Preamble:
The Pima County Democratic Platform is articulated in several subsections, each building on the section prior, beginning with an overarching framework followed by a summary of key elements, then an series of action framings and concluding with a more nuanced detail of elements and commitments that correlate to current events and priorities. This is intended to make future revisions more accessible, to provide different audiences with ways to engage and relate to the Platform that best resonates with them, and to serve as a framing resource for messaging and positions as represented by PCDP within the community at large. Future iterations can hopefully build upon this and continue its evolution as a “living document,” designed to help Democrats understand the priorities expressed by our peers and to the community as a whole more ably express what it means to be a Democrat, active and in service in Pima County.
Pima County Democrats support candidates and initiatives that strive for the following: EQUITY: Removing Systemic Barriers and Ensuring Fair Treatment for All
JUSTICE: Ending Mass Incarceration through Restorative Justice and Police Reform
SHARED PROSPERITY: Advancing a Fair and Strong Economy
HEALTH: Investing in Affordable Healthcare and the Health of Our Communities CLIMATE: Fulfilling Our Commitment to the Planet and Environmental Justice DEMOCRACY: Protecting Voter Rights and Restoring Our Democracy
Equity: Removing Systemic Barriers and Ensuring Fair Treatment for All
REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM & WOMEN’S RIGHTS: The reversal of hard-fought women’s rights is unacceptable, as are the persistent inequities women face. These issues are exacerbated and often worse for women-of-color, queer and trans women, and women with a disability. Democrats are committed to the restoration and establishment of full and equal rights for all Women. This must include ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and restoration of abortion healthcare and reproductive freedom.
To live with a DISABILITY is to constantly negotiate for self-determination and respect for one’s autonomy while needing and advocating for support. We commit to dismantling these barriers and supporting disabled people’s expectation of equity and self-determination, starting with PCDP’s own spaces, both brick-and-mortar and virtual.
INDIGENOUS SOVEREIGNTY is critical for Native communities who pre-date Europeans in Southern Arizona by thousands of years. Democrats believe we must respect, honor, consult and collaborate with these sovereign nations and defer to their governments on their own lands.
Safe, affordable HOUSING for all members of our community is essential to the dignity of individuals, the support of children and families, and the relief to the community at large. We support expansion of affordable housing, housing-first policies, and other creative solutions to end the housing crisis.
LGBTQIA+: All persons have a right to live their lives honestly, openly, and authentically. We support and advocate for LGBTQIA+ communities, their members and allies.
Justice: Ending Mass Incarceration through Restorative Justice and Police Reform
JUSTICE IN POLICING: Our systems of law enforcement over-police communities of color and subject their residents to disproportionate arrest, prosecution and imprisonment. Officer-involved shootings and uses of force disproportionately injure and kill members of these communities, while prosecutors rarely criminally charge officers. Pima Democrats support increased funding for comprehensive police reform, community-based response, and improved training and accountability.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM: Mass incarceration is inefficient, harms society, and discriminates against people of color. We support reforms to our justice system that emphasize rehabilitation over punishment and reduce inequities in applications of justice.
Democrats support meaningful GUN REFORM to keep guns out of the hands of children, the impaired, and those with histories of violence and support the overall reduction of the prevalence of firearms in our communities. We urgently need comprehensive, new regulations and their vigorous enforcement.
IMMIGRATION AND THE BORDERLANDS: We stand up for Pima County as a borderland –– a vibrant, multiracial, multilingual, multicultural community that shares a border with Mexico, the Tohono O’Odham Nation, and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. Democrats bolster and celebrate those defining characteristics and must create a humane and efficient set of policies that welcome and protect refugees and immigrants.
Shared Prosperity: Advancing a Fair and Strong Economy
Achieving ECONOMIC JUSTICE means closing the wealth gap and reducing economic inequities. We support policies to tax progressively and proactively address inequities in our financial systems.
PUBLIC EDUCATION advances a strong democracy and our collective prosperity. Democrats support robustly funding public education, equitably available from the youngest child to any adult.
The LABOR movement brings worker equity, safety, family-life balance, national economic prosperity and the distribution of wealth to the middle-class. Democrats stand proudly with organized Labor and support the rights of all workers to unionize.
TECHNOLOGY increasingly impacts every aspect of our lives. While bringing many advantages, these advances drive new forms of discrimination, exacerbate inequities, and accelerate negative impacts on our climate. Democrats believe these disparities must be considered in the light of all potential impacts and that technology itself be put in service to help mitigate and prevent harm.
Health: Investing in Affordable Healthcare and the Health of Our Communities
Universal basic HEALTHCARE should be extended to all, including all forms of women’s reproductive care and choice, including abortion.
PUBLIC HEALTH requires increased investment in initiatives that support health professionals, including disease prevention researchers, and that respect and defend scientific advancement against disinformation. We enthusiastically promote interventions and programs that demonstrably save lives and protect the health of all individuals and communities.
Climate: Fulfilling Our Commitment to the Planet and Environmental Justice
CLIMATE CHANGE is an urgent, existential threat to our communities and our ecosystems. We must fulfill our commitments to curb rising temperatures, reduce the use of natural resources, and conserve water now and for future generations. The climate crisis disproportionately impacts low-income communities and communities of color. We are committed to policies that deliver climate justice and the health of our planet and all who live on it.
Democracy: Protecting Voter Rights and Restoring Our Democracy
We must increase strong VOTER PROTECTIONS to ensure that voting is easy to exercise, to restore voting access, and to protect election workers and the civic process from intimidation and threats.
A well-funded GOVERNMENT is essential to a safe, functional, prosperous, and fair nation. We expect our governments to raise revenues through progressive taxation, to enable agencies, and to use funds efficiently.
