Arizona Democrats will vote Wednesday on whether to remove the party chair

Arizona Democrats will vote Wednesday on whether to remove the state party chair.

Following months of party infighting, Arizona’s top elected Democrats have broken ties with Chair Robert Branscomb and moved their fundraising operations elsewhere.

The effort to remove him is spearheaded by Tempe Democrat Steven Jackson. He said if they’re successful, a vice chair of the party would serve as interim chair until the party could vote again in September.

Jackson said Democrats need a chair who can bring back trust.

“I think it has to be a chair that they can work with and who they can trust to manage the money of the party effectively and not destroy relationships around the state,” Jackson said.

For now, Democrats are fundraising through the newly created Copper State Victory campaign operated out of the Navajo County Democratic Committee.

The head of the county committee, Missa Foy, said it’s her hope and expectation that the campaign is temporary and only for the next election cycle.

He and other top Democrats said it’s not clear whether they have the two-thirds vote needed to remove Branscomb or who would be willing to take his place.

“There’s nobody really looking to get the chair spot as a position for prestige,” Jackson said. “I think it would be a person who would do it as a result of duty.”

As for whether he is interested in being chair himself, Jackson said “no, no, no, no.”

But the 2026 midterm election is rapidly approaching, and Jackson wants the party to focus on voter outreach and registration, not internal struggles.

“There’s a concern that there's been no messaging and there’s been no outreach, and we’ve spent less than $3,000 on voter registration, voter protection or any outreach towards voters. The concern is that it’s not there and if the party goes bankrupt, then we'll spend the next 16 months trying to fix the party instead of actually reaching out to voters and trying to win elections,” Jackson said.

Democratic consultant Jon Sutton said there’s no time to waste, and if the party keeps Branscomb on after everything that’s happened under his leadership, then Democrats deserve to lose.