How to Win in a Red District

Consistent, smart organizing in Arizona

By Steve Schear

Republicans designed Arizona’s state Legislative District (LD) 17 to make sure their candidates for the state Senate and House would win. The district is so gerrymandered that a mountain range runs through it. You have to drive around the mountains to get from one side to the other. In 2023, 38 percent of voters in LD17 were Republicans, 31 percent Independents, and only 29 percent Democrats.

Yet despite gerrymandering and the 2024 general election tilt toward Republicans, Democrat Kevin Volk won a state House seat in LD17 by 2,365 votes out of 158,768 cast. The win, the result of high quality organizing, shows how to achieve electoral wins through grassroots efforts.

An Effective Leadership Core

LD17 Democratic leaders divided the district into ten territories, then found volunteers to manage nine of them. “The permanent organization structure is key to our winning strategy,” said Nancy Burton, current chair of the LD17 Democratic Committee (LD17DC). “It allows us to multiply our effectiveness by training our territory leads, who in turn recruit and train volunteers and keep them active and organized in the off years.”

Getting An Early Start

In January 2024, I made calls to Arizona politicos to find out where I should send volunteers to do some early canvassing. “Talk to Larry Waggoner,” someone told me. Waggoner was then Chair of Tucson’s LD17DC. When I called Waggoner, he told me that his group had been canvassing since 2023. I soon learned that LD17DC was the only Arizona group already canvassing.

A couple of months later, I arrived in Tucson along with other volunteers from California and Massachusetts. When we arrived, the LD17 team was ready for us. They hosted a welcome dinner at a lively Italian restaurant with LD17 leaders. That began the creation of the social bonds so critical to quality political work. The LD17DC had also arranged for most of us to stay in homes of local activists.

They were just as ready to get us out knocking doors. The next morning, Nancy Burton had our turfs ready. She gave us a good quick training and packets of literature and off we went. We weren’t rushed, but time wasn’t wasted.

Early canvassing gave the LD17DC a jump-start on building name recognition and support for their state legislative candidates, including Kevin Volk. It also helped LD17 leaders identify voters who were likely to vote for Volk, which helped focus later GOTV efforts.

Capitalizing on Organizing Opportunities

Throughout the first half of 2024, Arizona organizations were collecting signatures to put an abortion initiative on the state ballot. The effort, Burton said, “provided the opportunity for us to recruit and train leaders and volunteers to do the Arizona abortion access petitions, get used to what canvassing was all about, and get trained in how to canvass, because some of the folks we recruited were eager but inexperienced.”

Collecting signatures gave canvassers a good excuse to knock on doors early in 2024. Conversations about abortion let volunteers gather valuable information about voters’ political views. “We were probably the only legislative district in Arizona that did this,” Burton said. “Why, I don't really understand.”

Blue Voter Guide

The 2024 Arizona ballot was extremely long, with 13 initiatives as well as federal, state, and local candidates. Lots of voters didn’t know how to vote on the initiatives and there was a risk of a big drop-off in down-ballot races. The LD17DC addressed this risk with a Blue Voter Guide. Surprisingly, “the single biggest fundraiser that we did was a drag show,” said Burton. “It raised $10,000, between the tickets and the Raffles and other contributions. It was an amazing thing.” Both in- and out-of-state donors also contributed, and the group raised more than $25,000 for the voter guide.

“So we printed 50,000 of them to mail,” Burton said. The mailer was a one-piece postcard with a QR code that took people to the LD17DC website for more detail, with info on big candidates on top. “We leafletted another 25,000 guides,” Burton said. “We tried to get to our Democratic base because so much of the targeting that’s done for political campaigns tends to take the base for granted. We really felt that the base will probably vote our way, but you know there’s going to be a lot of drop off because they are not educated about the ballot. So our philosophy was to send that voter guide to as many in the base as we could.”

Using Social Media and Technology

The LD17DC also had a bold social media presence, using paid advertisements targeted at district voters, reaching over 50,000 unique accounts and getting 100,000 views on Facebook and Instagram.

They used Mobilize to feed the “My Campaign” side of their VAN data management system, which allowed them to track and follow-up with volunteers. This allowed them to quickly staff multiple canvass launches in the summer and fall, culminating with 8-10 canvass launches per weekend at four staging locations around the district.

Lots of Volunteers Knocking on a LOT of Doors

“We had 538 people who did a minivan turf, and that doesn’t count drivers,” said Burton. “We figured we had 600 to 700 volunteers from one end of the electoral season to the other, which I think is amazing. We knocked on the doors of 93,000 people,” about half of the voters in LD17.

Election results validated their methods. Turnout increased by 25 percent over 2022. “Ninety percent of the Democrats in LD17 voted in 2024,” reported Burton. “And then I think the drop off on the down-ballot vote was no more than 3 percent.”

2025 Strategy

This year, the LD17DC is focused on keeping people engaged. Activists can learn about protests using the LD17DC website. “We’re also doing a newsletter every other week that lists everything happening in Pima County, including protests organized by sister legislative districts,” Burton said.

The LD17DC also ran a food drive to help people impacted by federal budget and staffing cuts. The drive collected 3,200 pounds of food for a local not-for-profit.

They are now organizing meetings where Kevin Volk can speak about his legislative experiences and where LD17DC leaders can explore issues with local volunteers. “Our goal this year is to really reach out into our community and to set up as many of these meetings as we possibly can in as many parts of the legislative district as we can,” said Burton.

The Importance of Building a Party Structure

Burton emphasized the importance of building a permanent infrastructure to keep the momentum going. “You keep people motivated, you keep people volunteering, and you keep people socializing with each other. It gives them an opportunity to feel as though they’re useful, and they are useful, and it trains them in what to do. So when we need them during the campaign, they’ve spent some time in their neighborhoods, and they’re not total strangers to the people they need to go convince.”

A Dedication to John McLean

This article is dedicated to the memory of John McLean, who ran for the state senate in LD17 last year and just barely lost by about 3,000 votes. McLean died in a car crash in November 2024. After his death, Kevin Volk said, “This was a great man. A father, a husband, a business leader and a true public servant. We shall not see his like again.”