Arizona
Can vice president candidate Tim Walz’s ‘Normal Joe vibe’ appeal to Arizona men?
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz fire up Philadelphia campaign rally
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris introduces her vice presidential pick, Tim Walz, during a campaign rally in Philadelphia.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz knocks Republicans for being “weird.” Can he win over Arizona men by being “normal?”
Vice President Kamala Harris’s brand new running mate is coming to Arizona, and political watchers here say he could draw independent male voters into her coalition if he can follow the playbook of another Democrat Harris considered for the post: Sen. Mark Kelly.
The 60-year-old Walz was relatively unknown outside of his home state of Minnesota until this week. Now, he has three months to introduce himself on the biggest stage in politics — and avoid being shoved into a political box.
“What has underwritten the success of Mark Kelly in Arizona, it’s the same basic thing that I think is going to underwrite the success of Walz in Arizona,” said David Waid, former executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party. “He is a Democrat who breaks the mold, who breaks the expectations and can’t be put neatly into a box.”
Since she took over the top of the ticket last month, Harris has made up much of the ground that President Joe Biden had lost to former President Donald Trump in the years since the 2020 election. The race has narrowed, public polling shows, and the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan group that forecasts elections, this week moved Arizona from “lean Republican” to “toss-up.”
A new survey from the Arizona polling firm HighGround found Harris narrowly leading Trump in Arizona 44% to 42% among likely voters. She has a 15 percentage point lead among female voters, but Trump has a 10 percentage point lead with men. The survey was conducted July 30-Aug. 5 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.38 percentage points.
Walz certainly “will not hurt her with men,” said Chuck Coughlin, the president and CEO of HighGround and a longtime Republican strategist who left the party in the Trump era. The campaign also has a number of issues to clarify to voters during the Democratic National Convention later this month, he added.
“As the survey shows, she is struggling with men in general,” Coughlin said. “Having a strong and confident response on immigration and articulating a strong and confident position on Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan will help her with men. But most importantly, being clear-eyed about economic policies, tax cuts vs. deficit concerns will help her.”
If Walz can play up his working class and pro-union bona fides, his background as a teacher and his perspective as a hunter who understands gun rights, he could tap into what helped Kelly win back-to-back races in 2020 and 2022, Waid said. Walz showed he could win over Republicans when he flipped a red district during his first race for Congress in 2006.
“He’s going to be appealing to white men independents. I think he’s a perfect fit for that, and that is a very large voting block in Arizona,” Waid said. “This is something that can really begin to put some space between her and Trump, this VP choice.”
So far, Walz has received a warm reception from Arizona Democrats who have won statewide in recent years. Kelly said Walz and Harris are “building a campaign to unite our country” and Gov. Katie Hobbs said she is “absolutely thrilled” and even let out a scream when she heard the news. Rep. Greg Stanton, who called for Biden to step aside weeks ago, will attend the Harris-Walz rally in Phoenix on Friday.
But the Trump campaign is already working to cast Walz as “dangerously liberal,” playing up progressive initiatives he’s supported as governor. Trump’s team pointed to Walz’s support of stricter emission standards for gas-powered cars, cast doubt on his respect for rural America and tied him to Harris’s native California.
Trump, who is a convicted felon, also attacked Walz for “embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote” in Minnesota.
“It’s no surprise that San Francisco Liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast wannabe Tim Walz as her running-mate – Walz has spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State,” Trump campaign Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a written statement. “Walz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide. If Walz won’t tell voters the truth, we will: just like Kamala Harris, Tim Walz is a dangerously liberal extremist, and the Harris-Walz California dream is every American’s nightmare.”
Some Republicans aren’t buying it. Sam Campana, the first woman mayor of Scottsdale and a lifelong member of the GOP, recently joined a group of Republicans backing Harris and Walz over Trump and Vance. She said that voters have outgrown those labels that the two parties fling at each other, such as “flaming liberal” and “ultra-conservative.”
“You can’t just listen to these labels anymore,” Campana said. “When you give them the biggest tax cut they’ve ever had, that doesn’t sound like a flaming liberal to me. You know, that sounds like somebody who really is listening and caring about their constituents.”
