Arizona Democrats roiled by infighting ahead of midterms

An intraparty dispute between Arizona Democrats is threatening to upend the state party ahead of several key elections next year.

The infighting played out over the weekend when recently elected state Democratic Party chair Robert E. Branscomb II alleged in a letter to state committee members that several personnel decisions he made within the state party had angered Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, with one threatening to stop helping the party fundraise.

That prompted Kelly, Gallego and several statewide Democrats to respond, saying in their own letter that Branscomb offered “many false claims” and called his statement a “bad-faith response.”

The public feuding between the two sides comes as the state Democratic Party is bracing for several competitive elections in 2026 as it defends its governor, attorney general and secretary of state.

“I think by and large, Democrats across the state that aren’t living and breathing the day-to-day drama of local party politics — it’s not going to impact them too much. They’re going to pay attention when we get closer to elections,” said one Democratic strategist who requested anonymity to speak candidly.

“But in terms of the nucleus, yeah, it’s absolutely catastrophic,” the strategist continued. “And he’s essentially made himself a lame-duck chair, given that you know the statewide electeds who really carry the power and the respect of the Democratic electorate out here basically say they can’t trust him. So he’s going to be an ineffective chair going forward, unless he can find some miraculous way to fix this.”

Tensions within the party simmered earlier this month when Lisa Sanor resigned as secretary of the Arizona Democratic Party. In her letter to the state party and others, she complained of “significant challenges” facing the party, “including the absence of strategic planning, a budget and timely replacement of vital staff members who departed en masse.”

She also alleged that there had been a “lack of transparency” around hiring specific individuals in addition to “a concerning lack of understanding from leadership regarding some of our critical systems and internal operations.”

But that friction became even more apparent over the weekend with Branscomb’s letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Hill. In it, he told members that the last 90 days had been “marked by both unexpected challenges and significant groundwork for the future.”

Branscomb alleged that he was met with an “empty workspace” at the state party office shortly after he was elected and accused the outgoing executive director, Morgan Dick, of obstruction. He also alleged that “outgoing leadership withheld banking information, stonewalled my efforts, and discouraged current staff from staying on, even offering to help them find other jobs.”

His email also alleged that Kelly had called him, saying that he “strongly discouraged me from making staffing changes without consulting him” after Branscomb had let go of Dick as executive director of the party.

“He emphasized his role in raising funds for the party and implied that I should be grateful, even beholden, to him for the party’s financial resources,” Branscomb added.

Finally, Branscomb alleged that after he had chosen a new executive director for the party, Michael Ruff, both senators immediately criticized him over the move.

Several hours later, a statement signed by Kelly, Gallego, Gov. Katie Hobbs (D), Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) and Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) condemned Branscomb’s letter, saying it included “many false claims” and “is the kind of bad-faith response we’ve come to expect from the new leadership over the last several weeks.”

“As Arizona statewide elected leaders who have all won historic campaigns, we know what it takes to work together, build a broad coalition, and win in Arizona. Any efforts not devoted to winning are simply a waste of resources,” the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Hill, continued. “While the Chair has lost our trust, we’re not going to let that deter us from our mission of winning in 2026.”

Dick separately issued her own statement slamming the state party chair’s message as an inaccurate and “counterproductive” attack.

Branscomb declined to comment to The Hill when reached by phone on Monday afternoon.

While members of the party say that infighting and occasional bickering is nothing new, they were surprised to see it hit a fever pitch with Branscomb’s letter.

“For the state party chair, whose primary job is to get Democrats elected to office in the state, for him to come out blasting statewide Democratic elected officials publicly is unprecedented,” said a former state committee member.

That person argued that if the infighting resolves itself soon, it won’t pose a problem for the party heading into next November. But the source warned that if it continued to play out, “it can have a huge impact.”

The bitter public feud is playing out in one of the most pivotal states in the country, which routinely helps decide who holds the majority in the Senate and who helms the White House.

Arizona Democrats saw mixed success in November: While they were able to enshrine abortion protections into the state Constitution and elect Gallego to the Senate, former Vice President Harris lost the state in the presidential race and Republicans expanded control in the state legislature.

Next year, Hobbs, Mayes and Fontes are all up for reelection and all hold seats that are pickup opportunities for the GOP. Hobbs and Mayes won their elections in 2022 by less than a percentage point each.

Adding to an already tumultuous start to the 2026 cycle, Democrats are also grappling with a backslide in Democratic voter registration. Data from Fontes’s office released this month shows Democrats are trailing GOP in registered voters by 324,000 and trailing unaffiliated voters by 231,000. Data published exactly a year ago showed Democrats trailing Republicans in registered voters by 242,000 and trailing unaffiliated voters by 177,000.

“It’s not that we’ve fallen to third. We as Democrats, we’ve fallen to a distant third, and the party’s job is to figure out why,” said Democratic strategist Stacy Pearson.

“You’ve got two jobs: raise money and register voters. And how did we go to statistically even to a half million voters down? It’s unforgivable,” she said.

Some Democrats are also taking the possibility that they may need to fundraise around the state party more seriously. There’s some precedent for that already in the Grand Canyon State, as the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) worked around the state GOP in 2010 and helped channel some resources through the Yuma County GOP instead.

Mario E. Diaz, a strategist who has worked with members of both parties, said his hope is that “Arizona Democrats have a strong Democratic Party, with an individual who’s going to work together with elected officials.”

“And if that doesn’t happen, then there always has to be a backup plan to fulfill the mission,” he added.

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