Ari­zona Democ­rats stray from abor­tion mes­sage and focus on water in rur­al areas

Ari­zona Democ­rats are look­ing to cap­ture vot­ers mind­ful of one resource that is sparse in the desert state: water.
As polit­i­cal bat­tles over abor­tion and the south­ern bor­der hit close to home for some Ari­zo­nans, record-set­ting high-tem­per­a­ture sum­mers and droughts wor­ry many. Democ­rats look to rein in rur­al vot­ers who have turned on the par­ty by fram­ing water as a “life or death” mat­ter going into the 2024 elec­tions.
“Water made me attor­ney gen­er­al,” said Demo­c­rat Kris Mayes, the state’s attor­ney gen­er­al. “This is exact­ly the kind of issue we can win back some of rur­al Amer­i­ca.”
In tan­dem, Mayes and Gov. Katie Hobbs (D‑AZ) have cracked down on con­tro­ver­sial farms that had unlim­it­ed access to the state’s lim­it­ed ground­wa­ter sup­ply.
Last year, the pair end­ed a con­tract with a Sau­di Ara­bi­an com­pa­ny, Fon­domonte, that grew alfal­fa in Ari­zona and then shipped the hay back to the Mid­dle East. Under the con­tract from for­mer Repub­li­can Gov. Doug Ducey, the com­pa­ny was giv­en unlim­it­ed access to ground­wa­ter in Ari­zona.
Mayes has been can­vass­ing in rur­al parts of the state that …