Arizona List, along with Mayor Kate Gallego and Mayor of Flagstaff Coral Evans, hosted a rally at the Luna Culture Lab Sunday to support the potential future Mayor of Tucson, Regina Romero.
Arizona List is an organization that works to train and elect Democratic, pro-choice women’s to political office at all levels of state and local elections.
According to Arizona List’s press release, the rally is for people to “understand how Arizona is moving towards a new future with progressive women at the helm.”
Gallego, according to Political Director of Arizona List Catherine Nichols, is one of the main reasons the organization wanted the rally to be in downtown Phoenix.
“Mayor Gallego is the mayor of one of the largest cities in America. She is one of the youngest, one of the only female mayors of a downtown city,” Nichols said. “And we feel that the fact that downtown Tucson is going to be working collaboratively with downtown Phoenix to have it here.”
The Luna Culture Lab is a multipurpose facility and is currently hosting Chingona Soles, an art show that brought over 50 artists together. Local artists were given a black stiletto and redesigned the shoe for the show.
“We thought it was the perfect backdrop for today’s event,” Tania Torres, president and CEO of Torres Multicultural Communications and Luna Culture Lab, said. “We are gathering such powerful women throughout the state such as Mayor Gallego and all of the different mayors and vice-mayors to support hopefully our next mayor in Tucson.”
Romero said at the rally that she “became the first Latina Councilmember for the city of Tucson,” and if she becomes mayor of Tucson she will make history.
“Right now, among the fifty largest cities in the United States there are no Latina mayors and she is going to change that,” Gallego said.
Evans, who was the first woman of color to be elected for mayor in Arizona, said making history in Tucson is just the start of the 2020 campaign and the presidential election next November.
“We are going to sign up and we are going to make sure that we sign up to help. We are going to know on doors, we are going to donate – again – because again elections take money. We are going to call people over the phone, we are going to talk to our neighbors, we are going to go and make sure we are going to knock on those doors,” Evans said. “We have 373 days and we do not have a moment to lose. It is time for us to stand up and say that women are electable here in the state of Arizona.”
Yet at the state level, Romero said she was the most prepared and qualified candidate to continue to progress Tucson in a better age and work with the other cities of Arizona.
“The work that we have done together and that we will do together is unavailable because we are taking Arizona one city and town at a time,” Romero said. “That’s what these mayors represent and so I am looking forward to continuing to work.”
In even simpler terms, Gallego introduced Democratic Leader of the Arizona House of Representatives Charlene Fernandez, Congressman Ruben Gallego, five other women mayors and vice mayors to acknowledge how Arizona is representing its communities.
“If you look around this room you know why the eyes of our nation are watching us. We are electing people who look like the community, who represent the community, and are getting things done,” Gallego said.
Contact the reporter at ldiethel@asu.edu
Lisa Diethelm is the Politics editor for the Downtown Devil while she studies at The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in downtown Phoenix. She grew up in California and started her journalism career in high school.
