Special to DailyGrito from Politic365.

Politic365 had an opportunity to chat with Wenona Benally Baldenegro, a Democratic candidate running in Arizona’s newly redrawn 1st Congressional District. Arizona is becoming increasingly competitive for Democrats this year in large part due to redistricting and the backlash against SB 1070, the immigration law that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found on some grounds to be unconstitutional. Additionally, Benally Baldenegro, who is a member of the Navajo Indian Tribe and is married to a Mexican American, has a unique opportunity to bridge the common interests of the two communities that have long felt underrepresented in the Grand Canyon State.

Benally Baldenegro, a young attorney raised by a single mom, explained her motivation to run this year. “I’m running for Congress now because this past year has been unusual for us in Arizona — so much of what we have fought for in the past in under attack,” says Benally Baldenegro. “Our communities have always stood up and fought back, and we expect our elected officials to do the same. With the GOP controlling most of the state legislature and our seats in Congress, we have had Republican elected officials attacking our students, our seniors and our unions.”

Last March, the Arizona house passed some anti-union bills; one even eliminated the collection of union dues. A federal district court overturned the union dues bill. School funding has been the subject of criticism in Arizona as well, with a widening gap between poorer and more affluent districts. And there has been the ongoing controversy over the Mexican American studies program in Southern Arizona in the Tucson Unified School District; last week the social studies program was cancelled. Also, recent Republican budget proposals in the House of Representatives would have impacted some 90,700 Arizona seniors who rely on Medicaid to fill in the cost gaps of Medicare.

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