What kind of candidate is Jonathan Nez? He’s one focused on improving the lives of the people of Arizona’s 2nd district!
Congressional candidate Jonathan Nez did the impossible Thursday evening: He completed a half-hour-long televised interview about issues facing Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District with scarce reference to political party, hot-button issues, or his opponent, incumbent Rep. Eli Crane.
Nez, a former Navajo Nation president and a Democrat, repeatedly sidestepped opportunities to directly criticize Crane, R-Ariz., who is seeking a second term in office. Crane was invited to debate Nez but declined to participate.
Instead, Nez spent his primetime interview discussing, in a level of detail unusual for the political climate, ground-level issues such as infrastructure, wildfire management, and water security that he worked on while leading one of the country’s largest Native American tribes.
"We deserve a representative that will get the needed resources back into our communities," Nez said. "I have a proven record of bringing resources into the area … over these 18 years of public service.
"That fight will continue."
His rhetoric drew a stark contrast with Crane, a former Navy SEAL who takes pride in his scorched-earth style in office and willingness to antagonize even those in his own party. In public appearances, Crane is more likely to rail against the “uniparty” D.C. establishment, warn of a “crisis” at the U.S.-Mexico border, or take aim at Republicans who he feels are too quick to compromise with Democrats.
This race has primarily gone under the radar because the district leans toward the GOP. However, Rep. Eli Crane is an extremist similar to others I have already covered and his antics have put the district back in play.
We would all like for MVP Harris to win Arizona once again. Supercharged voting from the tribal nations is key to securing another victory. The indigenous people of Arizona will notice if we aren’t supporting Nez wholeheartedly. The district includes 12 Indian reservations including the Hualapai, Havasupai, Hopi, Navajo, San Carlos Apache, and White Mountain Apache peoples. 22% of the district's citizens are Native American.
The question is whether or not improved tribal nations’ turnout is enough for Jonathan Nez to flip this vast Northeastern Arizona district.
Like reading election-themed articles? I am continuing a massive series of them each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday morning! Make sure to follow #SaveTheMajority and the group Save the Majority so you don’t miss important races down the ballot!
Rep. Eli Crane is part of what I am calling the #MAGADozen. These Republicans in GOP-leaning swing districts are full-throated MAGA supporters and can be beaten. Jonathan Nez is one of the challengers I am fundraising for.
Jonathan Nez for Arizona-2
Campaign Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | TikTok | DONATE | Volunteer
What’s the Big Idea?
THIS HOUSE RACE IS RATED AS LIKELY REPUBLICAN, with an R+6 PVI
County results for AZ-02 in 2022.
What is usually labeled as the 1st district in Arizona has been a swing seat for a very long time. The seat used to hold what were called Pinto Democrats, which were a group of ranchers and miners that voted reflexively Democratic despite being very conservative in outlook. The Pinto Democrats used to control the party back when it was more common to be a Republican in the state.
The modern version of this district came about after the 2000 Census, when it became a Republican-leaning swing seat held by Rep. Rick Renzi. Corruption issues dogged Renzi throughout his tenure, and he retired in 2008 rather than face Ann Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick held this district for one term (2008-2010) before losing to the execrable Paul Gosar in the 2010 red wave.
Arizona added a district after the 2010 Census, and Gosar hopped to the new district which was in the northwestern corner of the state. This allowed Kirkpatrick to claim the 1st district once more. Even as Romney was narrowly carrying the district, Kirkpatrick won it again. She carried it until she ran for Senate in 2016, and Tom O’Halleran took over. He consistently had tough races as both Trump (in 2016) and Biden (in 2020) narrowly carried the old district.
The independent redistricting commission in Arizona skewed this district in reapportionment after the 2020 Census. It went from a district Biden won narrowly to one that Trump would have won 53.2% to 45.3%. This doomed Rep. O’Halleran, as Navy SEAL Eli Crane stomped the incumbent 53.9% to 46.1%. That’s very similar to the margin Trump would’ve won by under the current lines. 323k voters in total voted to oust O’Halleran in 2022, while 365k voted in 2020 to keep him. That’s not much of a drop-off for a midterm election. It’s also part of why I am skeptical of our chances in this district.
Here’s where this 2nd district race will be won.
-
Tribal Nations: This district contains the largest collection of indigenous tribal lands found anywhere in the nation, and it is critical that every vote possible on the reservations is found and turned out. The Navajo, Apache, Hopi, and other nations had unprecedented turnout in 2020, but that won’t be enough to flip this district unless even more show up to vote.
-
Flagstaff and Sedona: These small cities are the largest in northern Arizona, and it is critical that every outdoorsman, New Age believer, and the students and professors at Northern Arizona University are found and vote for Nez. This part of the country is beautiful and also votes blue, but it has to come out in ways that it hasn’t before if Nez is to win.
Here’s where we need to keep the margins down, or we lose.
-
Prescott: Republicans have the largest metro area in the district in Prescott. I’m not lying when I say that this area is MAGA Republican in nature. A combination of cranks and retirees from California live in this valley, and Nez is completely alien to them.
