Political advocacy group Arizona Ready held a virtual “house party” to introduce the group to the community and gain insight into other organizations in the Phoenix area with the same agenda.
Arizona Ready is an organization dedicated to mobilizing voters “to defeat Trump’s toxic agenda,” according to their website. The virtual mixer allowed the group and its attendees to speak on ways to create outreach and provide support for the upcoming 2020 presidential election.
About 31 people attended the event, and several people from the audience spoke about the current political climate in Arizona.
“There’s already a ton of organizing power and people who are working hard to change the tides here in Arizona. Our goal is to partner with those groups, and people and to be any help that we can be,” said Harry Williams, a field organizer with Arizona Ready.
Williams spoke about Arizona Ready’s goal before the COVID-19 pandemic, which was to provide office spaces for progressive groups and people to utilize the space and congregate together.
Now they hope to provide those spaces virtually.
“We are here to help build the infrastructure needed to combat Trump’s agenda and those across Arizona who are pushing it,” he said.
“Defeat Donald Trump’s agenda” was a repeated phrase in the meeting and was the main topic of discussion for the virtual house party.
Arizona Ready asked participants to share which organizations they are passionate about and currently working with, and to suggest best practices to collaborate with these organizations.
Bhavana Bellamkonda, an Arizona State University student who attended the event, shared her thoughts about creating more outreach for younger voters.
“One thing that is really important, especially for these Bernie supporters that are disappointed, is to make them feel like they’re being heard,” Bellamkonda said. “When we go into the conversation with the idea of just saying ‘vote blue no matter who,’ it makes a lot of people feel uncomfortable and it feels like we are not even giving them a chance.”
She also spoke about the importance of student organizations like March for Our Lives and AZ Youth Climate Coalition, who are working on outreach at school campuses.
David Lindskoog, another attendee who spoke during the party, said that Arizona should focus on redirecting its political views.
“It’s not so much that we are going to fix every single thing in this election, we may fix 10%, but if we turn the ship and don’t hit the mountain, that’s 100% success in one regard,” Lindskoog said.
Regional Organizing Director Kelsey Rogers said the group will host phone banks for Earth Day and the anniversary of SB1070. Rogers asked attendees to sign up to volunteer their time in contacting community members to speak about these issues.
“These are just the start of what we’re doing to start reaching out to people; we’re in a new digital age and we’re being innovative,” she said.
Arizona Ready also called on attendees to host their own events to open up the lines of communication between the community and those members who are part of progressive groups in Arizona.
“We are very quick to fall into a tribalistic era, where we start seeing the other in each other and not the ally. At the end of the day I think we are all allies in this,” Rogers said.
Contact the reporter at pmachad2@asu.edu
