Voters in congressional battleground discuss midterm vote
WITHOUT WORRY, Arizona – Elizabeth H. recently stopped in front of the post office in this small high desert community, not far from the intersection of Easy Street and Nonchalant Avenue.
She didn’t feel comfortable or relaxed.
“I think the climate imposed by the Trump administration is really sad and scary,” said Elizabeth, who asked to keep her last name to avoid being attacked for the views she has expressed.
“I don’t like how ICE is being used to intimidate citizens and even just brown people,” she continued. “And I don’t like that blue state governors are excluded but red state governors are welcome. I just don’t think he treats us like we’re all Americans.”
For his part, Anthony D. finds little to dislike about President Trump. He too asked not to use his last name, as did several other people who agreed to talk politics.
“Finally, we don’t have a… in power destroying our country and worrying about everyone in the world,” said Anthony, 66, a plumbing contractor and proud outspoken New Yorker. (Just like Trump, he pointed out.) “I mean, his tariffs are working. The negotiations are working. I just see a lot of positives coming out of this office.”
Despite this, there is something that bothers him: the way so many fellow citizens perceive the president and his America First agenda.
“Most people don’t like what he says, but look at what he does,” Anthony said as the late-morning crowd headed toward an upscale North Scottsdale mall. “You can hate the person, but don’t hate the message. He’s trying to do the right thing.”
Here in central Arizona, a prime battleground for the November midterm elections, there is very little agreement about Trump, his policies and his motivations.
Supporters see the president turning things around after four disastrous years of Joe Biden. Critics see him transforming the country into a place they barely recognize.
There is perplexity on both sides.
About what others believe. About how others can believe what they believe, see the things they see, and perceive Trump the same way they perceive him.
And while some are looking forward to the midterm elections as a way to bring the president together — “I don’t think they should just impeach, I think they should imprison,” Brent Bond, a 59-year-old Scottsdale artist, said of his hopes for a Democratic Congress — others fear the end of Trump’s nearly unfettered reign.
Or that nothing will change no matter what happens in the November election.
“The fact is, Trump is going to keep Trump until he’s done,” said Elizabeth H., who is semi-retired at 55 after a career in financial services. “My only relief is that he is a very old man and will not be here forever.”
Brent Bond would like to see Trump imprisoned, not just impeached.
(Mark Z. Barabak / Los Angeles Times)
Arizona’s 1st Congressional District stretches from northeast Phoenix to the mountainous heart of the Sonoran Desert. It encompasses the wealthy enclaves of Scottsdale and Paradise Valley and, where urban sprawl eventually gives way to cacti, palo verde and other plants, the Wild West-themed Carefree and Cave Creek.
It is the whitest, richest and best-educated of Arizona’s nine congressional districts, home to many upscale resorts, large medical campuses and a large population of retirees comfortably ensconced in one of the many gated communities.
Affordability, like the struggle to survive, is not a pressing issue here.
In 2020, Biden carried the district from 50% to 49%. Four years later, Trump defeated Kamala Harris 51% to 48%.
(The Down Ballot, which analyzes election data, ranked Arizona’s 1st District as the median of 435 congressional districts nationwide, meaning that in 2024, half were presidentially redder and the other half were bluer.)
For more than a decade, the area has been represented by Republican Dave Schweikert, a local political player since the 1990s.
He has had to fight hard for re-election in recent years as the district, like all of Arizona, has become more competitive. Rather than run again, Schweikert announced he would give up his seat to try for governor. The result is a free-for-all race and one of the relatively few house races launched anywhere in the country.
A number of candidates are in the running and the outcome will help determine whether Democrats, who need to flip three seats, take control of the House in November.
Despite these high stakes, the race doesn’t appear to have generated much voter interest, at least not yet. In dozens of interviews across the district, it was the implacable Trump who generated the most attention, admiration and exasperation.
Moe Modjeski, one of his supporters, admitted that the president “is not an altar boy.”
Even so, “I would prefer his policies to someone who could be nice and polite,” said the 69-year-old Scottsdale resident, a financial advisor who cited the soaring stock market as an example of Trump’s success. “I mean, gas is about half the price it was a year or two ago.”
But for Liz R., who has “never been one to fall on her head,” it certainly is. The 75-year-old cited “everything from tariffs to ICE to the destruction of the health care system to pollution control.”
“I lived in the ’60s and ’70s and I can’t remember a time when I was so afraid for the future of our country,” said Liz, a retired medical technologist.
She’ll vote for a Democrat in November — to put the brakes on Trump, not because the happy-go-lucky resident has great confidence in the party or its leadership.
“I wish the Democrats would get their act together and maybe we could have more of a centrist who can come together and not get hung up on some of these social issues,” she said. “There are a lot of economic issues, core issues, and I think that’s why the Republicans won. [in 2024]because of immigration and inflation problems.”
As a border state, Arizona has long been at the forefront of the political fight over immigration. It was here that lawmakers passed — and opponents spent years fighting — a law that effectively turned police into immigration agents, forcing them to demand papers from anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.
Thomas Campbell, along with Keegan and Guinness, blamed blue state politicians for any overreach by ICE agents.
(Mark Z. Barabak / Los Angeles Times)
Today, this aggressive approach has become national policy, which suits Thomas Campbell, a retired architect and staunch Trump supporter. He blamed any overreaching of the laws on blue state lawmakers.
“For some reason, the Democrats have decided they want to side with the criminals, so they’re not allowing their police departments to cooperate,” said Campbell, 72, who stopped outside Paradise Valley City Hall while running errands with his Irish setters, Guinness and Keegan. “If that weren’t the case, there would be no” controversy over ICE tactics.
Martha Cornelison agreed that the border with Mexico should be secure and serious violators should be deported.
But why, she wonders, do immigration officials round up honest taxpayers, parents of U.S.-born children and others who are in the straight and narrow?
“I think they’re going after the wrong people,” the 76-year-old Scottsdale retiree said, as a friend, Lily, nodded. The two men shared a bench in Scottsdale’s pueblo-inspired civic square, a nearby fountain bubbling in the 80-degree sun.
“I think we need to look at our county jails, our city jails,” said Cornelison, who made his living selling large appliances. “How many illegal immigrants are there in, say, Florence, which is our state prison? Send them back. Don’t go after Mr. Gonzalez who does my lawn. Empty our prisons.”
Back at the North Scottsdale Mall, Denise F. was walking Chase, her Shih Tzu, past a parking lot filled with Tesla, Mercedes and Cadillac SUVs.
The 73-year-old voted for Trump because she couldn’t stand Harris. But she is disgusted with the president.
“I don’t like the division in the country. I think Trump thinks he’s a king,” said Denise, a retired banker. “He’s going after Venezuela, Greenland and Iran,” she said, naming each country, “to see who he can engage in a possible war, which I don’t think the United States should do.” »
As Denise finished, Anthony D., her friend and neighbor, walked over and joined the conversation, offering his glowing take on the president. “Trump is a businessman and he runs the country like a business,” Anthony said, as Denise looked on impassively.
“How did I do it?” » he asked after saying his article.
“Great,” Denise replied pleasantly and the two left together, Chase between them.
