Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in Mesa: Abortion rights will 'wake up' voters this fall

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland slammed former President Donald Trump’s “abortion fiasco” Saturday during a campaign stop in Mesa and said the issue of abortion rights will “wake up” voters and drive turnout this fall.

“Republicans see our country as a dark place where, you know, where there's no hope at all. Joe and Kamala see it as a future with bright lights and possibilities,” Haaland said at a Biden campaign office, encouraging volunteers to knock on doors and talk to voters.

On the trail for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Haaland made the case for reelecting the president and Democrats at the state and local levels to a crowd of roughly 40 people.

She was joined by fellow Democrats U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton and state Reps. Seth Blattman and Lorena Austin to mark the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision to overturn the landmark Roe vs. Wade abortion decision.

“We're coming up on the second year of Donald Trump's abortion fiasco,” Haaland said. “My child has fewer rights than my mother had. And so it's important that we elect a president who cares about women, who understands that our bodies, our decisions, we get to make those decisions on our own.”

Haaland’s visit to the state, which included stops in Phoenix and Flagstaff, comes days before Vice President Kamala Harris is set to hold a Phoenix event recognizing the fall of Roe v. Wade on Monday. The Biden campaign is making abortion rights a centerpiece of its pitch in Arizona, where reproductive rights have been in limbo for the past two years. Voters will likely decide whether to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution with a ballot question in November.

“It's an issue that's going to really help people to wake up,” Haaland said.

Stanton echoed that opinion, predicting that the initiative will pass “overwhelmingly” if it appears on the ballot this fall.

“The United States of America is not going to go backwards on civil and constitutional rights. This country needs to move forwards on that issue. So what are we going to do in November when the abortion initiative, abortion access for all, is on the ballot? It's going to pass overwhelmingly,” Stanton said.

Critics of the abortion initiative say the ballot question is too broad and lacks safeguards around abortion.

For its part, the Trump campaign has slammed Biden and Harris as “radical extremists” on abortion.

“The truth is that the Dobbs Decision returned the power back to the people in every respective state to make decisions on the issue of abortion. Some states will be more conservative and some will be more liberal – but as President Trump has consistently stated – he supports the rights of individuals to determine their laws,” Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, said in a written statement.

Speakers at the Mesa canvassing event also emphasized the importance of voting in state and local elections in the competitive 9th legislative district.

“It is only with a Democratic majority that we can actually move this state forward. You happen to be sitting in the most competitive districts in the state right here,” Blattman said, noting the razor-thin GOP majorities in the state House and Senate, along with his own narrow winning margin in 2022. “It was kind of a miracle we got all three of us in last time. But we need to do it again.”

Local elections are of particular importance to campaign volunteer Alyssa Lamontagne-Owens, who will vote for the first time this fall after becoming a U.S. citizen in April.

Lamontagne-Owens is concerned about voting rights in the state and a GOP-led initiative to make crossing the border illegally a state crime that may appear on the November ballot.

“I see this election as a turning point for America, hopefully, towards the future. I see us on a cliff's edge right now,” Lamontagne-Owens said. “I see what we’re up against. The GOP are not interested, right now in Arizona, in moving us forward.”

The Saturday morning event also drew some first-time canvassers such as Dennis Hubert, a 61-year-old singer-songwriter and licensed unity teacher from Mesa. The fall of Roe vs. Wade and the GOP’s hostility on transgender issues prompted Hubert to volunteer and knock on doors for Democrats.

“I think it is ridiculous that some humans are allowed to have rights and others are not because of their religion or the color of their skin. That’s ridiculous,” Hubert said. “It makes me really angry so that’s why I’m out here.”

Justine Parnell, a doctoral student studying education at Arizona State University, was encouraged by a friend to come to her first canvass on Saturday. The 35-year-old Mesa resident said her goal is to encourage her neighbors to cast ballots this fall.

“A lot of people right now don’t even want to vote. That’s the biggest thing, if we can drop a seed and inspire someone to want to vote,” Parnell said.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland campaigns in Ariz. for Biden reelection