We believe the United States must always work for PEACE, SECURITY, AND HUMAN RIGHTS primarily through diplomatic efforts and international collaboration. U.S. military support must be a last resort, when pursuing peaceful diplomatic solutions are no longer possible and when it is absolutely necessary for securing just peace.
In short:
REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM & WOMEN’S RIGHTS: “We will not go back.” PCDP stands with women.
DISABILITY: Accessibility now. [Or] Striving for accessible spaces.
INDIGENOUS SOVEREIGNTY: We stand with our Tribal neighbors. Their homeland, their sovereignty.
HOUSING: Housing first, housing now!
LGBTQIA+: LGBTQIA+ Pride for Pima County
CRIMINAL JUSTICE: End mass incarceration and inequities in our justice system. GUN REFORM: Zero gun deaths!
BORDERLANDS: Humane borders now!
ECONOMIC JUSTICE: Close the wealth gap.
PUBLIC EDUCATION: Invest in our children!
LABOR: Stand with Labor and all workers.
TECHNOLOGY: Make technology work for everybody.
HEALTHCARE: Universal healthcare for all.
PUBLIC HEALTH: We’re ready! Invest in public health.
CLIMATE CRISIS: No time to waste!
DISMANTLING RACISM, BIGOTRY, and DISCRIMINATION: Dismantle and eliminate racism, bigotry, and discrimination.
VOTER PROTECTIONS: Voter access for all. Our vote, our voice.
***
FULL PLATFORM - LONG VERSION
Pima County Democratic Party
Drafted by PCDP County Committee
Contents
PREAMBLE ................................................................................................................................................... 1 1. CLIMATE CRISIS ........................................................................................................................................ 8
2. CRIMINAL JUSTICE ................................................................................................................................... 9
3. DEMOCRACY: OUR RIGHT TO VOTE ....................................................................................................... 10 4. DISABILITY ..............................................................................................................................................11 5. DISMANTLING RACISM, BIGOTRY, and DISCRIMINATION .......................................................................12 6. ECONOMIC JUSTICE ............................................................................................................................... 13 7. EDUCATION ........................................................................................................................................... 14 8. GOVERNMENT ....................................................................................................................................... 15 9. GUN REFORM ........................................................................................................................................ 16
10. HEALTHCARE ....................................................................................................................................... 17 11. HOUSING ............................................................................................................................................. 18 12. IMMIGRATION AND THE BORDERLANDS .............................................................................................19 13. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS AND TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY ............................................................... 20 14. JUSTICE IN POLICING ........................................................................................................................... 21 15. LABOR .................................................................................................................................................. 22 16. LGBTQIA+ RIGHTS ................................................................................................................................ 22 17. PEACE, SECURITY, AND HUMAN RIGHTS ............................................................................................. 23 18. PUBLIC HEALTH .................................................................................................................................... 24 19. TECHNOLOGY ......................................................................................................................................25 20. WOMEN’S RIGHTS ............................................................................................................................... 25
1. CLIMATE CRISIS
Climate change is an urgent, existential threat to our communities and our ecosystems. We must adhere to and increase our commitments to curb rising temperatures, reduce the use of natural resources, and conserve water now and for future generations.
The climate crisis disproportionately impacts low-income communities and communities of color. As Democrats, we are committed to policies that strive for climate justice and a renewed and lasting commitment to our planet.
Therefore, we work to:
A. Adopt programs that address the climate crisis and economic inequality by cutting CO2 emissions, ending all reliance on fossil fuels, and expanding renewable energy. B. Build a clean-energy economy by disinvesting in fossil fuels and investing in clean technologies, industries, and approaches, especially Arizona solar and wind. C. Require all publicly-funded building projects to use solar and alternative energy and invest in green space for natural carbon capture, and incentivize private developers to do the same. Restrict large-scale development in the absence of sufficient groundwater. D. Increase vehicle fuel efficiency and the number of electric vehicle fueling stations. E. Implement Tucson’s 2030 District plan to reduce greenhouse gasses, conserve water and address climate-change impacts; encourage similar programs countywide. F. Stop deforestation and reduce global warming through extensive reforestation. Focus tree planting projects in low-income areas of the city that tend to be “heat islands.” G. Limit the amount of carbon that polluters may emit.
H. Expand the renewable portfolio standards for utilities. Require any renewed contracts with private energy providers to include a 10-year plan to become fossil-fuel free. Support fair rates for solar producers.
I. Support the Arizona Corporation Commission to reduce and control utility rates, while giving preference to renewables over fossil fuels. Prohibit any entity that it regulates from making political campaign contributions, and prohibit ACC campaign donors from intervening at the ACC.
J. Implement policies to restrict commercial and household water usage. Appropriately fund the Arizona Department of Water Resources and institute sustainable water policies statewide, not just in Active Management Areas.
K. Prohibit the unregulated use of water when leasing state lands (theSaudi company story). L. Increase the use of public transit through increased lines and availability, improved cyclist safety, and construction of shade and solar over bus stops.
M. Support the RTA fund projects other than automobiles, such as bike lanes and continued free fares for public bus riders.
N. Ensure tribal nations’ access to an equitable portion of Colorado River water as a priority over other water use.
O. End continued investment in additional interstate highways and reallocate funds to support railways for industry and commuter use.
P. Protect migration patterns through Arizona by eliminating border barricades and investing in additional nature corridors.
Q. Allocate funds to protect and restore riparian areas as natural carbon capture and reduce impermeable cover.
R. Ensure proper Environmental Impact Statements for new and extended contracts for natural resource extraction, including those supported by the Inflation Reduction Act. S. Recognize the Rights of Nature by establishing personhood for ecosystems.
2. CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Our criminal justice system stresses punishment over rehabilitation. It is inefficient, harms society, and discriminates against people of color. According to the World Population Review, the U.S. has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. Mass incarceration is costly, immoral, and discriminatory. Sentencing reform and judicial discretion can reduce the number of imprisoned offenders, saving lives, families, and billions of taxpayer dollars.
Therefore, we work to:
A. Implement restorative justice and end mass incarceration.
B. Eliminate private prisons.
C. Restore judicial discretion in sentencing; eliminate mandatory sentencing laws. D. End the cash bail system.
E. End solitary confinement.
F. End exploitation of prisoners and support at least a minimum living wage for inmates who work.
G. Automatically restore convicted felons’ civil rights after they complete their sentences, including voting rights.
H. Automatically expunge marijuana-possession charges and convictions and fund efforts to do so.
I. Eliminate the death penalty.
J. Eliminate the use of fines and fees to fund Local governments, and end probation revocation for unpaid fines and fees.
K. Guarantee immediate independent and transparent investigations of deaths occuring in private and public jails and prisons.
L. Guarantee oversight and accountability for independent contractors working in jails and prisons.
M. Guarantee full audit of independent contractors, employees working in jails, as well as policies and practices, before considering expanding existing or building new facilities. N. Seek community input in the construction and expansion of jail and prison facilities. O. Invest in research and funding for diversion programs as an alternative to prison, especially for first-time offenders.
P. Base any expansion of the penal code on empirical evidence for what enhances public safety.
3. DEMOCRACY: OUR RIGHT TO VOTE
Democracies succeed when their citizens understand, accept, and act in accord with their civic responsibilities. We strongly encourage all citizens to engage in the democratic process. We must defeat attempts to suppress voting and to overturn voter-approved initiatives. And we must guarantee fair, transparent, and credible electoral processes. Voting is a right that should be easy to exercise.
Therefore, we work to:
A. Implement universal, automatic same-day voter registration for all citizens, including those who are incarcerated.
B. Mail a ballot to every registered voter.
C. Abolish all forms of voter suppression and prevent future suppression. D. Provide bilingual (English/Spanish and/or other regionally applicable languages) voter outreach information, materials, and ballots.
E. Secure indigenous peoples’ voting rights by providing reservation-based registration and early-voting locations.
F. Recognize tribal villages and districts for voter registration, ballot initiatives and nominating petitions.
G. Improve rural voters’ voting access.
H. Strengthen Arizona’s Clean Elections system, outlaw anonymous campaign contributions, reverse the Citizens United decision, and expand and support the My Voice Voucher Pilot Program to test public financing of Congressional campaigns.
I. Protect and strengthen Arizona’s non-partisan Independent Redistricting Commission and end partisan gerrymandering by supporting independent redistricting commissions nationwide. J. Guarantee verified paper ballots for every election while ensuring that every voter has a ballot-marking device.
K. Offer universal early voting; allow multiple in-person voting days; fully fund an adequate number of conveniently located polling locations; and declare Election Day a work holiday. L. Restore the Help America Vote Act, which provides funding to states for voter guidance. M. Restore the Federal Elections Commission to full function.
N. Promote equal representation by ratifying the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, effectively eliminating the Electoral College.
O. End the filibuster in the U.S. Senate.
P. Offer statehood to Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories.
4. DISABILITY
Our society generally regards disability as an individual defect to be fixed or cured, whether that disability is sensory, intellectual, mental health/psychiatric, neurodiverse, physical/mobility, or learning. Therefore, to be disabled is to constantly negotiate for self-determination and respect for one’s autonomy while needing and advocating for support.
Democrats recognize and acknowledge that this paradigm obscures the systemic, economic, physical, and attitudinal barriers that people with disabilities experience. We commit to dismantling these barriers and support disabled people’s expectation of equity and self-determination, starting with PCDP’s own spaces, both brick-and-mortar and virtual.
Therefore, we work to:
A. Ensure access to, and fully fund, home and community-based long-term care services. B. Reform Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance to end asset limits, increase benefit limits to at least the federal poverty level, and make it easier for disabled recipients to work without losing benefits.
C. Eliminate the legal exceptions that allow employers to pay some disabled workers less than minimum wage.
D. Reverse the requirement that private entities be given notice and the opportunity to cure access violations under the Arizonans with Disabilities Act before a person can sue. E. Consider alternatives to guardianship, such as supported decision making, which safeguard disabled people’s fundamental rights while allowing them assistance from trusted others when making important decisions.
F. Provide social-service support rather than relying on an armed police response to individuals experiencing a mental health crisis (see issue 14).
G. Ensure that governments have the resources to plan for disabled people’s needs in public health and safety emergencies.
H. Fund special education so that students with disabilities are able to learn in the most inclusive environment possible, with access to appropriate adaptive technology. I. Expand access to vocational rehabilitation programs.
J. Offer employers financial incentives, such as tax breaks, to hire disabled people. *** K. Improve and expand affordable public transportation so that people with disabilities can use it safely and conveniently.
L. Secure disabled people's reproductive and child-rearing rights and choices. M. Raise Social Security benefits for caregivers, people whose work is to care for a family member such as a child, a dependent with a disability, or an elderly relative; improve Social Security benefits for all widowers and widowers with a disability.
5. DISMANTLING RACISM, BIGOTRY, and DISCRIMINATION
We abhor structural and individual discrimination based on race, ethnicity, age, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability. Discrimination weakens our nation’s ability to function and generates violence that kills individuals, destroys families, and ruins communities.
