May 16, 2024 • 29 mins
Arizona legend-in-the-making Raquel Téran talks about her bid for Congress and her decades-long work to help turn the state into a shining example of what progressive organizing (and winning) looks like.
Raquel shares her journey to politics and the issues she plans to lift up in Congress. She also shares why she believes building coalitions and mobilizing voters are key to protecting democracy and how she recruited and mentored many of the key leaders who are driving change across the state.
REFERENCES:Raquel Téran - RaquelTeran.com & @RaquelTeran
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steve Phillips (00:10):
Welcome to Democracy in Color with Steve Phillips, a color conscious podcast about politics. I'm your host, Steve Phillips, and I was honored and inspired to devote many days and weeks of working on my book, How We Win the Civil War, to writing about the political transformation of Arizona. Arizona is one of the most important, most inspiring, and least appreciated political stories in this country. Out of the ashes of white supremacy has emerged a powerhouse movement for justice and equality in this country. The first governor, John Baylor, was editor of a newspaper called The White Man, and he was a staunch defender of the Confederacy. The 17th governor worked feverishly to restrict all state holidays to keep them honoring just white people, strenuously opposing the creation of a Martin Luther King Junior holiday, and going so far as to tell black people in 1987, you folks don't need another holiday. What you need are jobs. That's 1987, not 1887. And the 22nd governor, Jan Brewer, signed the racist SB 1070. Show me your papers, Bill. That empowered police to stop and challenge any brown skinned person that they were suspicious of, and asked them to show their citizenship papers just like this country did during the slave holding days when police could challenge any black person to show the papers that they didn't belong in chains on the plantation. So that's a sad and sordid history. But the crucible of that struggle forged a new generation of activists and organizers who are transforming Arizona and, by extension, the country. New organizations were formed, new coalitions came together to organize, register and mobilize voters of color. Over the course of the past decade, more than half a million Latinos have been registered to vote in Arizona. And that reality has changed the composition of the electorate fundamentally. And Democrats have won statewide 2018, 2020 and 2022. In 2016, the organization Lucha spearheaded a successful statewide ballot measure to raise the minimum wage for a million Arizonans. And so on today's podcast, we are delighted to be joined by one of the mothers of that movement, a principal architect of the efforts to develop and unleash the leaders in groups that are changing the state. Not only she played a key role in Arizona's past, but she is now prepared to build on that legacy and take her leadership and voice to Washington, D.C., as she is running for U.S. Congress from Arizona's third congressional district. I am just back from Arizona, whereas I was again inspired by the dedication and energy of the movement there, and I'm thrilled to have this conversation today. And for this conversation, I'm joined as always, but my co-host, Sharline Chiang. Hi, Sharline, how are you? And do you want to introduce our special guest?
Sharline Chiang (02:56):
Hi Steve, I'm doing great and I would love to introduce our guest today. But before I do, I wanted to give a quick reminder to our listeners. If you're listening, if you could take a few seconds, we'd love to ask you to remember to leave us a rating and review on iTunes or Apple Podcasts. And if you could do that, that would be awesome. So thank you so much. Okay. Our guest today is former Arizona State Representative Raquel Téran, a mother, a wife, community organizer and lifelong Arizonan. In 2011, she mobilized Arizonans to rally against the injustices faced at the hands of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and SB 1070 author Russell Pearce. This led to Pearce's recall and Arpaio reelection defeat. I think many of you listening will remember that, that chapter I know I do recall, served as the campaign director for I stand with Planned Parenthood or hashtag. I stand with PPE. That was a campaign that fought to protect the Affordable Care Act and women's reproductive rights. She also served as the regional director of Mi Familia Votas Education Fund. Raquel is now running to represent Arizona's third district, who replace Democrat Ruben Gallego as he pursues a US Senate seat against Republican Kari Lake. Raquel, welcome. We are so excited to have you on today's show. We can't wait to talk to you and catch up with you.
Raquel Téran (04:30):
Thank you for the invitation. And Steve, I love that intro. I was getting emotional just hearing about our journey. Sometimes it's like you need to take time and reflect on the victories that we've had. Sharline, so great to meet you.
Sharline Chiang (04:44):
So great to meet. Absolutely.
Steve Phillips (04:46):
Well, you guys have done the work. And so actually I did want to I did want to start there. Right. So when I was there in March of last year and we were talking with Alice Gomez of Lucha, and she was talking about how you recruited her into the movement and that that was like kind of the seminal story of going around and getting people involved. And so then for the listeners to know. So Alice has gone on to become the executive director of Lucha and ACE, which is, the C3 and C4 of one of the most important statewide organizations that voter mobilization and civic engagement. So can you talk about that, the the origin story of kind of how, that infrastructure came to be and then how you recruited such great people into the movement to be able to go on and move forward.
Raquel Téran (05:30):
Absolutely. You know, I'm so lucky to work with so many people that, I have are leading in this movement, like Alex Gomez. And, Alex says that I recruited her at a corner yelling out, like, "who wants to get rid of Sheriff Joe Arpaio?" She had a choice between, getting rid of Sheriff Joe Arpaio or ousting, let's use the word ousting Sheriff Joe Arpaio or, or getting, President Obama elected. And fortunately, she signed up with me at the corner of that clipboard. You know, at that time, that was around 2007, 2008, because, you know, we many times think about the anti-immigrant sentiment here in the state of Arizona starting during SB 1070, but it really wasn't. We've always had an anti-immigrant sentiment. And.