-
Pinto Democrat country: Places like Show Low and Payson used to be the backbone of the Pinto Democratic coalition once upon a time. The areas surrounding these small cities are now heavily favoring the GOP. Nez will have to scrounge for votes in these areas to offset the lean of the district elsewhere.
- Pinal County: Pinal County is another part of this diverse district (larger than most states!) that tends to vote Republican. Nez needs gangbusters turnout from Maricopa, while cutting down the margins in places like Coolidge, Florence, and Gold Canyon.
Jonathan Nez: From President to Congressman?
Nez lost re-election as President of the Diné Nation but hopes to win a tough seat in AZ-02.
J
onathan Nez was born in Tuba City, Arizona in 1975. He attended Northland Pioneer College and transferred to Northern Arizona University. He majored in political science for his bachelor’s degree. He also has a master’s in public administration from NAU.
Early in his career, Nez served as vice president of the Navajo Nation's Shonto chapter. He also served as a delegate to the Navajo Nation Council, where he represented the Oljato, Ts'ah Bii' Kin, Navajo Mountain, and Shonto chapters. He was elected Vice President of Navajo Nation in 2015.
Nez ran for the President of Navajo Nation in 2018. He won over a former President and was the youngest ever elected at the time. His tenure was focused on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite a horrible death rate for the Navajo Nation, Nez was able to get vaccination rates amongst his constituents to a level much higher than Arizona. He lost in 2022 because of the lack of infrastructure projects and the pace of tribal government.
Jonathan Nez has been active in national politics as well. He was an early supporter of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. He was one of the keynote speakers for the virtual 2020 Democratic National Convention. He was also one of the electors for Joe Biden during the 2020 election.
Nez is running as the antithesis of Rep. Eli Crane and everything he stands for. Instead of voting against everything, Nez will bring home the bacon for his rural district. Many tribal and rural communities still lack running water and electricity. Nez will push for funds for infrastructure and for affordable housing so that Arizona’s 2nd district can catch up to the rest of the state economically.
In another instance, Nez wants to expand voting access - especially on the reservations where voting is often difficult. As a reminder, indigenous peoples weren’t allowed to vote until 1924 and many are still under voter suppression today. He will support the John Lewis VRA and the For the People Act to correct these problems.
Nez is also running strongly on abortion rights. He sees it as an issue of individual sovereignty and that the government cannot tell people what to do about their bodies. He’s also running with an abortion rights amendment on the ballot so the issue is especially salient in his election campaign.
Rep. Eli Crane believes that climate change is a hoax to take away the rights of citizens. Jonathan Nez knows that the climate crisis is real and has taken concrete actions to mitigate it. He switched the Navajo Nation from a reliance on coal power to generating electricity from solar power. He has worked to obtain the share of water promised to tribal nations in early treaties and water law cases. Nez will be at the forefront of any climate crisis legislation.
Jonathan Nez is the real deal. His experiences as a politician in the Navajo Nation will translate well into successful legislating in Congress.
Rep. Eli Crane: Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs
Rep. Eli Crane is another far-right politician that believes in conspiracy theories and other craziness.
Rep. Eli Crane was born in Tucson, Arizona in 1980 and raised in Yuma. He attended Arizona Western College and the University of Arizona with the intent of majoring in sociology. However, Crane dropped out of college one week after the 9/11 attack to join the US Navy.
Crane served in the Navy from 2001 to 2014 as a Navy SEAL. He specialized in Underwater Demolition and also passed the SEAL Qualification Training. He was deployed five times during his stint in the US Navy.
Once he left the Navy, Crane co-founded Bottle Breacher, a company that makes bottle openers out of .50 caliber cartridge casings. Crane pitched this company on Shark Tank and successfully received investments from Mark Cuban and Kevin O’Leary. Crane sold the company in 2022 to run for Congress.
Crane went through a contentious primary where far-right State Sen. Wendy Rogers and Donald Trump both endorsed him over his competition. Crane won his primary with 36% of the vote, won over incumbent Democratic Rep. Tom O’Halleran, and immediately joined the House Freedom Caucus upon joining Congress.
Crane has been a troublemaker ever since the very first votes in Congress. He was a holdout on every one of the 15 votes to elect former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Crane would eventually vote “present” on the 15th vote and thus allow McCarthy to claim the gavel. Crane was also one of the 8 members of the GOP to vote to vacate the Speaker chair and oust McCarthy.
Crane is one of the most vociferous election deniers in the state of Arizona. He consistently promotes the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen by “massive amounts of fraud”. He called for the Arizona legislature to decertify Biden’s win and even for the Attorney General to investigate alleged instances of voter fraud. He has furthered the conspiracy to 2024, likening poll watchers to SEAL Team 6 snipers to intimidate voters in the name of combatting imaginary fraud.