Racism, bigotry, and discrimination have always played a major role in our history. They are prominent in American culture today.
• The first Europeans in the Americas in 1493 established their settlement on an island they called “Hispaniola,” which the inhabitants called Ay-ti, meaning “Land of the Mountains.” Still, these and successive Europeans believed they had a God-given right to claim and rename indigenous lands, impose Christianity, perpetrate ethnic/cultural cleansing, and kill noncompliant indigenous people. • Oppression of African Americans is unique in its scale and barbarity. Two-and-a-half centuries of slavery followed by a century of Jim Crow segregation created profound and lasting inequities in income, wealth, education, employment, housing, health, and environmental quality for African Americans.
• Significant racism against American citizens of Mexican and Latin American descent began when the United States violently annexed Mexico’s northern provinces of Arizona, California, and New Mexico, and devalued the status of Mexican families who had long inhabited these regions.
• The United States codified anti-Asian sentiment in the 1920s with the Chinese Exclusion Act, which explicitly preventedimmigration from Asian countries. The forced displacement of Asian Americans during the Japanese internment program in the 1940s reinforced it.
• White-supremacist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Muslim narratives continue to increase xenophobic animosity and incite violence against non-whites and non-Christians.
But racism, bigotry, and discrimination do not represent America’s ideal. From abolitionists to suffragists to civil-rights activists, many have fought to fulfill America's founding promise for all people. We must dismantle bigotry, racism, and discrimination in every element of our governing agenda.
Therefore, we work to:
A. Promote educational practices that eliminate the significant disparity in academic outcomes between white and non-white students.
B. Expand and encourage multilingual education and culturally responsive and relevant education.
C. Promote K-12 curricula that include historical experiences and contributions of indigenous people, Mexican/Hispanic Americans, African Americans and Asian Americans. D. Teach and celebrate significant landmark events in our national history that advanced human rights and racial justice, such as Juneteenth (June 19th), women’s suffrage, and the 1965-1970 Delano grape strike.
E. Remove from public properties symbols and images that celebrate the Confederacy, colonialism, and religious imposition.
F. Enforce the separation of church and state to ensure that religious symbols and ceremonies are prohibited on government properties and/or during government-sponsored activities. G. Institute financial reparations that counter discrimination’s lasting economic effects. H. Implement housing policies that end discrimination and unfair practices in the housing market.
I. Create innovative policies to close racial wealth gaps and end intergenerational poverty, such as seed-capital grants that enable economic security through asset ownership, and a publicly-funded childhood trust account for every child at birth.
J. Invest in communities of color, low-income rural and urban communities by strengthening the Community Reinvestment Act. Improve federal support for women-and-minority-owned small businesses, and ensure their equal access to credit.
K. End the public health crisis that racism creates, through anti-racist policies including universal health coverage (See Healthcare Section Plank A). Expand funding for community health centers, rural health centers and mobile health clinics. Remedy environmental racism that disproportionally subjects communities of color to air pollution, unsafe water and toxic chemicals.
K. Support government legal action targeting groups that organize around Euro-white supremacy, and back policies that pursue truth and promote racial/ethnic healing. M. Proactively include and promote the participation of those who are
underrepresented in our party infrastructure, and in all levels of government.
6. ECONOMIC JUSTICE
It is economically unjust to allow the already rich to keep getting richer, while the rest of us are left behind. The unconscionable wealth gap in America produces myriad additional inequities, undermines our democracy, and threatens to make our planet uninhabitable. We cannot solve this problem overnight, but we can and must make a start.
Therefore, we work to:
A. Retrain fossil-fuel industry workers to help grow our clean energy industry. B. Eliminate child poverty.
C. Eliminate student loan repayment debt and prohibit interest on any future student loans. D. Prevent discrimination in pay and work conditions based on race, ethnicity, age, gender identity and sexual orientation.
E. Provide universal child care.
F. End privatization of government services.
G. Regulate banking and lending to assure equity and access for all. Adopt a state policy to prohibit redlining and racism in real estate covenants.
H. Strengthen consumer finance protections.
I. End predatory short-term lending.
J. Reform arbitration laws and eliminate mandatory arbitration in consumer and employment matters.
K. Tax progressively, based on ability to pay. Close loopholes. Impose a wealth tax. L. End corporate tax giveaways showing no tangible or documented financial return on the public’s investment. Ensure corporate accountability to the public.
M. Protect and strengthen Social Security benefits. End asset limits, increase benefit limits to at least the federal poverty level, and make it easier for recipients to work without losing benefits. N. Expand nonprofit financial institutions and establish public banks, for example, post office banking.
O. Address the true cost of the damage done to indigenous nations and peoples and the descendants of enslaved people. Remediate that damage through reparations, policy reform and affirmative action.
7. EDUCATION
Underfunded, low-quality public education prevents our nation from being a strong democracy and limits our collective prosperity. Public education is essential to our democracy’s economic, moral and political health. All people must be able to access and afford preschool through higher education or technical training.
Therefore, we work to:
A. Increase education funding to provide free, quality public pre-K through 16 education for all, per the Arizona Constitution.
B. Stop funding for-profit charter and private schools, Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, and other workarounds with tax money.
C. Fund and support trade schools and technical training.
D. Fully fund the Arizona Financial Aid Trust Fund to support students with financial need. E. Advance efforts and funding to ensure equitable rates of admission to higher education institutions.
