Earlier this month, Brianna Westbrook took 40% of the vote in the Democratic primary for the special election in Arizona’s 8th congressional district. It’s the seat the Trent Franks resigned after his bizarre sexual misconduct scandal, and Westbrook did a great job of rallying local progressives in a red district.
Now, she’s throwing her support behind the Democratic nominee for the April 24 election, Hiral Tipirneni, and setting her own sights on the state senate, running to represent Legislative District 22.
From AZ Central:
With little money and no political experience, Westbrook pulled in 15,000 votes — just under 40 percent — in last month's Democratic primary against Tipirneni. Now, Westbrook is helping register Democrats to vote and asking her supporters to get behind Tipirneni.
Westbrook is a liberal activist who has made her experience as a transgender woman a part of her outreach to a broader Democratic base in the West Valley.
...
Westbrook said her legislative race will feature many of the same core concerns as her congressional bid.
"It's the same issues I've been talking about: protecting Medicaid, making sure that our schools are properly funded, our teachers are paid a living wage, fixing our roads. We need to invest in our state's infrastructure and balancing our budget," she said.
Westbrook is an inspirational and popular candidate — she has over 16,000 Twitter followers — and she’s working to help build the Democratic Party in a state that needs to turn blue. She’s a bold progressive, and having her win a very red district would be both a symbolic and very real sea change.
Meanwhile, Hiral Tipirneni is another solid progressive, an ER doctor who is running a campaign based on rational thinking and compassion. Her opponent couldn’t be any different. Here’s what GOP nominee Debbie Lesko said in a recent debate. Try not to laugh/gag/cry:
Lesko said Tipirneni “believes in free care basically for everyone. That’s just not fiscally responsible. I believe in free markets, individuals choosing whichever doctor they want.
“The other thing that stood out, she wants to register all guns, which I totally disagree with. I’m a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights. So, she said she wanted to ban certain guns, register guns, a huge difference between us.
“She’s against building a wall. We need more border agents, more technology.
“Another thing, she talks about education a lot, as if she wants to federalize education. I think education decisions need to be made more at the local level, not at the federal level. It’s better kept here.”
Donate to Brianna Westbrook’s campaign via CrowdPac, and to Tipirneni’s campaign via Progressive Everywhere’s ActBlue page!