Steve Phillips (06:21):
Can I actually interrupt you for a second on that? Just realizing that not everybody may know about Arpaio. Yeah. So can you just give a little bit of background on why he was so, reviled?
Raquel Téran (06:29):
So, you know, I think, like, it's important to go back to, like, you know, even after nine, 11, you know what? After 911, we started to see the rise of the anti-immigrant sentiment in the state of Arizona. And like I said, it was we've always had it here. It's anti-latino type people of color, anti-immigrant. But after 911, there was a Pandora box that, like in 2006, that opened across the country here we had it in the early 2000s where we were seeing propositions, that were making English the official language. We were seeing propositions that took away driver's license from people who didn't have Social Security numbers. Well, that's when, we we also saw the, making the in proposition 200, which made it more difficult for, Latinos and people of color to register to vote because we were requesting, citizenship, proposition 300, which triple the tuition for Dreamers. So it wasn't only SB 1070, but we started to see elected officials like Sheriff Arpaio, who at one time were talking about immigrants, are not the problem. But then they saw that they could politicize with that and started to target immigrant communities to the next level. So he was somebody who was, the the main law enforcement in the biggest county in our state, and right now one of the biggest counties across the country who was doing roundups in our community. People were being stopped because they looked another color that was not white. That was like if you had a broken tail light, he was stopping you and questioning you, detaining you and potentially incarcerating you, and even like working really closely with with Ice and deporting people. We started to see that he was just using this issue to gain momentum, and he had the state legislature that was creating legislation. And then he had a county attorney that was interpreting the legislation that was coming out out of the state legislature, and then he was implementing that. So it was a very terrifying, time. And it's still I mean, the consequence of that is still it's still prevalent here because people who lived through that era, when they remember that their parents were being stopped, are now older, and some of them are even organizing, but they still remember Sheriff Arpaio. So, we have in our polls people that that's an era that people still remember. So what we were doing in that time was not only documenting the abuse of power that was happening in the streets, because we had to document the fact that he was doing these stops, and we were calling for a Department of Justice investigation, which actually happened. We are also challenging him with the other things that we he he was somebody who was wasting taxpayer money. He was, not investigating the real the crimes that were happening here in Arizona, including, sex crimes. He, was somebody who actually was not good for our county. So we started to organize around the Maricopa County supervisors. And, Alex, that's when I got to connect with Alex and started to organize to make sure that we were exposing the misplaced priority of the sheriff's office. And I am proud to have been part of that movement that helped oust him through organizing and exposing his misplaced priorities. But, that movement then was there when we had SB 1070 come through our state legislature, which was at the same time where we were thinking we're going to get comprehensive immigration reform because President Obama was in office. And we have the infamous trifecta. And at the same time, the anti-immigrant, extremists at the state legislature were taking things to the next level with SB 1070 with, just like you said was the Show Me Your Papers law.
Steve Phillips (10:23):
Yeah. And then I actually have had, direct actually family experience with Arpaio, just to give people a quick sense of the dynamics of how this plays itself out in the real world. So I know somebody who was, they were arrested and charged with assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon, which sounds very serious and what this actual story was. This person was parked in a parking lot. The car was not moving, but the police, for whatever reason, came up, started to ask question the person. So it's like, why would they even go? The car was parked and not moving. The person tried to drive, put the car in gear and start to drive. May have brief like slightly brushed up against the cop – assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon. That's the type of "law enforcement" and I'm using quotation marks that, gave birth right to this level of, you know, intensity or really wanting to get him out of office.
Sharline Chiang (11:22):
And that's a terrifying story. And when you talk about basically that, that terror, that, that terror, that trauma, the impact of a Raquel, I remember that time. That's why I was saying, I'm sure I know I remember that time I wasn't living there, but I was in touch with people who were living there. And there was also just this, a psychologically, a terror that spread among people of color, especially the Latino community throughout the country, but especially obviously in Arizona. And I remember just that fear and for those of us who, you know, were not directly impacted, but just feeling like helpless and just kind of that feeling of, like I can't believe this is happening in our country at this day and age. In this year, you know, and that's just you were mentioning the impact that it had on the younger generation. It is a good reminder that even though it was, you know, quote unquote "long ago" or that many years ago, the impact continues. So I'm kind of curious, your how did you get involved in politics yourself?
Raquel Téran (12:20):
Yeah. Thank you for that question.
Sharline Chiang (12:20):
Give us an overview.