F. Increase Arizona teacher salaries to at least the median salary level of our nation’s top 10 states for teacher pay.
G. Restore the state’s full K-16 capital-improvement school funding.
H. Fully fund education and services for disabled students.
I. Provide free preschool and daycare programs for low-income families and provide universal all-day kindergarten.
J. Make charter schools as accountable as public schools in all aspects.
K. Reduce K-3 class sizes to less than 18 and reduce other class sizes to optimize learning. L. Eliminate third-grade standardized testing, minimize standardized testing in all grades, and allow opting out of testing.
M. Abolish English-only standards and support dual language classes.
N. Recognize cultural diversity and promote culturally responsive, culturally relevant, and multilingual education and cultural competence.
O. Institute and support science-based, age-appropriate sex education programs. P. Guarantee that educators, not legislators, set educational policy and curricula.. Prohibit donor, political and corporate influence in public school, charter school, college and university curricula.
8. GOVERNMENT: FUNDING ITS ABILITY TO FUNCTION
A strong, competent government is essential to maintain a safe, functional, prosperous, and fair nation. We depend on millions of largely unseen and underappreciated Federal, State, and Local government employees including sworn military and police personnel, court employees, civil servants, and elected officials, to do thousands of jobs.
Government work costs money. We expect our governments to raise revenues through progressive taxation, and to use funds efficiently.
Privatizing government work is wrong. Profit-making has no place in running government functions, such as the U.S. Post Office, prisons and jails, or law enforcement. Only accountable government agencies can objectively oversee and regulate commercial activity to ensure safety and honesty and prevent corruption.
Democrats believe that our federal deficit should be eliminated by reversing the massive tax cuts for corporations and the very rich, and requiring them to pay their share.
Therefore, we work to:
A. Generate the revenue our government needs to function effectively through an efficient and fair tax structure, closing loopholes that benefit corporations and the rich. B. Authorize, fund, and staff the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and state and local tax agencies, so they can collect all legally-owed taxes.
C. Eliminate Arizona’s two-thirds vote requirement for legislation to increase state taxes. D. Restore government functions that have moved into the private sector, starting with privatized functions in the U.S. Postal Service, Veterans Administration, and federal, state, and local prisons.
E. Adequately fund and staff all regulatory agencies so that they meet their public welfare responsibilities.
F. Ensure that government programs continue at existing funding levels when Congress fails to pass funding bills on time. Eliminate the debt ceiling.
9. GUN REFORM
America is awash in guns, too many in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. They cause far too many deaths. While our lawmakers wring their hands and offer prayers, the carnage worsens. America suffered 466 mass shootings in just the first seven months of 2023. By November, gun killings accounted for 15,642 suicides and 12,418 homicides. No decent country can tolerate this.
We urgently need comprehensive, new regulations and their vigorous enforcement. Therefore, we work to:
A. Bar civilians from possessing automatic and semiautomatic weapons. B. Require universal background checks for all firearms purchases, include a waiting period for Purchase. C close background-check loopholes.
C. Institute licensing to own firearms, with safety and proficiency training as a prerequisite. D. Prohibit those who commit violent crimes, including domestic abusers, as well as those determined to be suffering from mental illness, from owning or possessing a firearm. E. Reduce suicides and domestic violence by allowing courts to temporarily remove firearms from those who pose a risk of harming themselves or others.
F. Prohibit anyone under 18 from purchasing a firearm.
G. Fund community-based intervention programs that can reduce gun violence and improve access to mental health services.
H. Fund extensive “buy back” programs to reduce the number of weapons in private hands. I. Regulate non-traditional production and purchase of firearms, including 3D-printing and sale of gun kits.
J. Investigate and monitor those who threaten violence, regulate their possession of firearms, and enable institutions to provide necessary security to those at risk.
10. HEALTHCARE
The U.S. is the only high-income country that does not guarantee free, universal health coverage. We spend more on healthcare than any other country, while millions of U.S. residents cannot afford preventive care and treatment, in-home disability, eldercare and end-of-life care. More Americans go bankrupt from healthcare costs than any other reason. This is morally unacceptable and costly.
We believe that the healthcare system should put patients over profits and reign in rising costs driven by the pharmaceutical industry. It’s time that the government provides fully funded healthcare to all.
Therefore, we work to:
A. Provide comprehensive, single-payer, universal health care for all, including dental, vision, hearing, prenatal care, maternal and mental-health care, abortion, and telehealth reimbursement.
B. Protect women’s rights to make their own reproductive-health decisions by keeping abortion accessible and legal.
C. Increase access to mental health and substance-dependency treatment. D. Require immunizations for all public and private-school students, except where medically contraindicated.
E. Increase funding for rural hospitals and clinics, including support for migrant and indigent care. Provide additional incentives to encourage rural healthcare staffing, including full-time employment.
F. Fully fund Federal Indian Health Services.
G. Fully fund Federal healthcare for veterans.
H. Fully fund women’s healthcare, including pre- and post-natal and reproductive care, abortion and contraceptives.
I. Ensure pharmaceutical and health-care equality for everyone, regardless of race, sexual orientation, age, gender identity, disability or economic status.
J. Permit assistance in dying under carefully considered and clearly specified conditions. K. Increase access to insurance that enables patient autonomy by favoring home and community-based services over institutional care.
L. Increase access to state-regulated assisted-living facilities, at-home or residential eldercare, palliative care, and hospice.
M. Guarantee that any assistance-in-dying law’s “triggers” reflect individual end-of-life prognoses.
N. Ensure the state has capacity to enforce safeguards and that any physician who is negligent in applying ordinary standards of care is subject to legal liability.
O. Regulate the cost of medical care, hospital services, and pharmaceuticals. Eliminate co-pays so as to obviate the need for Medicare Advantage.
