No Excuses: Why I'm voting For Deedra in the Arizona Senate Primary

MINOR DISCLAIMER:
I'm a volunteer for this campaign and for Progressive Democrats of America, who gave her an endorsement in May.

At first, I wanted to be like Krysten Sinema.  I admired her polish and the many degrees that she’d amassed at our mutual alma mater(during her fifth or sixth degree, we took a class together and I used to joke that that was a distinction I shared with half the state, but it was a little point of pride.
I was thrilled when she was elected, but it wasn’t long after that, that the excuses began. It wouldn’t be long, I told myself, before she could feel secure in her role and step forward in the way a “Prada Socialist” should. It didn’t happen, but I thought “This is Arizona…what can I expect?”

I changed my mind with a combination of Sinema’s co-sponsorship of a bill to reduce rights under the ADA(a move she later took back, but that I, as a disabled voter and activist, couldn’t forgive) and Deedra’s lively, people-focused social-media #CampaignChronicles, in which she focuses on both the weird and wonderful things she hears on the campaign trail. The contrast is unmistakable.

I am all about Democratic unity in the face of the threat from the Right, but an engaged electorate during the primary season ensures a wider range of debate and helps make the winner, whoever she is, stronger and more effective.  Also, as recent events in Queens and elsewhere have shown, upsets can happen, and I want to be part of the tide that helps turn Arizona in a more constructive direction.