Raquel Téran (12:22):
Yeah. Well, you know, I'm originally from southern Arizona. I'm from Douglas, Agua Prieta that I grew up on the border on a street that divides the United States and Mexico. So I was born in the United States, raised in the Mexican side. And that's a culture like I cross back and forth basically all my upbringing, my, my childhood. And, I always give people the imagery like if there was a ball that went over the fence back then, it was a wired fence. You could get the ball and bring it back. We could see from my home in Mexico. We could see the copper coin smelter, because Arizona is a mining state. And I still remember the smelter from from the Mexican side. That's how close we we we were to the border. So, my love for public service really starts because my parents were always involved in the community, and they were community organizers in their own way. I didn't even know it was a thing. But they were always, serving our community. So I learned my love for public service through them and my grandparents. So, when the rise of the anti-immigrant sentiment started to be more evident here in Arizona, I remember coming, to visit Douglas in Agua Prieta at that. And the Minutemen were in town. So right now we're seeing the Minutemen, so-called Minutemen over there in Texas, where they are, quote unquote, "protecting the border." That movement happened in Arizona around 2004, 2005, and I was so agitated to see them questioning the border community if people should be here or not. And I for me, that was a moment where I wanted to take my organizing and my public service to the next level, look for avenues of engagement. And I really didn't have the strategy or the right way of doing something about what was happening. I started at the church praying for immigration reform. There was a white ribbon campaign. But fortunately, in 2006, I attended a huge march in downtown Phoenix. It was a march for comprehensive immigration reform against the so-called Sensenbrenner bill. It was a bill that would criminalize, everybody who would be here undocumented. And marches happened all across the country. I attended the one here in Phoenix. The theme of that march was today we march, tomorrow we vote. And fortunately, at that march, I got connected with an organization called Mi Familia Vota which engages Latinos in the decision making process. The organizer there handed me a clipboard with voter registration forms, and I knew right then and there that if we wanted to change anything about what was happening in the state of Arizona, we had to grow our political power. So, they followed up with me. Asked me to come and volunteer. I came and knocked on doors. Helped register people to vote, help people become citizens. And that was in 2006. That was my first election. And so what I learned quickly was that the same people that were, targeting our immigrant communities were the ones gutting our education system and denial of climate change, trying to dismantle our education, of course, reproductive rights. So I just became involved in the overall progressive movement. And, and I'm just so lucky that I was part of, of connecting with this organization that was also connected with labor. And I've been here ever since.
Steve Phillips (15:49):
And your wasn't your first run for office a fairly closely contested race?
Raquel Téran (15:55):
It was Steve. It was I, you know, so by the first time I ran for office was in 2012, and I was a spunky organizer, and I was, even registered as an independent because I was I felt that the Democrats were taking my vote for granted as a Latina, and they could be doing more. And so the opportunity came where, we could start to think about ourselves as organizers, as people who have been registering people to vote, to like that. We could actually be the ones inside the state legislature. So, yes, I literally raised my hand in a meeting who wants to run for office? And I raised my hand and, I decided to going to run a clean campaign. That means that you run a campaign with public dollars, not with taxpayer dollars. And through my, my name in and knocked on many, many doors that summer with my mother. She she was here from April to August and canvased with me, a 115 degree weather every single day. And we missed. We missed it by 113 votes. I was challenging in.
Sharline Chiang (17:12):
No way
Raquel Téran (17:12):
Yeah, I know, I think about that all the time.
Sharline Chiang (17:15):
I could tell.
Raquel Téran (17:17):
We were challenging an incumbent, a Democratic incumbent. And, so it was, it was a good run. But also it taught me so much, it taught me that we need to make sure that we continue to engage our communities in the decision making process. We were already thinking about how we brought in people who usually don't vote and our in that campaign and Steve, you you were talking about this over the weekend about how we needed to need to not only focus on the people, persuade the people who usually vote, but also how we expand. Right. And I think what I learned in that campaign is like, we still need the people who who vote all the time. We need to connect with them because they're the folks who usually vote and then also include the expanding. And so we learned that, that we had a key to victory if we engage people who usually don't vote. But we also need to make sure that we have a strategy of engaging those that do vote to make sure that we get over the finish line.
Steve Phillips (18:22):
So now you're running for Congress, right? So you served for in the state legislature for a while, focused on the state, political and, you know, concerns and whatnot there. But you decided to run for Congress. So can you share why you decided that was it just to get away from 112 degree temperatures or what was the thinking on that?
Raquel Téran (18:43):
Well, I for me, it's taking our organizing to the next level. It's taking our coalition to the next level. I served in our state legislature four and a half years, also served as a chair of the Arizona Democratic Party. So the analogy that I use is like changing our megaphone for a microphone in places where we need to be so that we can make sure that there's representation. And so now Congressman Ruben Gallego is running for U.S. Senate. The opportunity for this open seat is here. And at the end of the day, I think, like I believe that we need to make sure that we are pushing for comprehensive immigration reform, that we're protecting democracy, that we are working towards, legal and safe abortion, that we have bold environmental protections. And, of course, you know, we need to have an economy that moves everybody forward. And so for me, I hope it is it is, a representation of the organizing that we have done, that we can have somebody that comes from movement building and understands the needs of our community that will be in that place of power. And so I'm looking forward to this next phase where we can actually start to get these policies in place and make sure that we're connecting with the dots of how policy is impacting people's lives.
Sharline Chiang (20:03):
Raquel, as I mentioned earlier, you're running to replace a Ruben Gallego and again, he's running for U.S. Senate and the Earl and by the way, he's going to be a future guest on our podcast. That the plan.
Raquel Téran (20:14):
Sweet.
Sharline Chiang (20:14):
Yeah. So going to get a twofer. Earlier this month we got some data to share here. The polling firm Target Smart, says that you are you are leading in the Democratic primary by ten points. So what do you feel sets you apart? You and your platform apart from the other primary candidates?