P. Reform the patent system for pharmaceuticals and medical devices to reduce overall cost of care.
Q. Prohibit electoral candidates from receiving campaign funding and gifts from pharmaceutical companies; support the Patients Over Profits Pledge. R. Support efforts to eliminate the corporate practice of medicine and prohibit for-profit and investor-owned corporations from employing physicians and other health workers. S. Support unionization efforts by physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other health care workers.
T. Support HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability, Privacy, and Accountability Act).
11. HOUSING
Ensuring the availability of safe, affordable housing to all members of our community is a government responsibility. The houseless population rose significantly due to income inequality and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Forty percent of the country’s unhoused population lives in nine Western states, including Arizona. An overreliance on existing housing and shelters, and resistance to new affordable housing, means there’s not enough housing to help end homelessness.
Democrats support expansion of affordable housing and housing-first policies to end homelessness.
Therefore, we work to:
A. Decriminalize homelessness, revoke anti-camping ordinances, and end forced displacement of houseless community members.
B. Increase investment in renter's assistance, new affordable-housing construction, and continued wraparound service such as, expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program for renters, provide higher funding limits for Section VIII vouchers, and mandate a portion of tax-increment financing (TIF) for affordable housing.***
C. Expand funding for full wrap-around services for all people who are unhoused or living in alternative housing solutions such as tiny house communities and encampments D. Increase the number and type of temporary shelters that accept partners and animals. E. Mandate that a percentage of new development guarantees affordable housing and supportive infrastructure.
F. Support fair housing standards and anti-discrimination regulations.
G. Address the lasting effects of racist housing covenants in Tucson and other municipalities that prevented non-white residents from moving to certain neighborhoods and subdivisions
H. Stop gentrification and displacement, recognizing its effect on reducing affordable housing stock while destroying neighborhoods, and eliminate tax incentives for flipping houses.
I. Reduce evictions through expansion of housing trust funds and non-profit programs. J. Reduce income inequality by raising wages, increasing taxes on the wealthy, and expanding social programs.
12. IMMIGRATION AND THE BORDERLANDS
The United States has from its founding been a nation of immigrants. Now, however, we’ve criminalized immigration: an immigrant’s first entry outside of an official port of entry is a misdemeanor, repeat entries are felonies. Successive presidents from both parties have created a dehumanizing immigration system that violates international, human, and constitutional rights.
The 30-foot wall along our southern border violates Tohono O’Odham and Hia C-ed O’Odham ancestral and cultural lands. It prevents tribal people from moving freely, disrupts animal migration patterns, damages the natural desert environment, weakens both Arizona’s and Mexico’s economies, divides families, and separates communities.
As Democrats, we stand up for Pima County as a borderland –– a vibrant, multiracial, multilingual, multicultural community that shares a border with Mexico, the Tohono O’Odham Nation, and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. Democrats bolster and celebrate those defining characteristics and must create legal pathways and protections for immigrants.
Therefore, we work to:
A. Overhaul the U.S. immigration and naturalization system into a humane and efficient set of policies that welcome and help refugees and immigrants.
B. Decriminalize entry to the U.S. outside of a port of entry.
C. Stop incarceration of migrants and those awaiting asylum hearings.
D. Reduce Border Patrol resources and significantly increase resources to process asylum claims. E. Stop the “Remain in Mexico” policy.
F. Revive the DREAM Act and permit undocumented people who have lived in the U.S. for at least five years to naturalize.
G. Repeal remaining parts of Arizona’s SB1070, to stop collaboration between local law enforcement agents and federal immigration agencies (e.g. ICE and Border patrol). H. Overhaul Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE). Withhold new funds from ICE until it stops violating civil rights and starts holding those who violate civil rights accountable. I. Increase aid to and lift sanctions on Latin American countries to reduce violence and improve living standards.
J. Provide official municipal identification documents to all Tucson residents. K. Honor Tohono O’Odham Himdag (cultural heritage) and presence in this area and, with tribal guidance, remediate wall-construction damage.
L. Remove all parts of the wall, which serves only to force migrants to work with cartels in order to enter the country.
M. Provide free legal services to those in detention hearings (Justice for All). N. Stop Operation Streamline, which encourages “voluntary deportation” on a mass scale. O. Restrict all immigration enforcement to federal agents, while preserving tribal sovereignty. P. Never again separate immigrant children from their families.
Q. Continue reuniting ALL children who were separated in the past.
13. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS AND TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY
Southern Arizona is the Tohono O’odham people’s ancestral homeland, and the Tohono O’odham Nation’s and Pascua Yaqui (Yoeme) Tribe’s current homelands. They have been here for centuries; the rest of us are recent arrivals. Yet, indigenous people did not become U.S. citizens until 1924, and could not vote in Arizona until 1948, establishing a legacy of voter suppression and disenfranchisement.
Democrats support the sovereignty of tribal lands, tribal rights to resource management and determination, and indigenous peoples’ right to vote.
Therefore, we work to:
A. Recognize tribal villages and districts for voter registration, ballot, and nominating petitions. B. Guarantee that Pima County prioritizes Indigenous peoples’ voting accessibility, taking their unique geographical and cultural challenges into account.
C. Protect tribal land mining and environmental rights. Protect sacred sites on and off tribal lands.
D. Guarantee water rights, including the Central AZ Project and the Equitable AZ Drought Contingency Plan; recognize tribal nations’ rights to their own water as well as their right to protect, manage, and conserve water for their own well-being.
E. Repair relationships with tribes and treat tribal units as governments in transactions with Local, State, and the Federal government.
