Arizona advocacy groups form coalition to more effectively reach out to voters

Two months before polls close, four progressive Arizona advocacy groups announced they’re forming a coalition to more efficiently and effectively knock on doors and reach out to voters.

Individually, organizers with Living United For Change Arizona, Mi Familia Vota, Chispa Arizona and Our Voice, Our Vote have spearheaded individual efforts to register voters and prepare for October, when early voting in Arizona begins.

But collectively, Activate 48 coalition director Reginald Bolding says the organization can affect even more change.

“In an election like this one, it’s gonna be a very tight and close election, and we have to be strategic in our resources and we have to be consistent in our message,” Bolding said. “And Activate 48 has consistently worked with each other to really divide the state up.”

Their hope, Bolding says, is to build on past individual successes – efforts Bolding attributes to a recent sea change in Arizona politics, with Democrats securing victories in key statewide races two years ago.

“As these groups continue to grow and become more sophisticated, the state of Arizona has shifted and changed,” he said. “There’s no coincidence that there’s a Democratic governor, a Democratic attorney general, a Democratic secretary of state, a one vote majority in both (legislative) chambers, and that is coinciding with the growth of these organizations who are targeting and mobilizing voters like they’ve never been mobilized before.”

This year, the coalition’s goals are outlined in a ballot guide that will be shared with voters by all the individual organizations. It urges votes for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot, from Vice President Harris for president to three Democrats running for open seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission.

It also includes details on the myriad of questions on the ballot this fall, and urges Arizonans to reject nearly all of them – except for Proposition 139, the Abortion Access Act.