Raquel Téran (20:32):
Yeah, it primary is always difficult. But this is what democracy looks like. And I think what sets us apart is number one, we have a strong and broad coalition. From day one we announced our campaign. We have the support of Lucha. We have the support of Anchor Patrick. We have the support of Senator Mark Kelly. We have the support of unions that represent collectively more than 40,000 workers. We have the support of Planned Parenthood and reproductive freedom for all and Citizens United and many, many others. And I think, like my journey here in Arizona, politics is a representation of coalition building. And that's what I think sets us apart the most. We know that there is no shortcut, you know, for it. There's no shortcuts in politics. And that real, meaningful change comes because of hard work. So this coalition understands that this is the coalition that has transformed the political landscape of Arizona. And I believe that that that's a story that has, resonated at the doors. When we share that, when we share my journey, when we share that we have the support of such and such important players in Arizona, it's shows that, it's not a capricious moment for us, it's really taking the organizing to the next level. So that's one of the biggest differences. And we are committed to not only getting through the primary, but this election is one of the toughest elections that we will face. So the infrastructure that we are building right now will, of course, get us to demonstrate, enthusiasm for our campaign not only in July 30th when we have our primary, but it will help us ensure that there is enthusiasm for the top of the ticket all the way to the bottom of the ticket, because we have an abortion access initiative that we will need to make sure it gets through the finish line. But we need to make sure that districts like this congressional District 3 are people feel energized that people have, know that they have a candidate that will have their back, just like I've been doing it for the last 20 years. The same thing is going to happen in Congress.
Steve Phillips (22:47):
I know you need to go, so. But just want to follow up on that last point you were raising in terms of the role that the race itself can play, because I've been telling people and they get the case that Arizona's like, four-fer like you got like a two-fer, a three-fer, a fourth that we have the presidential election that Arizona was pivotal in in 2020, kind of lost the history. Is that how important the calling that raised for, Biden was the stopping Trump's attempted coup? That's a separate story. But Arizona was getting called early was really essential. And it's going to be very close and pivotal. Again, there's the US Senate seat that, Ruben is running for. Senators will be able to hold the US Senate. That's a critical piece. There's, in terms of your race, there's also a couple of potential pickup seats for taking back the house. And you guys, I believe, are the closest of these, one of the two closest in the country in terms of flipping the state legislature. So all of these different aspects. So one of the analysis, the one of the problems in 2022, when Democrats really shouldn't have lost the House in the first place, is that a lot of the incumbents don't prioritize voter mobilization. And so I just want to get at something you could use touched down a little bit, but in terms of how you see both the your race and then your relationship with the different movement organizations that you came of age with, their role in driving turnout for the entire ticket, entire race.
Raquel Téran (24:11):
Yeah, I love I love how you just put it. I also call it I have I have quadruple duty. I have the duty for myself, duty for President Biden, duty for Ruben Gallego, duty for abortion access. And, that's a quadruple duty that we have to make sure that we get this district to over perform. And again, these I mean, these are our working class people. These are folks that want to maybe participate in the election, but a lot is happening in their lives. And, we need to make sure that they have a plan to vote this election and also that they have the the energy. Right? So that's why I think candidates like me, who can share a story that, really demonstrate that we understand what they're going through will make a huge difference. And to be frank, some people in the, in the district understand that this is a high priority election, and they will be talking about having to protect democracy. But then there's a whole other segment that are feeling a lot of apathy. So, our role right now is coming in early because this is going in early. It's not two months before the election. It's not two months before November. It's really is at a time where we can start to build the stronger, a stronger relationship. And it's not a relationship that just starts today with this primary, but it's a relationship that has started from many, many years ago. That's why I think we have good numbers in our poll because people understand that this is not something that just started yesterday. So, that will definitely have an impact, for the top of the ticket all the way to the bottom of the ticket. And what we always say is that this district needs to over perform. It is a Democratic district. Within this district we don't have many of those seats that will be competitive. So what happens in the primary will be key. Well you know, like people who get out of a primary in the state from the state legislative races to the congressional races, we all almost know, like it's going to be it's almost a done deal for that person. But if we stop during the, we stop after the primary and we don't get this district to over perform, that's where we put a lot at risk. So we have a lot of work in front of us. And then having the ability to work with unions, with the progressive organizations, with Planned Parenthood and many, many others who have helped build this infrastructure. Will be key to make sure that this district over performs.
Sharline Chiang (26:46):
All right. On that note, all the all the areas that you need to over perform and and like you were saying, just all the areas that you need to take care of. We're going to let you go soon. But I wanted to just thank you. We wanted to thank you so much again for joining us. And before we go, where can people keep up with you?
Raquel Téran (27:03):
Thank you so much. Of course, on social media. But visit our webpage raquelteran.com. We need your support. If you can join us by making, phone calls, sending text messages, giving a donation, we all know that we need the resources to make sure that we get our message out there, and we continue the momentum that we have to this moment. So thank you for that. We have the raquelteran.com
Steve Phillips (27:31):
We really appreciate you joining us Raquel. And just thinking ahead to next year. Right. That you know I got I think I met like ten years ago Hakeem Jeffries who would be the new speaker if the Democrats, you know, pick up the four seats and that during the Trump impeachment, any wrap up a speech saying, "if you don't know now, you know," Right again its like the most, you know, hip hop fluent speaker. We will have had we had Summer Lee early on the podcast, a couple years ago, we just had Lateefah Simon. And I'm like, this 2025 House of Representatives is going to be lit when you guys all get over there.
Raquel Téran (28:06):
It will be, it will be, and we're ready to fight for our communities. I love that.
Steve Phillips (28:10):
All right. That's all the time we have for today. Thank you for listening to Democracy in Color with Steve Phillips. Please help us get the word out about this podcast by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts, sharing with your friends, tweeting @DemocracyColor and at SteveP tweets, and finding us at Democracy in Color on Facebook or Instagram. You can also keep up with all things Demco by subscribing to our newsletter at DemocracyinColor.com. If you listen to our podcast on iTunes, please leave us a rating and a comment. It helps others to find our show. This podcast is a democracy in color production. Our producer is Olivia Parker. Fola Onifade is our staff writer and associate producer Sharline Chiang is our editor and co-host. Special thanks to April Elkjer for quality check. Recorded virtually with the assistance the Podcast Studio of San Francisco. Until next time, keep the faith.