This is not the only conspiracy theory Crane has endorsed. He insists that the Trump assassination attempts are an inside job and the bipartisan investigation into these attempts is a compromised sham. He suggested there was a second shooter at the first Trump assassination attempt and this “fact” should be explored. He is running his own investigation into the attempts and the GOP seems ready and willing to indulge him.
Crane is possibly racist as well. In a debate on the National Defense Authorization Act, Crane insisted that the military ban DEI initiatives because that military was never meant to be inclusive. He went on to say “My amendment has nothing to do with whether or not colored people or Black people or anybody can serve”. Crane claims he misspoke but it would have to be a part of his vocabulary to come out in the first place.
Crane is in a band of far-right Republicans that sometimes prevent even the worst of GOP messaging bills from coming to the floor. It is rare for the rules of debate to be voted down in Congress but it has happened frequently in the 118th Congress. Most important measures have had to pass under suspension of the rules (requires 2/3rds of the vote) thanks to people like Crane gumming up the works.
As one might expect, Crane is poor on the issues as well. Crane is a zealot when it comes to anti-abortion votes and he sponsored the Life at Conception Act. In July 2022 he proclaimed:
Roe v Wade was a mistake...This moment also reinforces the need for Republicans to be fearless fighters for our core convictions. Overturning Roe would not have been possible had President Trump and courageous Senators not been aggressive in confirming three Supreme Court Justices in his first term.
Yet Crane was strangely silent when the Arizona Supreme Court upheld the draconian 1864 abortion ban.
Crane is all-in when it comes to “election integrity”. He pushed for the sham SAVE Act which allegedly would stop undocumented immigrants from voting but which is already illegal. He calls for the end of mail-in balloting in Arizona which has been a popular means of voting for decades.
Crane unsurprisingly is a member of the pro-Putin caucus in the House of Representatives as well. He has voted for a moratorium to all aid to Ukraine and consistently votes against more funding for that conflict. He parrots the Kremlin talking points of funding Ukraine “projects weakness and leaves us vulnerable to foreign adversaries, all while running the risk of escalation with a nuclear adversary.”
Rep. Eli Crane is out there even when compared to many of the nutcases found in the GOP caucus. It is imperative that this legislative terrorist not gain serious power in the halls of Congress.
How Can You Help?
As you might expect with a district on the edge of being competitive, there is a fundraising disparity. However, Jonathan Nez has been chipping away at it over the past couple of quarters. If I get Q3 numbers for either candidate, I will post them but know that Crane had about 3 times as much money as Nez after the Q2 fundraising period. This reliable source says Nez will have a quarter above $1M in Q3 and perhaps even more than $2M!
There’s going to be no outside independent expenditures on this race. There are more tempting targets elsewhere for the national Democrats and the national GOP has lots more seats to defend. If this seat falls there will be a robust majority for the Democratic Party. That means Nez and Crane will have to fight for this district without outside support.
One of the most important ways you can help in this district is through a donation to NE AZ Democrats. This indigenous-powered group has been putting in the difficult work of getting tribal nations organized and voting. Not only will this help Jonathan Nez but it will help Rep. Ruben Gallego win the Senate seat and MVP Harris win the state running for President. For more information, read the Daily Kos diary by NEAZNativeDemocrats about their wonderful work.
There are still more ways of helping flip this district. A virtual phone banking session to support Jonathan Nez happens every Wednesday from 6-8PM MST (Arizona doesn’t follow daylight savings time - except for the Navajo reservation). There are some events in Flagstaff, Sedona, and Prescott for the AZ Dems. Just zoom into the portion of the map closest to your location and see what is there!
Jonathan Nez has a wealth of experience on his side when it comes to governance. The Navajo Nation is the largest tribal nation in America and Nez received a baptism by fire when managing the COVID-19 pandemic. He is contesting the 35th most vulnerable seat held by the GOP. That is a challenge in terms of actually winning but Nez has faced tougher challenges already.
Rep. Eli Crane is yet another legislative terrorist sitting in a seat that shouldn't be competitive. He spends his time throwing sand in the gears of the legislative process instead of actually representing his constituents. His penchant for spouting off insane conspiracy theories should be disqualifying. Eli Crane is what is wrong with the Republican Party and must be rejected soundly by the voters.
Crane has an obvious advantage in District 2, where there is a 30,000 Republican voter advantage. After the district was redrawn, Republicans gained the edge, clearing the way for Crane to win over three-term Democratic Rep. Tom O'Halleran.
If you want MVP Harris to win the state of Arizona, supporting Jonathan Nez for Arizona’s 2nd district is an important piece of that puzzle. The question is whether supercharged tribal nations' turnout is enough to keep this state in Democratic hands.
Jonathan Nez for Arizona-2
Campaign Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | TikTok | DONATE | Volunteer
Here is the Defeat the MAGA Dozen Fund on ActBlue! These 15 incumbent members of the GOP are MAGA Republicans residing in swing districts. The challengers are all strong and can win in these tougher districts. Please donate and then share a link to this site on your social media! #MAGADozen