14. JUSTICE IN POLICING
Despite efforts to reduce police violence, our systems of law enforcement over-police communities of color and subject their residents to disproportionate arrest, prosecution and imprisonment. Officer-involved shootings and uses of force disproportionately injure and kill non-white people. And yet, prosecutors rarely criminally charge officers, shielded from liability, for killing an unarmed person.
Dispatchers send police officers without the appropriate and applicable training to situations involving people in mental health or substance-dependence crises. Law-enforcement training reinforces a warrior culture that casts citizens – especially those of color – as constant potential threats, which prevents officers from establishing trust with the communities they serve. This not only endangers communities but can leave officers feeling isolated, alienated and fearful, jeopardizing their physical and mental health, fracturing their families, and too often, contributing to suicides.
Comprehensive police reform is desperately needed. Therefore, we work to:
A. Re-allocate portions of police budgets to entities that lift people out of poverty, unemployment, ill health, and food, housing and educational insecurity.
B. Increase community policing efforts. Fully fund and staff unarmed community-response departments to handle assistance calls involving people experiencing physical and mental-health crises.
C. Route assistance calls through dispatchers outside the police department trained in crisis management, mental health, first aid and substance disorders, who would determine the appropriate responding agency.
D. Conduct thorough background checks and mental-health screenings on all police applicants. Prioritize compassion over militarism.
E. Reject applicants terminated by law-enforcement agencies or who resigned in lieu of termination. Reject applicants allied with white-supremacist groups or with any history of abuse.
F. Require all officers to complete a comprehensive training program in community-specific linguistic and cultural competence, implicit and explicit bias, domestic violence and sexual abuse response, de-escalation, conflict resolution, and protecting every community member’s wellbeing.
G. Prohibit racial profiling in policing, including pretextual stops and “no-knock” warrants. H. Create and listen to independent civilian oversight boards with real authority over officer discipline and termination.
I. Remove police departments’ military-style weapons and equipment.
J. Ban police use of physical and chemical restraints that hamper breathing. K. Strengthen law enforcement accountability through mandating that all police officers wear continuous-capture body cameras and immediate independent review in cases of suspected police brutality.
L. Abolish the qualified immunity doctrine, enabling people to hold police officers liable for violating a person’s constitutional rights.
M. Require police agencies to adhere to comprehensive use-of-force policies that mandate the use of minimal force to subdue individuals. Make use-of-force data available to the public.
N. Establish independent Police Auditors in law-enforcement departments who can operate without political interference.
O. Require police departments and their personnel to reflect the diversity in the communities they serve.
P. Limit police union contracts to collective-bargaining issues.
15. LABOR
The United States has the most extreme income inequality in the developed world. For decades, we have allowed greedy corporations to suppress labor unions and undermine their bargaining rights. As a result, American workers’ wages and benefits have remained stagnant while productivity and corporate profits soar. To secure for all workers their fair share of America’s prosperity, Democrats must strongly support labor unions and legislate to protect workers’ rights.
Therefore, we work to:
A. Guarantee that workers can exercise their rights to organize and join unions. B. Integrate union demands into public-policy decisions.
B. Eliminate “right to work” laws.
C. Protect unions’ rights to bargain collectively.
D. Secure retirement rights for all employees, nationwide.
E. Require a $15 local and federal minimum wage that rises with inflation. F. Enforce 12 weeks of annual paid medical or family leave for all employees. G. Promote more diverse representation in union leadership.
16. LGBTQIA+ RIGHTS
Democrats believe all persons have a right to live their lives honestly, openly, and authentically. Gay, lesbian, and bisexual communities have been bravely and publicly fighting for this right since the 1950s. Especially since the Stonewall Uprising in 1969, they have achieved substantial progress in this struggle, culminating in the Supreme Court (2015) declaring same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. Trans, intersex, and non-binary persons are openly and publicly claiming their right to live as their authentic selves. But social progress can generate serious backlash. Today gay, lesbian, and trans persons are being violently attacked, while hundreds of anti-LGBTQIA+ laws are being introduced in our 50 states. We need to unambiguously reassert the human and civil rights of LGBEQIA+ persons and do all we can to protect them.
Therefore, we work to:
A. End discrimination against LGBTQIA+ persons, including trans men and women in the active-duty military, and veterans.
B. Prohibit schools from persecuting trans children, and repeal state laws that criminalize minors’ gender-conforming medical treatment.
C. Outlaw gender-conversion therapy.
D. End Pima County’s discrimination against trans employees in health insurance, extend the City of Tucson’s nondiscrimination protections to city contractors, and enact a Pima County nondiscrimination ordinance like the City of Tucson’s.
E. Remove gendered and degrading language from government documents and statutes.
17. PEACE, SECURITY, AND HUMAN RIGHTS
The United States must always work for peace and human rights primarily through diplomatic efforts. We must stop our pattern of intervening in foreign conflicts. U.S. military support must be a last resort, when pursuing peaceful diplomatic solutions are no longer possible, when invited, and when it is absolutely necessary for securing a just peace.
Therefore, we work to:
A. Stop “policing” the world and start cooperating with other countries to resolve global issues. Increase U.S. diplomatic resources to do so.
B. Strengthen our alliances and reduce military spending.
C. Stop using regime change to acquire land and resources.
D. Enforce the Freedom of Information Act to ensure public access to formerly classified documents and hold military actors accountable.
E. Using credible, verifiable means, end the production, deployment and use of nuclear weapons, including our own.
F. Heed our military leaders’ warnings about climate change as a security threat. Vastly reduce military use of fossil fuels.
G. Prioritize cybersecurity to meet the level of threats we now face.
H. Enforce the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
I. Recognize that international law applies to us as well as others.
J. Stop manufacturing and using cluster bombs, banned in more than 100 countries. K. Enact measures to limit the military-industrial complex and profiteering from war.