But other aspects of Walz’s record could hurt him with Arizona voters. Chad Heywood, the former executive director of the Arizona Republican Party, said Walz’s early campaign moves have been “great at making him a likable, common guy introducing himself.”
“That being said, his positions are very progressive, and I think a lot of the soft Republicans and moderate independent voters won’t appreciate his more liberal positions on controversial issues like gender-affirming care for minors, abortion, marijuana legalization,” Heywood said. “Probably a missed opportunity for the Harris ticket to have reached undecided moderate voters.”
Harris has been on defense when it comes to immigration, a top issue for Arizona voters. Democrats who have won statewide race in Arizona are often more conservative on the issue than their party is nationally, and Republicans killed a bipartisan immigration bill in Congress earlier this year to avoid handing Democrats an election year victory on the issue.
Walz took a progressive track on immigration as Minnesota governor, namely expanding some state services to undocumented residents. Minnesota expanded drivers’ licenses to all Minnesota residents last year, regardless of their immigration status. The initiative was expected to benefit approximately 81,000 undocumented immigrants in the state, and 20 other states and territories do the same.
What does Walz bring to the Democratic ticket in Arizona?
What a vice presidential candidate can actually bring to the ticket is an often debated issue in politics. Even former President Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance have said they expect Vance to have little impact on the race. Vance had a rocky start to his role as Trump’s second-in-command, but tried to hit the reset button during a trip to Arizona last week.
Harris and Walz balance one another, Campana said, noting that Harris is a woman with a diverse background: her mother was Indian and her father is Jamaican. Walz will let Harris take center stage as the presidential candidate and “work hard in the background,” she said, the way that Harris did for Biden and Biden did for former President Barack Obama.
Both vice presidential candidates are “bringing a vibe to the ticket,” Waid said. Vance balances Trump’s septuagenarian status and speaks to the former president’s base, for example.
“Vance brings a, let’s call it a ‘Young MAGA’ vibe,” Waid said. And for Walz: “It’s more of what I think most Americans know as a ‘Normal Joe.’”
The Arizona man known as the “QAnon Shaman” said Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s new Anti-Weaponization Fund is an abuse of power by a would-be “king.”
Jacob Angeli-Chansley – the face of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot with his red, white and blue face paint and horned fur headdress – denounced the $1.776 billion program as a “slush fund” for Trump to reward his loyalists.
The Justice Department announced the fund on Monday as part of a settlement with Trump, who had sued the IRS for $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns. The settlement included an assurance that the IRS will drop all audits and claims for back taxes against Trump, his family and businesses.
“You think I’m gonna take a f—ing dime from Trump and the government after he’s using this thing to cover him and his family in perpetuity for all of their crimes?” he told Cronkite News by phone. “You think I’m gonna take a dime of that blood money?”
Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people who participated in the Jan. 6 riot the day he returned to the White House in January 2025. Many had been convicted of assaulting police officers.
Cronkite News reached out to 17 of those defendants with Arizona ties. None besides Angeli-Chansley responded.
Thirteen were convicted or pleaded guilty to crimes related to the attack. Four of the cases were dismissed after the pardon. The charges included assault on federal agents, physical violence at the Capitol and seditious conspiracy.
See our previous coverage of the Anti-Weaponization Fund and “QAnon Shaman” in the video player above.
Angeli-Chansley pleaded guilty to a charge of obstruction of an official proceeding. He served 27 months of a 41-month sentence. He was released from federal prison in March 2023.
During the riot, he carried an American flag fastened to a spear and used a bullhorn to call other rioters to the dais in the Senate chamber.
“He stated that ‘Mike Pence is a f—-ing traitor’ and wrote a note on available paper on the dais, stating, ‘It’s Only A Matter of Time. Justice Is Coming,’” according to prosecutors.
At a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing Tuesday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the compensation fund, saying it will be open to anyone victimized by a politically motivated prosecution, not just Jan. 6 defendants.
