The Democratic National Committee made a big announcement last week, alongside Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, that they are launching their largest ever voter registration effort — and they’re starting it in Arizona.
"There is no pathway to victory for Democrats going into the future without Nevada and without Arizona as part of the Electoral College," Gallego said.
Democrats have been losing ground in the voter registration game to Republicans for years now. Gallego pointed out that Republicans increased their registration advantage over Democrats by 115,000 voters just over the course of his 2024 campaign. And, while he was successful anyway, not many other Democrats were in Arizona.
But, this registration gap has been growing for years. Stacy Pearson is a Democratic strategist with Lumen Strategies — and she told The Show, it’s about time.
Full conversation
STACY PEARSON: I am so glad that this is being prioritized in Arizona after a number of years that the Democratic registration numbers were going in the wrong direction. And so is it enough? Well, that remains to be seen. I mean, I think $1,000,000 is a great start. We probably need $10 million to get back to where we were.
LAUREN GILGER: Right. So you have been sounding the alarm from the Democratic side for years now, Stacy, about. Kind of just how far behind the Democrats are getting in voter registration numbers in our state. Tell us about the kind of trends. Like there was a point at which it didn't look so bad and that it's gotten kind of worse and worse for Democrats, right?
PEARSON: Exactly. There was a point that Democrats had more registered voters on the rolls than independents did. And not only have we fallen to third place, but it's a distant third. So you've got Republicans is the largest party, independents is a close second — and then 500,000 voters later are Democrats in Arizona compared to the top two. So it is it is a big deficit, and it is one that legitimately keeps me up at night.
GILGER: When did this begin for Democrats?
PEARSON: So it really started in 2020, 2022 is when the numbers of Democrats registering to vote stopped ascending the way it had been. And in 2016, Democrats had great gains. In 2018, we had great gains; 2020, 2022 and then definitely in 2024 is when we saw a statistically significant drop off.
GILGER: Was it people leaving the party or was it more people registering as Republicans or independents?
PEARSON: So part of the problem is we don't know. The Democrats did not invest in that data. And so we certainly know that voters moving to Arizona — I talk about my neighbors all the time. I'm sorry, Katie, that I'm mentioning you again. But, you know, it's residents of California that moved to Arizona during COVID that were mad about things, mad about how much they're paying in taxes, mad about crime and public safety, mad about things. And they were lifelong Democrats registered as Arizona in as as independents or even Republicans. And we never really got into that world to figure out what what they left the Democratic Party because of. We made lots of presumptions.
And so it's people moving. It's inbound migration from red states. It's inbound migration from blue states. It's newly registered young voters, which we saw Turning Point's impact on young men last cycle. And it's folks that are just mad at the system. And and that combination has proved to be extraordinarily unhelpful for registered Democrats in the state of Arizona.
GILGER: So the DNC says here it specifically wants to target Latino voters in Arizona. They say there are 700,000 unregistered Latino voters in the state that are maybe up for grabs. They want to get on their side. But the Latino vote has been fickle. A lot of Latinos turned out for Trump in 2024, which surprised a lot of people. Also, I wonder, like, is this a voting bloc we can call a voting bloc anymore, like the "Latino vote"?
PEARSON: So I think assuming a bloc of voters from a variety of countries vote as one is shortsighted. So I would say that we really need to dig into the "Latino voter" by how long they've been here. What was their country of origin? We don't we don't separate other blocs out in quite the same way. And it you know, I think we're I think we're naive to think we can control a bloc of voters that are truly lumped together by the shade of their skin.
So the Latino vote is an extraordinarily important and particularly going into 2026 after what's happening in Minnesota and the ICE raids that are incoming to Arizona. The Hispanic voter is particularly angry about the bill of goods that they were sold by the Trump administration that they certainly haven't been delivering on, honestly.
GILGER: So you think there is a path there in some ways?
PEARSON: I do. I do. I mean, these are the folks that are getting harassed on the street. ... We're talking about 1070 all over again. It really is a worst case scenario for the community. And I think that is going to impact how they turn out and how they register in Arizona.
GILGER: OK, so Stacy, what could or should you think a DNC major voter registration effort look like here in Arizona? Where do they go? How do you do this right in 2026?
PEARSON: So two things. One, I think going and talking to the Latino voter, to the Hispanic voter is extraordinarily important right now. And figuring out where we got, where they got away from us two years ago. More importantly, though, is going to the newly registered voters in Arizona, either people who were Arizona registered and switched away from the Democratic Party or moved here and switched away from the Democratic Party. And getting those folks back. Figuring out what their grievance was. addressing it, being honest with them about what possible solutions could look like. I mean, those are the voters — they were once ours, and then they left, and we need to bring them home.
GILGER: OK, so obviously that big voter registration advantage for Republicans we watched kind of play out in the 2024 election. What do you think it could look like if it doesn't turn around for Democrats in the midterms coming up in 2026 or even into 2028?
PEARSON: I think we're going to look at history repeating itself. In 2016, for example, in Maricopa County, when Paul Penzone beat Joe Arpaio because of Joe Arpaio's ham-handed immigration enforcement. And we're going to see people really base their decisions, base their ballots on their personal moral fabric. And anyone watching people die of a lack of insulin, accessibility in ICE detention centers can recognize that that is simply wrong.
-
Democratic Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari of Arizona introduced a trio of bills — including one called the Drain ICE Act, which would rescind the $75 billion a GOP-crafted spending bill earmarked for the agency last year. -
A pair of education groups are proposing a ballot initiative to rein in Arizona's universal school voucher program — which has ballooned to a nearly billion-dollar-a-year expense since first approved in 2022. -
A new lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union contends that the state can’t stop “advanced practice clinicians” — like nurse practitioners — from performing abortions in Arizona. -
Conservationists argue that delisting should be based on the population, genetic diversity and long-term viability of the wolves, as required under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. -
The Pinal County Board of Supervisors voted Friday to refer County Attorney Brad Miller to the state Attorney General’s Office for alleged misuse of public money and resources, and failure to retain public records.
