The Problem: Back in June 2020, Arizona was on a desperate course with regard to COVID-19 infections. A few months earlier, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey had created an edict saying that no city or county could enact new COVID-19 restrictions without approval from his state health department—and his state health department had no interest in approving any new restrictions at all. Ducey had also been slow to shut down Arizona to protect Arizona citizens from COVID, and he reopened Arizona back up early to please Donald Trump when he came for a visit. By the middle of June, the rate of increase in cases in Arizona was exploding, and the graph of new cases was almost going straight up. I wrote about this here, and here is the graph I posted at the time:
As all of this was happening, there was Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, emulating Donald Trump by doing—next to nothing.
The Solution: For five Democratic mayors (4 women and 1 Black man—diversity rocks!) in Arizona, this was unacceptable. The mayors, such as Tucson’s Regina Romero, called Governor Ducey day-after-day, begging him to allow their cities to craft their own policies to combat the rising cases of COVID. They also sent him a joint letter asking him for changes. Eventually, around June 17, 2020, Ducey relented, and changed his policy, allowing cities and counties to create their own policies regarding COVID. Instantly, the five Democratic mayors in Arizona created policies designed to stem the fast-rising tide of COVID cases. Most important of all was the requirement of people to wear masks in public places such as stores.
Within about two to four weeks of the change in policies by the five Democratic mayors, people paying close attention to the rates of COVID infections and deaths started to notice an important change. The number of new infections was very slowly starting to drop. I wrote about this here, and here is a graph from that article showing the infections starting to drop:
As has been happening for approaching two months now, Arizona’s rate of new infections continues to drop. I live in Tucson, Arizona, and I currently see people wearing masks everywhere. The change from a few months ago has been dramatic, and the five Democratic mayors who pushed for change deserve a ton of credit, along with the Arizona citizens who actually followed their orders. Oh, there have been resistors to the new rules, but those people have been greatly outnumbered by the number of Arizonans pitching in and doing their part. Here is a graph showing where Arizona is now with regard to new COVID-19 infections:
So, what have the voters in Arizona seen for the past few months? Well, they saw Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey and Republican Donald Trump basically do little to nothing to protect the people of Arizona from COVID-19 while also pushing to reopen the state early. This led to a flood of new COVID-19 cases. Then, Arizona voters saw five Arizona Democratic mayors spring into action to actually take care of the problem. Is it any wonder that a recent Fox News poll had Biden beating Trump by 9 points in Arizona, and Republican Senator Martha McSally down by 17 points to Democratic challenger Mark Kelly? The Republicans failed Arizona big-time, and five Arizona Democratic mayors helped to save Arizona from COVID-19. Also, after the Democrats and Republicans were done with their national conventions recently, which state bounced the most for Joe Biden? Yep, that would be Arizona:
Arizona Stands Out From a Mostly Static Presidential Race in Battleground States
State-level polling trends reveal little recent change in 2020 contest, but Biden now leads by 10 in Arizona
Soon after the mighty five mayors had saved Arizona, Donald Trump called Governor Ducey to Washington D.C. to praise him in front of reporters for turning things around in Arizona with regard to COVID-19, as if it was Ducey who had solved things instead of Arizona’s Fabulous Five Democratic Mayors. Yet, many people in Arizona seem to know who to give credit to for the drop in new COVID infections, just as many seem to know that Martha McSally voted to kill Obamacare and could not wait to do it. They seem to know that if she had succeeded, it would have ended protections for pre-existing conditions, no matter how much she lies about that in her television commercials.
Many in Arizona know that it was the Democrats who succeeded where the Republicans failed. Just like with FDR, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, America once again needs the Democrats to clean up yet another Republican mess, and Arizona’s Democratic mayors are helping to lead the way. The five Arizona mayors who pushed Doug Ducey into letting them solve Arizona’s COVID-19 crisis are:
- Tucson Mayor Regina Romero
- Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego
- Flagstaff Mayor Coral Evans
- Tolleson Mayor Anna Tovar
- Tempe Mayor Corey Woods
Thank you, Arizona Mayors!