“It’s not limited to Republicans. … It’s not limited to the Biden weaponization. It’s not limited to, in any way scope or form, January 6 or to (targets of special counsel) Jack Smith. There’s no limitation on the claims,” Blanche said.
He rejected Democrats’ assertions that the fund is a massive, taxpayer-funded attempt by Trump to whitewash the assault on democracy.
“I think it’s telling that everybody on the left and … the liberal side of the media immediately says it’s a slush fund for President Trump’s friends,” Blanche said. “If anything else, that’s an outright admission that they know that the people that really had this Department of Justice weaponized against them were President Trump and his friends. But … that is not what the AG order that I signed yesterday says.”
Blanche, who served as Trump’s private attorney in several cases – prosecutions over election interference and classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago and allegations of hush money paid to an adult actress ahead of the 2016 election – faced strong criticism from Senate Democrats.
“You are acting today like the president’s personal attorney and that’s the whole problem,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who also noted that a huge banner with Trump’s portrait was draped over the front of the Department of Justice building in February.
At a homeland security committee meeting Tuesday, Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego called for legislation barring establishment of a fund of the sort proposed by the Trump administration.
He called it outrageous to provide compensation to “traitors who attacked the Capitol.”
“No president, Republican or Democrat, should be able to use the federal treasury as a personal checkbook,” he said.
Angeli-Chansley now refers to himself as the “American Shaman.” He was heavily involved in the QAnon movement, which centered on a conspiracy theory that Trump was fighting a cabal of Satan worshippers who engage in child sex trafficking.
He was a strong MAGA supporter when the pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, interrupting congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
Angeli-Chansley has since become disenchanted with Trump. He has also repudiated the QAnon movement.
In a rambling phone conversation with Cronkite News, he repeatedly cited Trump’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting federal trial for trafficking young women and girls for sex.
He reiterated his anger with Trump for resisting the release of the Epstein files.
And he criticized Trump for attacking Iran and supporting Israel, among other things.
Angeli-Chansley sued Trump for $40 trillion in September 2025, asserting he is the true leader of the free world and vowing to use the sum to wipe out the national debt. The lawsuit was dismissed. He later filed a lawsuit against the CIA, FBI, World Bank and others in Maricopa County.
He urged fellow Jan. 6ers to “reject that … money.”
If courts allow the fund to operate, Angeli-Chansley said, it would mean that Trump “can do whatever it is that he wants.”
Teacher unions call for board member’s resignation after ‘Nazi salute’
Teacher unions call for District Boardmember Kimberly Fisher’s resignation after she made a “Nazi salute” during a public meeting on May 26, 2026.
Provided by Deer Valley Unified School District
School teacher unions are calling for the resignation of a Deer Valley Unified School District board member after she made a “Nazi salute” and said “heil’ at the end of a public meeting on May 26.
Boardmember Kimberly Fisher stretched out her arm, making the salute motion and repeating the word “heil” twice after the board president called for a vote to adjourn the meeting.
Fisher defended her actions in a Facebook video after the meeting, stating she made the gesture because she felt that the board had been under a “dictatorship” led by Board President Paul Carver and the district’s superintendent.
“All I could think of tonight was Hitler, so that’s why I said heil or whatever,” Fisher said in an eight-minute-long video.
Prior to the motion, Fisher and the board members were speaking on scheduling future meetings to discuss changes to district boundaries. Superintendent Curtis Finch stated they could not discuss the topic because it was on the meeting’s agenda. Then Carver quickly called for a vote to end the meeting, which prompted Fisher to make the salute.
The board members did not immediately react or acknowledge Fisher’s salute at the May 26 meeting.
This was not the first time Fisher has recently come under scrutiny. In October, she was slammed with a violation of Open Meeting Law by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, The Daily Independent reported.
Fisher could not be immediately reached for comment.
How the community is reacting to Fisher’s Nazi salute
The local chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, an organization focused on advocating against antisemitism and hate, denounced Fisher’s use of the salute.
“We unequivocally condemn this behavior that glorifies Nazis and Hitler. Regardless of intent, these actions instill fear in the community and are unbecoming of officials entrusted with educating children,” said Sarah Kader, the deputy regional director of ADL Desert, in a social media post.