18. PUBLIC HEALTH
Public health promotes and protects the health of all people and their communities.
Federal, State, and Local governments are responsible for preventing disease, providing pollution-free water and air, assuring food safety, medication safety and effectiveness, and the security and safety of our homes, roads, bridges, rails, and airways.
We need public-health programs that protect and improve the health of communities and individuals by diagnosing health problems and hazards, educating and informing people about health, and mobilizing community partnerships and enabling individuals to solve health problems.
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed glaring disparities in healthcare access and outcomes and taught us we are in a continuous public-health crisis. We have seen as never before how social isolation, violence, racism, trauma, food insecurity, economic inequity, and climate change damage communities and individuals.
Democrats believe a major injection of fiscal and human resources should be made into public-health programs.
Therefore, we work to:
A. Increase funding for the agencies that respond to public-health emergencies: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Public Health Service, the Department of Homeland Security (including the Federal Emergency Management Agency), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the National Weather Service. Ensure that departments and agencies operate objectively, without political interference, and promote anti-racist policies.
B. Restore and strengthen the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to protect, maintain, and restore the quality of our air, land, and water.
C. Upgrade U.S. infrastructure via comprehensive legislative and policy initiatives that make it safer, more reliable, accessible, efficient, and environmentally sound.
D. Support the work of advocacy organizations such as the American Public Health Association, the National Indian Health Board, the Arizona Public Health Association, and the Arizona Rural Health Association to expand access to public-health services and protect their communities’ interests.
19. TECHNOLOGY
Rapid technological advances affect every aspect of our lives. New forms of discrimination, inequities, and negative impacts arise as technology changes. Government must ensure that Americans enjoy technology’s benefits while mitigating its potential harm.
Therefore, we work to:
A. Ensure universal high-speed Internet access and net neutrality, particularly through funding for rural communities and tribal nations.
B. Mandate public participation in technology-infrastructure placement and construction. C. Regulate and maintain data privacy
a. Establish federal and local data privacy legislation that ensures consumers know how business collects, uses and shares their personal information and maintains users’ ability to delete it.
D. Protect networks and users from cyber-security threats.
E. Keep pace with emerging Artificial Intelligence (AI) risks through thoughtful regulation. F. Continuously monitor new technology’s ability to ensure equitable outcomes and not introduce new forms of discrimination.
G. Prohibit discriminatory placement and use of video surveillance for policing, especially among tribal nations and overpoliced communities.
H. Support programs that help workers adjust to technology’s impact on their jobs. I. Fund research on new technologies’ physical, psychological, and cognitive effects. J. Address the rise in misinformation and media manipulation.
K. Assess and regulate the environmental impacts of advances in AI and computing.
20. WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Harmful inequities still exist, despite the progress made towards equal rights for women. Women are paid less than men for equal work; women hold fewer elected political offices; fewer women lawyers present cases before the U.S. Supreme Court; fewer women than men hold executive leadership positions; maternal mortality rates are worse than they were two decades ago; women are more often their households’ primary breadwinner and the primary caregiver, while childcare and elder care costs are higher than ever; and women older than f 65 are more likely to live in poverty than men as a result of pay discrimination and time out of the workforce.
Our economy and society demand so much of women, placing a particularly high burden on women of color. Black and Latina women are more often their families’ sole breadwinners and participate in the labor force at higher rates than white women. And, Black and Brown women tend to have more caregiving responsibilities than white caregivers.
At the same time, the gap in weekly earnings between white women and women of color is higher today than it was forty years ago. Women of color in low-wage jobs are more likely to have unpredictable work schedules, making it harder to juggle caregiving and work responsibilities. Further, Latina families are more likely to live in communities without adequate affordable child-care and transportation options.
Women’s lives are threatened. Black women and Native American women are three-to-five times as likely to die of pregnancy or delivery complications than white women. And, there is an epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
Democrats believe that women’s experiences are multi-dimensional: sexual orientation, ability, age, and gender identity shape how a person and his/her work is perceived. Women deserve equal treatment and status before the law.
Therefore, we work to:
A. Ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, securing a Constitutional guarantee of equal status in legal disputes and protection against discrimination.
B. Guarantee access to abortion and repeal restrictions on abortion procedures that add unnecessary steps, such as requiring an ultrasound and 24-hour waiting period. C. Pass the Equality Act, further prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
D. Investigate and address claims involving discrimination against women, especially in the armed services, prisons, jails, and industries that disproportionately employ women of color in low-wage roles.
E. Promote pay equity in the private sector, such as enacting an Arizona Pay Transparency Law. Require contractors to increase minimum wage and benefits, and remove forced arbitration and unfair non-compete laws.
F. Eliminate the gender gap in opportunities to work for pay in educational institutions and elsewhere.
G. Enforce Title IX and continue investment in women in S.T.E.M. education, to prevent disparities in education.
H. End maternal deaths and all racial health disparities by expanding Medicaid for moms and supporting the Maternal Care Act.
I. Invest in universal child care and Pre-K, including raising wages for child-care workers and preschool teachers.
J. Raise Social Security benefits for people whose work is to care for a family member, such as a child, a dependent with a disability, or an elderly relative. Improve Social Security benefits for widowers and widowers with a disability of any age.
K. Collaborate with tribal police and fund collaboration with tribal-based community organizations to end the crisis of murdered and missing Indigenous women. Enforce the Violence Against Women Act, authorizing tribes to exercise special domestic violence criminal jurisdiction over non-tribal offenders.
L. Decriminalize sex work and support the rights of sex workers.
M. Support research into the current status of women in Arizona and Pima County.