The infighting currently endemic within the Democratic Party has found its way to the Arizona Democrats with a significant rift opening between party leaders and top Democrat elected officials.
In a weekend email, Arizona Democratic Party (ADP) Chairman Robert Branscomb aired the details of an ongoing intraparty conflict with the ADP’s former executive director, Morgan Dick as well as both of Arizona’s Democrat U.S. Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego.
Branscomb accused Dick of undermining him and the Senators of threatening him over his recent decisions. According to AZ Free News, Branscomb’s surprise victory over former Chairwoman Yolanda Bejarano, who was backed by most of the ADP’s elected officials, led to immediate pushback and “outright obstruction” to the party’s operation as explained in the email entitled “a candidate update on the past 90 days.”
“When I arrived at the state party office just three days after the state committee meeting, I found an empty workspace — no computers, minimal furniture, and no transition documents. What should have been a professional hand off of responsibilities instead became a scramble to uncover critical information,” he wrote in the email per KJZZ.
He went on to reveal that following his election a series of false accusations were levied against him by Democrat staffers, he was denied access to party banking information, the party headquarters was cleared of furniture, equipment and documents and the staff were encouraged to resign. This led to Branscomb removing Dick from her role and replacing her with political director Michael Ruff.
In a statement released in response to the email, Dick denied the allegations, “The statement published by the current Chair is an attack on me professionally, riddled with inaccuracies, and is counterproductive to the goal of winning in 2026,” she said in a statement cited by KJZZ. “I worked incredibly hard to provide a successful transition to the new leadership and am proud of our work at the ADP.”
After the removal of Dick, Branscomb alleges that Senator Mark Kelly attempted to wrestle control of the party’s staffing decisions, and following Ruff’s appointment both Senators Kelly and Gallego threatened to withdraw their support from the state party.
“Let me be clear: no state party chair should be threatened or intimidated by any elected official for making a decision in the best interest of our party,” Branscomb said in the email.
“The idea that both Arizona Senators would withdraw support because I did not choose their preferred candidate is not only troubling — it’s a threat to the integrity and independence of our party. I will not be coerced, and I will not be silenced.” In a responding statement, U.S. Sens. Ruben Gallego, and Mark Kelly, Gov. Katie Hobbs, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Attorney General Kris Mayes claimed, “We’ve spent the last several months meeting regularly with the chair and working to support the party through the transition.” They then accused Branscomb of acting in bad faith saying, “Unfortunately, his statement today includes many false claims and is the kind of bad-faith response we’ve come to expect from the new leadership over the last several weeks.”
The five Democrat politicians added, “as Arizona statewide elected leaders who have all won historic campaigns, we know what it takes to work together, build a broad coalition, and win in Arizona. Any efforts not devoted to winning are simply a waste of resources.”
They concluded, “While the chair has lost our trust, we are not going to let that deter us from our mission of winning in 2026.” As reported by The Washington Post’s Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, there is reportedly talk of an attempt to oust Branscomb during the ADP’s upcoming summer gathering.
After the October revolution that Bolshevik & the Menshevik went at it, with the more radical Bolsheviks taking the day. Something to remember while watching this play out.
The Arizona Dimshevik Party is simply an “ongoing conspiratorial enterprise”…the fact this internal blood-letting has spilled-out into the open is indicative of how deeply their rot & revulsion goes.
AMEN! this is not ‘we the people’ this is them the controllers of the people
And where is the conservative Republican party to exploit this situation, demolish the Ds, and get more support form the citizenry? Oh, I forgot, we do not have such a party!
McCain destroyed the GOP in Arizona. It will never come back. Certainly not Tucson, Pima County, Phoenix, Flagstaff.
Satan has consumed the Democrat party.
I’m sorry, but as an active Republican is my past life (Dimshevik New Mexico)….whenever we revert back to religion to explain things…WE ALWAYS LOSE. You need to get a clue: IT ALWAYS TURNS FOLKS OFF.
Denying the truth will always catch up to you.
Bill – while it may turn some off – ignorance of religion and “God” not a solution. The interesting thing about religion is ‘The Bible teaches” the EARTH is now owned by Satan – the ‘Return of Christ’ will solve that once and for all.. the final judgement. We have Choice – believe or not – that difference is by definition ‘salvation’ the only and ultimate requirement for which without it.. you are not saved. But what is ‘saved’? Literal? I’d say yes.. and Christians today believe “SOON” because prophecy leads them to see what is now – as it was in the times of NOAH – Israel itself a ‘significant sign’ after 2000 years of being a dispersed people.. they are once again (parable of the Fig)
So does it turn some folks off… guess it does – but does that change anything of what is coming – No it does not ; believe it or not – YES IT IS – you make your choice .
It turns off the Godless. And the two places you mention, New Mexico and southern Arizona are certainly that. They will never vote for anything other than their version of Communist Manifesto. All the municipalities in Arizona have gone far left and a big reason is they intimidate those of faith and the Republican Party does nothing to support them, as your ALL CAPS response illustrates.
100% agree. If I want to know what “God wants” I’ll go to church. For political ideology I’m looking for maximum freedom _from_the_state_, free enterprise, law and order with compassion, and local governance (federalism). I don’t care if Jesus saves, invests, or blows it all on a trip to Disneyland. Keep pushing religion and people will just sit out the elections and the Dims will keep winning.
Don’t support our freedom of religion and we won’t support those candidates. Easy peasy. Can’t you figure out that we don’t need two democrat parties?
@MXB4Freedom, no one is denying you your right to practice your religion, so you can discard that strawman. We are telling you, we don’t want to hear it in political discourse. Go to church, vote your conscience, and move on. What we don’t want is a binary choice between the Dimsheviks and the American Taliban.
I don’t really care about Democrat Party infighting. What I care more about is the fact that we have major political positions in this State controlled by Democrats when Arizona has 300,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats. WTF! Generally, Republicans will head to the polls and vote only when they feel economically threatened as they did when Donald Trump was elected. When things are going smoothly politically, Republicans will get out and vote only when it’s convenient. This habitual malaise needs to reversed where they realize that every election is a matter of life or death!
IMHO, it’s been the backfill of a power vacuum being satisfied uncontrollably after Johnny-Warball-McCain went to his great reward in the bowels of Hell. It was like a football fumble between Clemson and BugTussel Vo-Tech, where ‘the Bugs’ recovered and scored a 4Xfer, when the divided GOP establishment got sidetracked, and gave us BREATHTAKINGLY BAD CANIDATES. Hopefully, they’ve learned their lessons (?).
You didn’t mention the independent voters outnumber either party. They decide who takes office. The fact is that Republicans constantly vote in higher percentage than Dems.
Sorry, but your entire post is emotional but far from factual.
Maybe it’s time to get the FBI involved and look at their books and communications. Seems fishy, much like the entire Democratic party and some of the Republicans. There is not an institution in this country that has not been infected with this corrupt disease.
Nice photo of Senators Kelly and Gallego. Would photos of Branscomb and Ruff be more revealing about the real issue behind this intramural struggle?
Just love it when the left eats their own. Looks like to me a check all the boxes woman did not get the job that she was promised and now everyone is in a huge snit because the party voted against their box checker. Just love it when a plan comes together to minimize the worthless democrat party.
The Arizona Democratic Party would be in big problem if they had to rely on actual voters to win elections.
the plan was import voters to win… now – there’s a voter shortage – so maybe their are looking for an AI solution to creating more from nothing –
Sens. Ruben Gallego, and Mark Kelly, Gov. Katie Hobbs, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Attorney General Kris Mayes ; what would Arizona be like if this list of “CRATS” was GONE!