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Along Arizona’s southern border, a wave of mayors and officials are backing Democrat Ruben Gallego

Nogales Shopping
Murphy Woodhouse/KJZZ
Shoppers browse Morley Avenue in Nogales, Arizona, in 2018. Many cross over from Nogales, Sonora, and the border is visible in the background.

Border security is seen as a strength for Republicans and a weakness for Democrats.

But along Arizona’s southern border, a wave of mayors and county officials are backing a Democrat — Congressman Ruben Gallego’s campaign for U.S. Senate.

Many of those officials are also supporting Vice President Harris.

The needs and issues facing the communities don’t always match national narratives.

Last November, Kari Lake’s Senate campaign got a boost during a visit to Nogales, Arizona. She got face time with the city’s Democratic mayor. Jorge Maldonado even spoke alongside her, a video of which the Lake campaign spread on social media.

"This is a big situation for our community. You know, we were never expected to handle this," Maldonado said.

The situation was record high encounters along the southern border.

Customs and Border Protection were outmatched by the waves of migrants, and Maldonado warned the Nogales Port of Entry was undermanned as federal officials rerouted resources to deal with illegal crossings.

"It hurt us, because it shut down half of our regular tourist lanes, traffic lanes in cars. Which is what the city of Nogales depends on," he said.

In early December, the Biden administration announced it was temporarily, but indefinitely, closing the nearby Lukeville Port of Entry.

The decision only added to the strain on nearby ports like the one in Nogales. So you’d be forgiven for thinking that, six months later, Mayor Maldonado would endorse Lake.

Instead, he backed Gallego. Weeks later, he lent his support to Harris. Maldonado said it wasn’t a decision born out of fealty to a political party.

"I take off my hat, Republican, Democrat or independent. I think, you know, in my post, we run bipartisanism here," Maldonado said.

And just to be clear, he’s more than willing to work with Lake if voters elect her Arizona’s next senator.

"Obviously, as a mayor, I got to work with whoever wins," he said.

Ruben Gallego and Kari Lake
Mary Grace Grabill/Cronkite News and Gage Skidmore/CC BY 2.0
Ruben Gallego and Kari Lake

Like Maldonado, mayors from all along the border have praised Gallego as an advocate for their communities. Together, their support may help Democrats at the top of the ticket in Arizona defend themselves against Republican attacks on immigration.

Last week, Gallego boasted of their support during a debate that mostly covered border issues.

"Border mayors that used to campaign with her are now campaigning with me, because they don't think that she's serious about this," said Gallego.

Bisbee Mayor Ken Budge, also a Democrat, says there’s nuance to border communities that Republican talking points often miss.

"I wish they would come to a town instead of a wall. It seems like they all want to just go get their picture next to a wall," said Budge.

Budge, like many other mayors, says he can’t afford to dabble in partisan politics when it comes to the issues that matter to his border community.

Bisbee overview
Sting Sieg/KJZZ
Bisbee is about 20 miles north of Arizona's border with Mexico.

But Congress’ failure to pass a bipartisan border bill earlier this year — when Republicans rejected the proposal at former President Donald Trump’s urging — broke his spirit.

"At that point, I just lost all faith in the Republican side," said Budge.

But the desire for bipartisan solutions cuts both ways.

Just south of Bisbee, in Douglas, Arizona, Republican Mayor Donald Huish gave a speech welcoming the Harris campaign to his border community last month.

"Well, here in Arizona, we want solutions. That's why vice president Harris is here to offer and Arizonans should take that into consideration when voting in November," Huish said.

After his speech, Huish said the vice president's visit was an opportunity to reset people’s expectations of Douglas. The national narrative about the border doesn’t match what he sees day to day.

"We get labeled many times as being unsafe, that it's almost a Wild West in here, and it can be anything further from the truth," said Huish.

Unlike his neighboring Democratic mayors, Huish isn’t go so far as to endorse Harris, Gallego or Lake, for that matter.

Lake website does boast a few endorsements from elected officials along the border. When asked to identify any other border-adjacent endorsements that might be missing, they boasted of support from congressmen and senators from as far away as South Carolina and Wyoming.

Ben Giles is a senior editor at KJZZ.
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