Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Sen. Mark Kelly campaign for Harris-Walz in Maryvale
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, one of the largest individual donors to Arizona campaigns, teamed up with Sen. Mark Kelly on Saturday to support Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz at a Democratic phone banking event in Maryvale.
"Arizona made the difference in 2020. It's razor thin in 2024," Pritzker told a crowd of about 100 people in a small campaign field office. "Everything we care about ... is under siege by a racist, misogynist, homophobic, xenophobic — I've got a few others words — former president of the United States and his MAGA extremists, including Kari Lake. And we cannot let them win in 2024."
Pritzker, a billionaire connected to the Hyatt fortune, is listed as the third-largest donor on the state's campaign finance site, having contributed $850,000 to the Think Big America-AZ PAC. The PAC then donated $512,000 to Arizona for Abortion Access, the coalition behind Proposition 139, which seeks to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution.
Some of his donations have also gone to Arizona List, which supports women candidates, and Save Our Schools, a public school advocacy organization. Pritzker's cousin, John A. Pritzker, has also contributed $500,000 to PAC for America's Future in Arizona, which funds Democratic candidates.
Harris and Walz want to "make sure that you not only have a right to an abortion, but protection for contraception and IVF," he said.
Pritzker touted Harris' notion of an "opportunity economy," saying success shouldn't just happen for "hedge fund tycoons." While it's true he's a billionaire, he continued, "I tried to raise taxes on myself and all the wealthy people" to help "working families."
"I believe that collectively we can win this election," he said. But the close margin with Trump is "why all of us have to get out and vote."
"This ain't rocket science. If it was, I could help," Kelly, a former space shuttle commander, told the crowd. "This is about one thing. Which side, which team, which campaign, works harder than the other one?"
Both Kelly, D-Ariz, and Pritzker were on Harris' shortlist for vice president before she picked Walz.
Democrats work to increase voter turnout
Pritzker's prediction that Harris and Walz would win Arizona this November was met with cheers from the crowd at the field office near 52nd Avenue and Thomas Road. However, with a recent poll indicating that Donald Trump may be widening his lead in the state, Democrats still face significant work ahead.
A poll by USA Today and Suffolk University showed Trump leading with 48% compared to Harris' 42%, with a margin of error of 4.4%. Fewer than half of Latino voters in the poll expressed support for Harris, while 35% backed Trump.
About half of the attendees at the event came to see Kelly and other officials, including his wife, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was wounded in a 2011 mass shooting, New Mexico Congresswoman Teresa Fernandez, and Yassamin Ansari, the Democratic nominee for Arizona's 3rd Congressional District. A few dozen others were party volunteers who had planned a door-knocking event but opted for a phone campaign due to record heat. The goal was to boost Latino support for Harris and Walz.
Paty Bishop, a 55-year-old Phoenix resident and Army veteran, was among the phone volunteers and said she was voting for the first time this year.
"I have to support women," she said. "We already know what Donald Trump has to offer. I don't like what he's saying."
Immigration a top concern
The event took place a day after Harris toured the southern border in Douglas, where she pledged to continue President Joe Biden's relatively new policy preventing asylum seekers who enter the country illegally from staying in the United States. Harris aims to strengthen voter confidence in her ability to address border issues, following record numbers of migrants entering the country since 2021 under the Biden administration.
Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent in Pritzker's home state of Illinois to cover the costs of tens of thousands of new arrivals, including thousands who were bused to the state as part of a program initiated by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
While Pritzker told The Arizona Republic he doesn't believe the migrants should have had to stay in Texas, the busing program was "inhumane," sending people to Chicago "in the middle of winter wearing sandals and T-shirts."
Harris did a "pretty good job" negotiating with Central and South American countries to slow migration, although "we still had a whole bunch of people coming to the border," he said.
Both he and Kelly criticized Trump for deliberately sabotaging a border bill in Congress for political gain. Kelly added that Trump would be far worse for Latinos.
"I would hope if you're a Latino voter that you would see Donald Trump wants to deport your family members, your friends and neighbors because of the color of their skin and where their ancestry is," Kelly said. "And Kamala Harris cares about people."
One attendee who came to see Kelly, 39-year-old Natividad Chavez from Phoenix, expressed concern that Trump "doesn't want too many immigrants here."
Chavez believes Harris will take the opposite route, allowing undocumented immigrants to work or perhaps even granting them amnesty, she said.
After the speakers finished, several pro-Palestinian supporters unfurled banners and began shouting, causing security personnel to escort them out roughly.