The Arizona Education Association and the Deer Valley Education Association are calling for Fisher’s resignation.
“Kimberly Fisher should apologize to the DVUSD community and step down,” the state union group wrote on X.
The local teacher union wrote in a Facebook statement that they were “horrified and disgusted” to see Fisher’s actions.
“Any leader who uses a Nazi salute during a School Board meeting is unfit for public service. There is no justification for this behavior,” the union wrote.
Boardmember Stephanie Simacek, in a statement, said “this is what antisemitism looks like when people get comfortable” and called for an “immediate censure.”
“I am calling for accountability. And I am calling on every parent, educator, and elected official Republican or Democrat — to stand up and say clearly: THIS HAS NO PLACE HERE,” she wrote in the statement.
Simacek is also a house member in the Arizona State Legislature and is running for a state senate seat.
She wrote, “What happened in that room was not a joke.”
The school district “does not condone, support, or endorse gestures or language associated with hate, discrimination, intimidation, or violence in any form,” said Kayla Pologa, a spokesperson for Deer Valley, in a written statement.
“As an elected official, Mrs. Fisher speaks and acts independently,” Pologa wrote.
She said Fisher’s views don’t reflect nor should be attributed to other board members or members of the school district.
Who is Kimberly Fisher?
Fisher has been a Deer Valley School District parent for 24 years, according to her biography on the district’s website. She had two children graduate from the district and her third is being homeschooled in his final year, her biography states.
She had previously served on the board from 2015 to 2018.
In 2017, Fisher was the school board president and was criticized for a social media exchange with a teacher.
She was reelected in 2020. Fisher’s current term ends in 2028.
Former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, the Republican candidate for Congressional District 5, is facing new criticism following a recent report published by The Arizona Republic.
What we know:
The article cites unidentified sources who allege Lamb engaged in racist and homophobic text exchanges and sent inappropriate and threatening messages to women.
There are a few things working in Lamb’s favor, which are his name recognition combined with an endorsement from President Donald Trump.
Big picture view:
Analysts said it ultimately comes down to what voters decide at the ballot box.
“People have weathered worse,” Stan Barnes said.
Barnes is a political consultant and former Republican state senator. He points to other figures, like former President Bill Clinton and current President Trump, who both faced high-profile misconduct allegations.
“The American people said, all right, but we still want to vote for him, and Mark Lamb could be in the same situation,” Barnes said.
What they’re saying:
Lamb has largely kept quiet on the issue, a strategy Barnes said can work for candidates.
“He might decide, you know what? It’s salacious, it’s unprovable,” Barnes said. “A lot of people won’t believe it, people aren’t paying attention, and name ID and Trump endorsement’s going to carry me through.”
Inquiries were made to Lamb’s campaign. They responded with a statement, saying in part: “The Arizona Republic admitted that their article was based on a 10-year-old text from a person that couldn’t be located, or might not be a real person. Not exactly what one would call quality, independent journalism.”
However, the allegations could present challenges for his path to Congress.
The other side:
“The problem for Mr. Lamb and his candidacy is that his opponent will attempt to remind voters,” Barnes said.
Lamb’s Republican opponent, Daniel Keenan, spoke out against the former sheriff following the report.
“This story only adds to a pattern of disqualifying, disgraceful, and embarrassing behavior unbecoming of a congressman,” Keenan said in part.
Dig deeper:
Noble, a political data researcher, said the accusations could hurt Lamb with moderate voters.
“There’s really no strong candidates running in that primary because he’s cleared the field,” Mike Noble said. “It’s going to hurt him with women, it’s going to hurt him with independents, self-identified moderates, those that have a high school or less education.”
In a heavily Republican district, Noble said if the accusations gain traction, it could help the opposing party.
“It could potentially be fatal for him in the general election and actually give Democrats an opening in the general election, which normally they wouldn’t,” Noble said.
What’s next:
On the Democratic side, there are four people running in the primary for Congressional District 5. The primary election is scheduled for July 21.
The Source: This information was gathered from the article from The Arizona Republic, a political consultant and Lamb’s campaign.
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