Welcome to Democracy in Color with Steve Phillips, a color conscious podcast about politics. I'm your host, Steve Phillips, and I was honored and inspired to devote many days and weeks of working on my book, How We Win the Civil War, to writing about the political transformation of Arizona. Arizona is one of the most important, most inspiring, and least appreciated political stories in this country. Out of the ashes of white supremacy has emerged a powerhouse movement for justice and equality in this country. The first governor, John Baylor, was editor of a newspaper called The White Man, and he was a staunch defender of the Confederacy. The 17th governor worked feverishly to restrict all state holidays to keep them honoring just white people, strenuously opposing the creation of a Martin Luther King Junior holiday, and going so far as to tell black people in 1987, you folks don't need another holiday. What you need are jobs. That's 1987, not 1887. And the 22nd governor, Jan Brewer, signed the racist SB 1070. Show me your papers, Bill. That empowered police to stop and challenge any brown skinned person that they were suspicious of, and asked them to show their citizenship papers just like this country did during the slave holding days when police could challenge any black person to show the papers that they didn't belong in chains on the plantation. So that's a sad and sordid history. But the crucible of that struggle forged a new generation of activists and organizers who are transforming Arizona and, by extension, the country. New organizations were formed, new coalitions came together to organize, register and mobilize voters of color. Over the course of the past decade, more than half a million Latinos have been registered to vote in Arizona. And that reality has changed the composition of the electorate fundamentally. And Democrats have won statewide 2018, 2020 and 2022. In 2016, the organization Lucha spearheaded a successful statewide ballot measure to raise the minimum wage for a million Arizonans. And so on today's podcast, we are delighted to be joined by one of the mothers of that movement, a principal architect of the efforts to develop and unleash the leaders in groups that are changing the state. Not only she played a key role in Arizona's past, but she is now prepared to build on that legacy and take her leadership and voice to Washington, D.C., as she is running for U.S. Congress from Arizona's third congressional district. I am just back from Arizona, whereas I was again inspired by the dedication and energy of the movement there, and I'm thrilled to have this conversation today. And for this conversation, I'm joined as always, but my co-host, Sharline Chiang. Hi, Sharline, how are you? And do you want to introduce our special guest?
Sharline Chiang (02:56):
Hi Steve, I'm doing great and I would love to introduce our guest today. But before I do, I wanted to give a quick reminder to our listeners. If you're listening, if you could take a few seconds, we'd love to ask you to remember to leave us a rating and review on iTunes or Apple Podcasts. And if you could do that, that would be awesome. So thank you so much. Okay. Our guest today is former Arizona State Representative Raquel Téran, a mother, a wife, community organizer and lifelong Arizonan. In 2011, she mobilized Arizonans to rally against the injustices faced at the hands of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and SB 1070 author Russell Pearce. This led to Pearce's recall and Arpaio reelection defeat. I think many of you listening will remember that, that chapter I know I do recall, served as the campaign director for I stand with Planned Parenthood or hashtag. I stand with PPE. That was a campaign that fought to protect the Affordable Care Act and women's reproductive rights. She also served as the regional director of Mi Familia Votas Education Fund. Raquel is now running to represent Arizona's third district, who replace Democrat Ruben Gallego as he pursues a US Senate seat against Republican Kari Lake. Raquel, welcome. We are so excited to have you on today's show. We can't wait to talk to you and catch up with you.
Raquel Téran (04:30):
Thank you for the invitation. And Steve, I love that intro. I was getting emotional just hearing about our journey. Sometimes it's like you need to take time and reflect on the victories that we've had. Sharline, so great to meet you.
Sharline Chiang (04:44):
So great to meet. Absolutely.
Steve Phillips (04:46):
Well, you guys have done the work. And so actually I did want to I did want to start there. Right. So when I was there in March of last year and we were talking with Alice Gomez of Lucha, and she was talking about how you recruited her into the movement and that that was like kind of the seminal story of going around and getting people involved. And so then for the listeners to know. So Alice has gone on to become the executive director of Lucha and ACE, which is, the C3 and C4 of one of the most important statewide organizations that voter mobilization and civic engagement. So can you talk about that, the the origin story of kind of how, that infrastructure came to be and then how you recruited such great people into the movement to be able to go on and move forward.
Raquel Téran (05:30):
Absolutely. You know, I'm so lucky to work with so many people that, I have are leading in this movement, like Alex Gomez. And, Alex says that I recruited her at a corner yelling out, like, "who wants to get rid of Sheriff Joe Arpaio?" She had a choice between, getting rid of Sheriff Joe Arpaio or ousting, let's use the word ousting Sheriff Joe Arpaio or, or getting, President Obama elected. And fortunately, she signed up with me at the corner of that clipboard. You know, at that time, that was around 2007, 2008, because, you know, we many times think about the anti-immigrant sentiment here in the state of Arizona starting during SB 1070, but it really wasn't. We've always had an anti-immigrant sentiment. And.
Steve Phillips (06:21):
Can I actually interrupt you for a second on that? Just realizing that not everybody may know about Arpaio. Yeah. So can you just give a little bit of background on why he was so, reviled?
