Taking the Countryside – David Stringer, Publisher

Without a doubt, the August 2^nd   Arizona Republican  primary was a sweep for Trump-endorsed candidates at every level of government. Despite the high priced consultants and massive over-spending by the Republican Establishment to push their candidates over the top, all Trump’s candidates  won their races by solid  margins. A populist, nationalist,  America First message has  become the political faith of the Republican rank and file.

Grassroots Republicans have broken free of their deep pocketed Establishment keepers. We  are simply not giving up on the first President in our lifetime to stand up for the working  people of America and say out loud what has been obvious for a long time— conservative Republicans have been played by elitists and globalists in our own ranks. Donald Trump is our champion and we’re not giving him up.

Of course the Establishment never gives up either. They can’t. Their sense of privilege and entitlement demands that they subvert the interests of the Republican base—the hoi polloi of white working people and middle class voters who they regard with contempt. They see no irony in the fact that we are the bedrock on which the Republican party depends for survival. The working people of this country protect the wealth and privilege of the Establishment. We stop the socialist left from taking everything they have. Our thanks in return are condescension and betrayal.

Powerful forces in the Republican Establishment  are now creating a narrative for defeat in  November. They are  calling Trumpers “extremists”

and “racists” and claiming they are  “out of touch” with Arizona voters.  They are urging conservative candidates to water down their message and  “pivot” to the political center in hopes of winning the  independents and “minorities” they claim are needed to win in November.

They couldn’t be more wrong. Watering down the message—dropping the focus on immigration and demographic change, state sovereignty, critical race theory in our schools, crime and social  decay–will only discourage the Republican base.

Establishment Republicans have been chasing the “holy grail” of  independents and minority voters in election after election.  It’s an unnecessary distraction. In Arizona, independents are second only to Republicans in voter registration—1,434,838, or 34.52%, to  1,401,450, or 33.72%, with Democrats at 1,287,179, or 30.97%,  according to the most recent report from the Secretary of State. But as a group, independents undervote.  Without a party affiliation, they tend to be less informed, less engaged and less motivated to vote.

Pundits like to say that in a close race, the independent vote is decisive. But that’s a highly questionable speculation. Independents, by definition, are  not a coherent voting block.  They do not share a consistent ideology or set of political values. Further, by history, independent voters lean Republican. In the  August  2^nd primary, 13% of  Republican votes came from  independents vs 10% for Democrats. Worrying about the independent  vote is a distraction.  And we end up getting our share of the independent vote anyway. Victory in November means keeping our focus on this key political  truth:  Republicans win  when the base turns out.

As I discussed in an  earlier column, “Denial and the 2020 Election“,  Trump’s efforts in 2020 to woo black voters with explicit appeals to their self interest likely drove down the white working class vote in key battleground states that had given him victory in 2016. The  uptick in black voters was more than offset by the decline in white voters.

In politics, ideas matter. Recent elections suggest the Republican party has a growing appeal to at least some non-white voters. Patriotism cuts across all racial groups. Our populist, nationalist,  America  First  message appeals to all who value personal freedom  and the traditional civic culture of  America.

Republican candidates don’t need to patronize or pander to minorities to win their votes.  A conservative, America First message will resonate with all who are open to it. And we welcome their votes and participation in the political life  of our country.

To win Arizona this November, statewide candidates must go where the votes are. For  Republicans, that means rural, white Arizona. We are the heart and soul of the Arizona Republican party. Without us, there is no Republican party.

To paraphrase Mao, who knew a thing or two about  cultural revolutions—take the countryside and the Capitol will fall. For statewide candidates that means running the table in rural, white Arizona where turnout is high and reliably Republican.  In the 2020 general election, voter turnout in Yavapai county reached 87%—the highest of any county in the state. There are few Republican votes on the Indian reservations, or in south Phoenix or  Maryville, or in university towns like Tempe, Flagstaff  and Tucson. So why water down the message to appeal to  them?

Conservatives, Constitutionalists, and those who stand with the Historic American Nation and the people who founded it, will not  win by pretending to believe in something else.  On August 2^nd,  the  Republican grassroots put Trump endorsed, America First candidates over the top. Let’s  make sure they keep the faith and stay on message for November.