From Educating Children To Educating Voters. Steve Williamson and Karen McClelland welcome Mike Fogel, former teacher, school principal, school board member, state senate candidate, and current chair of the Yavapai County Democratic Party.
In a county with two-and-a-half times as many registered Republicans as Democrats, Fogel is already making plans to defy the odds in 2024. And as proof that every vote counts, he points to the fact that, in 2020, the county delivered 45,000 votes to help elect Senator Mark Kelly, Governor Katie Hobbs, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, and Attorney General Kris Mayes whose margin of victory was just 280 votes.
Fogel’s primary reason for optimism involves young people. “The average voter 18 to 35 will predominately vote Democrat at the same rate someone 65 and older will predominately vote Republican,” he says. “So, we need to focus our attention on that age group of 18 to 35. When we’re looking at young people, we know pretty much what’s on their minds. Climate change is huge…education is huge…and thirdly is reproductive rights.”
Emphasizing the importance of the next election, Fogel warns of a totalitarian and theocratic impulse in this country stating, “It’s not a stretch to say that the future of the United States runs through rural Arizona.”