Raquel Téran (06:29):
So, you know, I think, like, it's important to go back to, like, you know, even after nine, 11, you know what? After 911, we started to see the rise of the anti-immigrant sentiment in the state of Arizona. And like I said, it was we've always had it here. It's anti-latino type people of color, anti-immigrant. But after 911, there was a Pandora box that, like in 2006, that opened across the country here we had it in the early 2000s where we were seeing propositions, that were making English the official language. We were seeing propositions that took away driver's license from people who didn't have Social Security numbers. Well, that's when, we we also saw the, making the in proposition 200, which made it more difficult for, Latinos and people of color to register to vote because we were requesting, citizenship, proposition 300, which triple the tuition for Dreamers. So it wasn't only SB 1070, but we started to see elected officials like Sheriff Arpaio, who at one time were talking about immigrants, are not the problem. But then they saw that they could politicize with that and started to target immigrant communities to the next level. So he was somebody who was, the the main law enforcement in the biggest county in our state, and right now one of the biggest counties across the country who was doing roundups in our community. People were being stopped because they looked another color that was not white. That was like if you had a broken tail light, he was stopping you and questioning you, detaining you and potentially incarcerating you, and even like working really closely with with Ice and deporting people. We started to see that he was just using this issue to gain momentum, and he had the state legislature that was creating legislation. And then he had a county attorney that was interpreting the legislation that was coming out out of the state legislature, and then he was implementing that. So it was a very terrifying, time. And it's still I mean, the consequence of that is still it's still prevalent here because people who lived through that era, when they remember that their parents were being stopped, are now older, and some of them are even organizing, but they still remember Sheriff Arpaio. So, we have in our polls people that that's an era that people still remember. So what we were doing in that time was not only documenting the abuse of power that was happening in the streets, because we had to document the fact that he was doing these stops, and we were calling for a Department of Justice investigation, which actually happened. We are also challenging him with the other things that we he he was somebody who was wasting taxpayer money. He was, not investigating the real the crimes that were happening here in Arizona, including, sex crimes. He, was somebody who actually was not good for our county. So we started to organize around the Maricopa County supervisors. And, Alex, that's when I got to connect with Alex and started to organize to make sure that we were exposing the misplaced priority of the sheriff's office. And I am proud to have been part of that movement that helped oust him through organizing and exposing his misplaced priorities. But, that movement then was there when we had SB 1070 come through our state legislature, which was at the same time where we were thinking we're going to get comprehensive immigration reform because President Obama was in office. And we have the infamous trifecta. And at the same time, the anti-immigrant, extremists at the state legislature were taking things to the next level with SB 1070 with, just like you said was the Show Me Your Papers law.
Steve Phillips (10:23):
Yeah. And then I actually have had, direct actually family experience with Arpaio, just to give people a quick sense of the dynamics of how this plays itself out in the real world. So I know somebody who was, they were arrested and charged with assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon, which sounds very serious and what this actual story was. This person was parked in a parking lot. The car was not moving, but the police, for whatever reason, came up, started to ask question the person. So it's like, why would they even go? The car was parked and not moving. The person tried to drive, put the car in gear and start to drive. May have brief like slightly brushed up against the cop – assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon. That's the type of "law enforcement" and I'm using quotation marks that, gave birth right to this level of, you know, intensity or really wanting to get him out of office.
Sharline Chiang (11:22):
And that's a terrifying story. And when you talk about basically that, that terror, that, that terror, that trauma, the impact of a Raquel, I remember that time. That's why I was saying, I'm sure I know I remember that time I wasn't living there, but I was in touch with people who were living there. And there was also just this, a psychologically, a terror that spread among people of color, especially the Latino community throughout the country, but especially obviously in Arizona. And I remember just that fear and for those of us who, you know, were not directly impacted, but just feeling like helpless and just kind of that feeling of, like I can't believe this is happening in our country at this day and age. In this year, you know, and that's just you were mentioning the impact that it had on the younger generation. It is a good reminder that even though it was, you know, quote unquote "long ago" or that many years ago, the impact continues. So I'm kind of curious, your how did you get involved in politics yourself?
Raquel Téran (12:20):
Yeah. Thank you for that question.
Sharline Chiang (12:20):
Give us an overview.
Raquel Téran (12:22):
Yeah. Well, you know, I'm originally from southern Arizona. I'm from Douglas, Agua Prieta that I grew up on the border on a street that divides the United States and Mexico. So I was born in the United States, raised in the Mexican side. And that's a culture like I cross back and forth basically all my upbringing, my, my childhood. And, I always give people the imagery like if there was a ball that went over the fence back then, it was a wired fence. You could get the ball and bring it back. We could see from my home in Mexico. We could see the copper coin smelter, because Arizona is a mining state. And I still remember the smelter from from the Mexican side. That's how close we we we were to the border. So, my love for public service really starts because my parents were always involved in the community, and they were community organizers in their own way. I didn't even know it was a thing. But they were always, serving our community. So I learned my love for public service through them and my grandparents. So, when the rise of the anti-immigrant sentiment started to be more evident here in Arizona, I remember coming, to visit Douglas in Agua Prieta at that. And the Minutemen were in town. So right now we're seeing the Minutemen, so-called Minutemen over there in Texas, where they are, quote unquote, "protecting the border." That movement happened in Arizona around 2004, 2005, and I was so agitated to see them questioning the border community if people should be here or not. And I for me, that was a moment where I wanted to take my organizing and my public service to the next level, look for avenues of engagement. And I really didn't have the strategy or the right way of doing something about what was happening. I started at the church praying for immigration reform. There was a white ribbon campaign. But fortunately, in 2006, I attended a huge march in downtown Phoenix. It was a march for comprehensive immigration reform against the so-called Sensenbrenner bill. It was a bill that would criminalize, everybody who would be here undocumented. And marches happened all across the country. I attended the one here in Phoenix. The theme of that march was today we march, tomorrow we vote. And fortunately, at that march, I got connected with an organization called Mi Familia Vota which engages Latinos in the decision making process. The organizer there handed me a clipboard with voter registration forms, and I knew right then and there that if we wanted to change anything about what was happening in the state of Arizona, we had to grow our political power. So, they followed up with me. Asked me to come and volunteer. I came and knocked on doors. Helped register people to vote, help people become citizens. And that was in 2006. That was my first election. And so what I learned quickly was that the same people that were, targeting our immigrant communities were the ones gutting our education system and denial of climate change, trying to dismantle our education, of course, reproductive rights. So I just became involved in the overall progressive movement. And, and I'm just so lucky that I was part of, of connecting with this organization that was also connected with labor. And I've been here ever since.
