Why are Trump supporters spending big to elect Democrat Yassamin Ansari to Congress in a heavily Latino district?
That question changes the tenor – and perhaps the voters' attention and minds – in the primary contest between Ansari and Raquel Terán.
Both women tout progressive agendas that include support for abortion access and workers’ rights, and both have the background to prove it. Their styles, approach to governing and how they got here, though, couldn’t be more stark.
The 32-year-old Ansari is the daughter of Iranian immigrants. She won a Phoenix City Council seat three years ago and quickly catapulted into the role of vice mayor, with the smooth talk that often comes from Ivy league training.
The 47-year-old Terán grew up in the border city of Douglas and came out of the grassroots fight against Arizona’s repressive anti-immigrant laws of the mid-2000’s and has stuck to that kind of activism ever since. She’s a former state legislator and one-time Arizona Democratic Party chair.
Given their similar platforms, how are voters in Congressional District 3 to decide who fills the vacancy of Ruben Gallego?
Follow the money and the motive behind it, said Terán, who rallied supporters for a press conference on Wednesday to decry a whopping $1.36 million in last-minute spending to boost Ansari.
Indeed, the political action committee doing the spending is Protect Progress, a pro-crypto PAC bankrolled in part by those who also back Donald Trump.
It’s a “blatant attempt by MAGA extremists to........