominee, and Bernie Sanders, the runner-up, to spill into public view at the convention in Philadelphia.
With Trump in the White House and with the nation in the grip of a pandemic and a recession, the party’s warring camps have largely set aside — or perhaps postponed —their differences to rally behind Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris.
It reflects a political pragmatism that Arizona Democrats have been practicing for years.
In 2018, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., whose bipartisan political brand can grate on liberals, became the first Democrat in Arizona to win a U.S. Senate race in 30 years. This year, Democrats have united around another self-styled centrist for the state’s other Senate seat, Mark Kelly.
John Chiazza, 71, a Biden delegate from Gilbert, was matter-of-fact about the schism.
“That’s democracy. The Bernie Sanders people have a right to put him up for nomination, that is their right,” he said. “Now, it’s time to turn, and I’m sure that all of them will, turn and make sure that Biden is our president.”
The stakes are too high, Chiazza said. “We have to get the criminal dictator out of the White House.”
During Tuesday’s roll call vote at the convention, Arizona’s 80-member delegation split 51-29 for Biden, who won the state’s March 17 Democratic presidential preference election, or primary, over Sanders.
That’s not much different than in 2016, when the state’s delegation voted 51-34 for Clinton over Sanders. But there is a greater sense of urgency for the Democratic nominee from those still preferring someone else.
“I think the difference between 2016 and now is that in 2016 we were saying, ‘This is what Trump could do,’” said Jade Duran, 32, a biomedical engineer from central Phoenix who supported Sanders in the primary. “And right now, we’re seeing what he has done. So we are completely unified. We’re all voting for Biden and Harris. We need them to win. We’re going to work as hard as we can.”
Duran and other progressives will still push for policies such as Medicare-for-All and greater diversity in government, even as the Democratic ticket is headed by a 77-year-old white male who prefers a public option in health care.
Duran said local Sanders delegates were disappointed that Biden delegates were not more vocal in advocating that Medicare-for-All be added to the party’s national platform.
But those are fights progressives intend on waging after the November election, she said.
“Anything to get Trump out of the White House is what we want and we need right now,” said Duran, whose delegate vote went to Sanders. “As soon as we’re able to get Biden and Harris in the White House, then we can hold their feet to the fire and ask them to go more left on more progressive issues.”
Cynthia Ford, 60, a Biden delegate from north Phoenix, said Harris will help assuage some of progressives’ concerns, given her advocacy for a government-run insurance option in health care.
“Instead of fussing and stomping your feet, bring up some ideas, put some stuff into action, bring some research,” she said of Sanders’ supporters. “I’m hoping that that’s what happens. … There’s too much at stake right now. There’s too much on the line. We need to be Democrats as one.”
It’s the same kind of thinking that sent Sinema to the Senate and could put Kelly there, too.
In 2018, Sinema won over Democrats, and many independents, while paying little attention to Deedra Abboud, who challenged her from the left in the primary.
After Sinema took office, some Democratic activists in Arizona sought to censure her for several votes they viewed as betraying party principles. The state party put that matter on hold 11 months ago.
If some in the party’s left wing would like Sinema to push harder in the GOP-controlled Senate, there is a real-time comparison to the alternative. Sinema defeated Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., for the seat, and McSally was appointed to the Senate seat vacated by retiring Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.
Sinema, like every Democrat in the Senate, voted to convict and remove Trump from office during the February impeachment trial. McSally voted to acquit the president, as did all but one Republican.
Since 2019, when both joined the Senate, McSally has voted in line with Trump’s known preferences 90 percent of the time, according to the website FiveThirtyEight. Sinema does so 26 percent of the time.
Now, Democrats are girding for a fight to flip traditionally red Arizona into the Democrats’ blue column even if it means accepting a nominee who is not everyone’s first choice.
Brianna Westbrook, 35, who cast her delegate vote for Sanders and is a former national surrogate for his campaign, said progressives are biding their time to wage their fights.
“We understand the importance of this moment and what we’re up against this fall and we are very aligned with voting Trump out this fall,” Westbrook said. “When Joe Biden gets sworn in, we’re going to show up on inauguration day. And the day after, and the day after, and the day after, and the day after, to push for Medicare-for-All and the Green New Deal in this progressive platform.”