Steve Phillips (15:49):
And your wasn't your first run for office a fairly closely contested race?
Raquel Téran (15:55):
It was Steve. It was I, you know, so by the first time I ran for office was in 2012, and I was a spunky organizer, and I was, even registered as an independent because I was I felt that the Democrats were taking my vote for granted as a Latina, and they could be doing more. And so the opportunity came where, we could start to think about ourselves as organizers, as people who have been registering people to vote, to like that. We could actually be the ones inside the state legislature. So, yes, I literally raised my hand in a meeting who wants to run for office? And I raised my hand and, I decided to going to run a clean campaign. That means that you run a campaign with public dollars, not with taxpayer dollars. And through my, my name in and knocked on many, many doors that summer with my mother. She she was here from April to August and canvased with me, a 115 degree weather every single day. And we missed. We missed it by 113 votes. I was challenging in.
Sharline Chiang (17:12):
No way
Raquel Téran (17:12):
Yeah, I know, I think about that all the time.
Sharline Chiang (17:15):
I could tell.
Raquel Téran (17:17):
We were challenging an incumbent, a Democratic incumbent. And, so it was, it was a good run. But also it taught me so much, it taught me that we need to make sure that we continue to engage our communities in the decision making process. We were already thinking about how we brought in people who usually don't vote and our in that campaign and Steve, you you were talking about this over the weekend about how we needed to need to not only focus on the people, persuade the people who usually vote, but also how we expand. Right. And I think what I learned in that campaign is like, we still need the people who who vote all the time. We need to connect with them because they're the folks who usually vote and then also include the expanding. And so we learned that, that we had a key to victory if we engage people who usually don't vote. But we also need to make sure that we have a strategy of engaging those that do vote to make sure that we get over the finish line.
Steve Phillips (18:22):
So now you're running for Congress, right? So you served for in the state legislature for a while, focused on the state, political and, you know, concerns and whatnot there. But you decided to run for Congress. So can you share why you decided that was it just to get away from 112 degree temperatures or what was the thinking on that?
Raquel Téran (18:43):
Well, I for me, it's taking our organizing to the next level. It's taking our coalition to the next level. I served in our state legislature four and a half years, also served as a chair of the Arizona Democratic Party. So the analogy that I use is like changing our megaphone for a microphone in places where we need to be so that we can make sure that there's representation. And so now Congressman Ruben Gallego is running for U.S. Senate. The opportunity for this open seat is here. And at the end of the day, I think, like I believe that we need to make sure that we are pushing for comprehensive immigration reform, that we're protecting democracy, that we are working towards, legal and safe abortion, that we have bold environmental protections. And, of course, you know, we need to have an economy that moves everybody forward. And so for me, I hope it is it is, a representation of the organizing that we have done, that we can have somebody that comes from movement building and understands the needs of our community that will be in that place of power. And so I'm looking forward to this next phase where we can actually start to get these policies in place and make sure that we're connecting with the dots of how policy is impacting people's lives.
Sharline Chiang (20:03):
Raquel, as I mentioned earlier, you're running to replace a Ruben Gallego and again, he's running for U.S. Senate and the Earl and by the way, he's going to be a future guest on our podcast. That the plan.
Raquel Téran (20:14):
Sweet.
Sharline Chiang (20:14):
Yeah. So going to get a twofer. Earlier this month we got some data to share here. The polling firm Target Smart, says that you are you are leading in the Democratic primary by ten points. So what do you feel sets you apart? You and your platform apart from the other primary candidates?
Raquel Téran (20:32):
Yeah, it primary is always difficult. But this is what democracy looks like. And I think what sets us apart is number one, we have a strong and broad coalition. From day one we announced our campaign. We have the support of Lucha. We have the support of Anchor Patrick. We have the support of Senator Mark Kelly. We have the support of unions that represent collectively more than 40,000 workers. We have the support of Planned Parenthood and reproductive freedom for all and Citizens United and many, many others. And I think, like my journey here in Arizona, politics is a representation of coalition building. And that's what I think sets us apart the most. We know that there is no shortcut, you know, for it. There's no shortcuts in politics. And that real, meaningful change comes because of hard work. So this coalition understands that this is the coalition that has transformed the political landscape of Arizona. And I believe that that that's a story that has, resonated at the doors. When we share that, when we share my journey, when we share that we have the support of such and such important players in Arizona, it's shows that, it's not a capricious moment for us, it's really taking the organizing to the next level. So that's one of the biggest differences. And we are committed to not only getting through the primary, but this election is one of the toughest elections that we will face. So the infrastructure that we are building right now will, of course, get us to demonstrate, enthusiasm for our campaign not only in July 30th when we have our primary, but it will help us ensure that there is enthusiasm for the top of the ticket all the way to the bottom of the ticket, because we have an abortion access initiative that we will need to make sure it gets through the finish line. But we need to make sure that districts like this congressional District 3 are people feel energized that people have, know that they have a candidate that will have their back, just like I've been doing it for the last 20 years. The same thing is going to happen in Congress.
