Indivisibles,

In April, Ezra told you about the big investment we’re making in Arizona
to rebuild a Democratic trifecta. That work includes flipping two of the
five seats we need to retake the House, replacing Kyrsten Sinema with a
pro-filibuster-reform Democrat, and winning the state’s eleven electoral
votes to hold on to the presidency.

At the time, a lot of folks wrote in to ask, “well, what about the
down-ballot races? Don’t you want to sweep MAGA yahoos out of the
statehouse and help Arizonans achieve lasting progressive change in the
state?" The answer? Hell yeah we do. 

So today, I’m ready to tell you about the rest of our plans for Arizona.
This work centers around a reproductive rights referendum, but it also
taps into organizing to flip the state legislature, win judicial and local
elections, and build a voter turnout juggernaut in every county from
Apache to Yuma.  

While our work at Indivisible National usually focuses on federal races,
we can’t ignore what’s happening on the ground in Arizona. For years,
MAGAs have leveraged whatever power they have in the legislature, on the
state supreme court, city councils, and school boards to advance their
extreme agenda on abortion, education, and voter suppression.

Like Ezra mentioned in his email, our work in Arizona involves picking
strategic fights that highlight MAGA extremism and running locally rooted
campaigns that build our pro-democracy coalition. In practice, that means
taking the fight to MAGA Republicans up and down the ballot. 

And let’s be clear -- the work Ezra outlined and what I’m talking about
here aren’t separate efforts. They fully complement each other and are
each necessary to grow our movement, juice turnout, and make huge
progressive gains on the state AND national level. Let’s dig deeper: 

The downballot races we’re targeting

Working closely with local Indivisible groups and our progressive partners
in Arizona, we’ve identified three key areas where we can have an outsized
impact while also expanding our anti-MAGA coalition in the state:

* Passing a reproductive rights amendment. Last year, MAGA Republicans
passed a 15 week abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest.
There’s an even more extreme ban from 1864 making its way to the
conservative-stacked state supreme court. Our top priority at the
state level is teaming up with reproductive rights groups to get an
amendment on the ballot that enshrines abortion rights in the Arizona
constitution. This will secure abortion access for millions of people
across the state, put the extreme and out of touch MAGA position on
abortion front and center in 2024, and help mobilize the voters we
need to win up and down the ballot.

As we saw in Kansas and in special elections since Dobbs, when
abortion is on the ballot, 'likely' voters are energized and
'unlikely' voters turn out. 91% of Arizonans want abortion to be legal
and when those voters go to the polls, they're also going to know
which candidates share their pro-choice views, and which candidates
don't (because we're going to make sure they know). 

* Flipping the state legislature. Republicans have a narrow, one-seat
majority in each chamber of the Arizona legislature. It was with these
slim margins that Republicans managed to pass their abortion ban and a
host of other toxic and extreme bills. Last year, Democrats flipped
the governorship and now, we’re just two seats away from winning a
trifecta. Over the years, Arizona Indivisibles have elected no less
than three of their own members to the state legislature -- they know
exactly what it takes to win these races. From there, we can reverse
the most damaging MAGA policies that got passed in recent years while
also pushing forward a positive agenda on voting rights, environmental
protection, reproductive rights, and more, with Indivisibles in
elected office leading the charge. 

* Winning judicial and local elections across the state. While races
higher on the ballot get most of the attention, there are also MAGA
Republicans sitting on county boards of supervisors, city councils,
school boards, and the courts. Indivisible groups like Civic
Engagement Beyond Voting have been raising the profile of these down
ballot races and last year, they made history by helping to unseat
three Republican-appointed judges. This work continues into 2024 as
groups organize around dozens of local and judicial elections, with
many Indivisibles running as candidates themselves. 

The down ballot work we’re taking on in Arizona will grow our coalition,
strengthen our movement, and help build lasting grassroots power in this
crucial battleground state. In a moment, I’m going to explain exactly what
we plan to do to achieve our goals and I’m also going to ask you to chip
in to help us do it. If you’re already convinced, great! [ [link removed] ]Here’s the
link where you help fund this work right now.

What we’re doing between now and November 2024

Indivisible has an incredibly strong presence in Arizona with local groups
in every congressional and legislative district in the state. We’re going
to leverage our grassroots strength to build a progressive voter turnout
juggernaut and a winning anti-MAGA coalition. That work includes:

* 🖊️ Signature gathering: Getting the abortion rights amendment on the
ballot won’t be easy. We'll likely have to gather more than 500,000
signatures to qualify -- that's over 13% of Arizona's entire adult
population. Luckily, Indivisible groups in Arizona have plenty of
experience getting initiatives on the ballot and are the right
messengers to gather signatures from key persuadable voters. That’s
what makes Indivisible so vital to this effort. 

* 📲 Peer-to-Peer texting: This year, we ran the largest peer-to-peer
texting program in Wisconsin, helping to flip the state supreme court
and pave the way to restoring abortion rights in the Badger state. Our
texting program will also play a crucial role in Arizona and our
texters are already experimenting with new ways to recruit Indivisible
members, mobilize folks for events, and identify potential progressive
voters. 

* 🏠 Neighbor2Neighbor: This is a new simplified micro-canvassing program
we developed and launched last year. It gives Indivisibles across the
state 5 doors to knock within their community. By using neighbors to
contact neighbors, it lowers the threshold for participation and
increases the likelihood of meaningful conversations. We’ve already
seen this program outperform traditional canvassing by orders of
magnitude.

And that’s not all. We’re also planning town halls, phonebanks open to
volunteers inside and outside of Arizona, postcards for groups to send to
voters, providing media support so local groups can garner press coverage
for their actions, running innovative programs to register and mobilize
young voters, and providing direct financial support to groups. 

Needless to say, all of this work will require funding. We’re estimating
that our campaign for the reproductive rights amendment alone will cost
over $1.2 million and our work on other down ballot races can be scaled up
depending on the support we get from our grassroots donors. To build on
our strength in Arizona, [ [link removed] ]we’re counting on Indivisibles from across the
country to help pitch in.

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The work we're doing at the federal level and the state level go hand in
hand. The Arizona voters who we are mobilizing to restore abortion rights
in the state will be the same voters who can bring us nearly all the way
toward a Democratic trifecta that can enshrine the right nationally.  

We’ll have more updates soon on both our federal and state level work in
Arizona. In the meantime, if you haven’t read Ezra’s email on Arizona’s
importance to rebuilding our trifecta, you can find it [ [link removed] ]here. 

In solidarity,
Mari Urbina
Acting Co-Executive Director
Indivisible



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