When Gabriella Cázares-Kelly won her race for Pima County recorder last November in Arizona, she was open-eyed about how tightly gripped voter suppression hung over marginalized communities like the one she grew up in — on the Tohono O’odham Nation.
Last election cycle, voters on the reservation had one less early precinct location to cast their ballots, despite their complaints. This, in part, stirred Gabriella to post billboards and do what no other Indigenous person anywhere had done before: run for a county-wide office…and win.
In Arizona, the county recorder keeps public records and is in charge of voter registration and early voting.
So on Election Day, Pima County Native voters turned out in record numbers, leading Indigenous electorates statewide. They headed to the polls for one of their own, Gabriella — and in the process, 88 percent threw their support behind Joe Biden. These votes are what ultimately led to flipping Arizona, one of America’s most conservative states, from red to purple.
The GOP is rip-pissed.
The most obvious sign is in Georgia where Republicans, Thursday, muscled through a sweeping new law that will dramatically roll back access to the ballot box in the nation’s most hotly contested battleground state.
