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    • The 2024 election moves Arizona back to the right
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    The 2024 election moves Arizona back to the right

    Online Niel Posted on

    Republicans had a strong showing in Arizona and across the nation. Here’s how this change could affect you.

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    Arizona turned red.

    After all, the pivot state of change has ended up not being so essential — or, at least, not nearly as essential as it is in the 2020 election.

    Although the results are still being tabulated, it appears that Donald Trump will win the state he lost almost four years ago.

    And while Democrat Ruben Gallego is likely to win a U.S. Senate seat, Republicans performed strongly further down the ballot, capturing each Arizona Corporation Commission Headquarters and most jobs in Maricopa County.

    What does this shift to the right mean for our nation and Arizona?

    Our opinion team explains the likely impact.

    Trump has led a nationwide red wave

    Donald Trump has once again defied political gravity winning the White House even after losing in 2020, he was twice indicted and criminally convicted.

    It was perhaps the most remarkable comeback in American political history, as he became only the second American president to win non-consecutive terms in the White House.

    The red tide that Republicans anticipated in 2022 but failed to achieve swept America as Trump won the popular vote and the Electoral College.

    Republicans have retaken the US Senate and are on track to hold onto the US House. This now puts the GOP in firm control of the federal government and adds to its dominance of state government, where the party controls 27 governor seats to 23 Democrats.

    Republicans also control 46% of state legislatures to 32 percent Democrats, with the remainder under divided government, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

    — Phil Boas

    Gallego is about to make history

    Democratic US Representative Ruben Gallego would make history if he becomes the first Hispanic in Arizona to serve in the US Senate.

    It’s huge because Hispanics make up a third of the population of Arizona, a territory that once belonged to Mexico.

    Gallego effectively declared victory on election night, but that was a bit premature, as the vote count has been falling since then.

    As of Friday, however, he remained in the lead against Republican Kari Lake, one of Trump’s biggest fans.

    A Gallego victory would mean Arizona would once again have two Democratic senators. US Senator. Mark Kelly helped him to defeat Lake and replace U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat turned independent.

    His victory would be a ray of light in the midst of so much darkness.

    — Elvia Diaz

    Will the US House stop Trump’s agenda?

    With Republicans retaking the US Senate, Democrats’ only hope to keep him in check and on his agenda is to regain control of the US House.

    That outlook looks bleak. Republicans already secured 210 seats Friday. Either side needs 218 for full control.

    Arizona’s two competitive congressional districts remained undecided as we headed into the weekend.

    But the US Republican representatives. David Schweikert and Juan Ciscomani they were ahead of Democratic rivals Amish Shah and Kirsten Engel, respectively.

    A trifecta — that is, control of the White House and both houses of Congress — is dangerous because it would give Trump almost unchecked freedom to do whatever he wants.

    The former president is trying to consolidate federal power, for example, which could mean dismantling several federal agencies, creating new ones and cutting federal programs by “at least $2 trillion.” according to Elon Muskwho would lead that effort.

    This is just the beginning of an aggressive agenda that includes eliminating the CHIPS Act, which funds the production of microchips in America, including the massive TSMC plant under construction in Phoenix.

    This could mean fewer jobs locally in a number of sectors, from construction to engineering.

    — Elvia Diaz

    Expect gridlock in the Arizona House, Senate

    Democrats had hoped for a wide spread overthrow of power in the Arizona Legislature, but it doesn’t seem likely.

    Not in the House, where Republicans seem poised to hang on, or even consolidate their advantage. And in the Senate, their best-case scenario now might be a 15-15 split.

    That would require an agreement on who breaks a tie — and there could be a lot of them, given how many votes in recent years have been split along party lines.

    Of course, such a split could force the two warring parties to work together if they want to get anything done.

    Or it could end in gridlock — which could also be the outcome if the House and Senate remain in Republican hands, which is increasingly looking like the likely outcome.

    It is doubtful that an emboldened MAGA-led Legislature will be in the mood for compromise, especially since the few moderates who occasionally broke ranks with their party were ousted in the primaries.

    So the legislation might get there, but it will almost certainly continue to meet with Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. veto pen.

    — Joanna Allhands

    Arizona courts remain in good hands

    Arizonans have shown remarkable common sense at the ballot box, voting to protect the third branch of government – the judiciary. And not just a majority, but an overwhelming majority.

    The voters chose retains two Arizona Supreme Court justices which were likely to be held back by about 20 percentage points. Democrats targeted Clint Bolick and Kathryn King for joining the majority government to support — albeit temporarily — the 1864 blanket ban on abortion.

    Anyone who knows the law would know that they are doing housework called for the landmark 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and pushed the issue of legalized abortion to the states to decide.

    Bolick and King determined that Arizona’s Civil War-era law was still valid, which is not the same as approving it.

    Credit Justice Ann Scott Timmer, who, in the minority, made this point in her dissent. On Tuesday, voters sided with Timmer defense of the judicial system and Arizona merit selection, which is a national model for selecting high-quality judges.

    If voters had punished Bolick and King, our judicial system would have turned into a political circus every election year — a sure turn for future judicial talent.

    Public safety played a big role. Electoral reform did not

    There were more than one dozens of proposals on the Arizona ballot, including a trio of initiatives that were on track to pass easily Friday, showing that public safety was a top priority across the state.

    Proposition 311 will create a $250,000 death benefit for the surviving family of a first responder killed in the line of duty. It will be paid with a new $20 criminal conviction fee.

    Proposition 313 would raise the sentence from a minimum of seven years to mandatory life imprisonment for anyone convicted of child sex trafficking.

    And Proposition 314 will amount to a crackdown on illegal immigration that could restructure the state budget for the foreseeable future or set up a never-ending battle with the federal government.

    The measure promises to empower state and local police to roam the border to arrest anyone who does not pass through a legal port of entry, but a similar law in Texas is pending before the US Supreme Court. The outcome of this case will affect how the new Arizona law plays out.

    Opinion: Abortion rights are protected, for now

    Proposition 314 also makes it a state crime for immigrants in the country to apply illegally for financial assistance programs for the poor.

    And the measure creates a new penalty for selling fentanyl that leads to overdose death.

    In addition, voters rejected proposals that could have reshaped state politics, including Proposition 140which would have created an open primary system, promising to make the state much more moderate and less extreme.

    But Proposition 133 he also failed on a promise to enshrine Arizona’s current primary system in the state constitution. So maybe the open primary format will soon be back up for debate.

    — Greg Moore

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