Steve Phillips (22:47):
I know you need to go, so. But just want to follow up on that last point you were raising in terms of the role that the race itself can play, because I've been telling people and they get the case that Arizona's like, four-fer like you got like a two-fer, a three-fer, a fourth that we have the presidential election that Arizona was pivotal in in 2020, kind of lost the history. Is that how important the calling that raised for, Biden was the stopping Trump's attempted coup? That's a separate story. But Arizona was getting called early was really essential. And it's going to be very close and pivotal. Again, there's the US Senate seat that, Ruben is running for. Senators will be able to hold the US Senate. That's a critical piece. There's, in terms of your race, there's also a couple of potential pickup seats for taking back the house. And you guys, I believe, are the closest of these, one of the two closest in the country in terms of flipping the state legislature. So all of these different aspects. So one of the analysis, the one of the problems in 2022, when Democrats really shouldn't have lost the House in the first place, is that a lot of the incumbents don't prioritize voter mobilization. And so I just want to get at something you could use touched down a little bit, but in terms of how you see both the your race and then your relationship with the different movement organizations that you came of age with, their role in driving turnout for the entire ticket, entire race.
Raquel Téran (24:11):
Yeah, I love I love how you just put it. I also call it I have I have quadruple duty. I have the duty for myself, duty for President Biden, duty for Ruben Gallego, duty for abortion access. And, that's a quadruple duty that we have to make sure that we get this district to over perform. And again, these I mean, these are our working class people. These are folks that want to maybe participate in the election, but a lot is happening in their lives. And, we need to make sure that they have a plan to vote this election and also that they have the the energy. Right? So that's why I think candidates like me, who can share a story that, really demonstrate that we understand what they're going through will make a huge difference. And to be frank, some people in the, in the district understand that this is a high priority election, and they will be talking about having to protect democracy. But then there's a whole other segment that are feeling a lot of apathy. So, our role right now is coming in early because this is going in early. It's not two months before the election. It's not two months before November. It's really is at a time where we can start to build the stronger, a stronger relationship. And it's not a relationship that just starts today with this primary, but it's a relationship that has started from many, many years ago. That's why I think we have good numbers in our poll because people understand that this is not something that just started yesterday. So, that will definitely have an impact, for the top of the ticket all the way to the bottom of the ticket. And what we always say is that this district needs to over perform. It is a Democratic district. Within this district we don't have many of those seats that will be competitive. So what happens in the primary will be key. Well you know, like people who get out of a primary in the state from the state legislative races to the congressional races, we all almost know, like it's going to be it's almost a done deal for that person. But if we stop during the, we stop after the primary and we don't get this district to over perform, that's where we put a lot at risk. So we have a lot of work in front of us. And then having the ability to work with unions, with the progressive organizations, with Planned Parenthood and many, many others who have helped build this infrastructure. Will be key to make sure that this district over performs.
Sharline Chiang (26:46):
All right. On that note, all the all the areas that you need to over perform and and like you were saying, just all the areas that you need to take care of. We're going to let you go soon. But I wanted to just thank you. We wanted to thank you so much again for joining us. And before we go, where can people keep up with you?
Raquel Téran (27:03):
Thank you so much. Of course, on social media. But visit our webpage raquelteran.com. We need your support. If you can join us by making, phone calls, sending text messages, giving a donation, we all know that we need the resources to make sure that we get our message out there, and we continue the momentum that we have to this moment. So thank you for that. We have the raquelteran.com
Steve Phillips (27:31):
We really appreciate you joining us Raquel. And just thinking ahead to next year. Right. That you know I got I think I met like ten years ago Hakeem Jeffries who would be the new speaker if the Democrats, you know, pick up the four seats and that during the Trump impeachment, any wrap up a speech saying, "if you don't know now, you know," Right again its like the most, you know, hip hop fluent speaker. We will have had we had Summer Lee early on the podcast, a couple years ago, we just had Lateefah Simon. And I'm like, this 2025 House of Representatives is going to be lit when you guys all get over there.
Raquel Téran (28:06):
It will be, it will be, and we're ready to fight for our communities. I love that.
Steve Phillips (28:10):
All right. That's all the time we have for today. Thank you for listening to Democracy in Color with Steve Phillips. Please help us get the word out about this podcast by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts, sharing with your friends, tweeting @DemocracyColor and at SteveP tweets, and finding us at Democracy in Color on Facebook or Instagram. You can also keep up with all things Demco by subscribing to our newsletter at DemocracyinColor.com. If you listen to our podcast on iTunes, please leave us a rating and a comment. It helps others to find our show. This podcast is a democracy in color production. Our producer is Olivia Parker. Fola Onifade is our staff writer and associate producer Sharline Chiang is our editor and co-host. Special thanks to April Elkjer for quality check. Recorded virtually with the assistance the Podcast Studio of San Francisco. Until next time, keep the faith.
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