Kathleen Gomez needed new election signs. She arranged for our meeting to happen at the Gloo Factory in Tucson, a two-hour trip from her home in Douglas, in Cochise County, Arizona, where she is running for a seat on the board of supervisors on November 5.
The candidate was hoping to replace one of her signs had been lost in the battle of a roundabout in Bisbee, the county seat, a Democratic stronghold where “they hate Donald passionately,” she said. The former president’s sign didn’t survive the heated passions, nor did hers, which was vintage red, with just a small elephant in the right-hand corner.
The Gloo Factory, a print shop and sticker factory, was in full swing, cluttered with T-shirts and posters: for Kamala Harris, for a ceasefire in Palestine and for abortion. “I must be their only Republican customer,” said Gomez, before hitting the road again in her Chevrolet Silverado pickup. Two hours there, two hours back for a poster, that’s Arizona.
At 68, Gomez is on the campaign trail to “inform” her fellow citizens before decisions are made, “inspire” them to get involved, and illustrate that the political process “still works” if they do. In a Republican county divided into three – the left of the left in Bisbee, the right of the right in Tombstone and the Latinos, mostly Democrats, in Douglas – she hopes her name will help her to get elected.
Jesus, the Pope and JFK, ‘our Trinity’
The Gomez family has been established in Douglas, on the border with Mexico, for four generations. Her great-grandfather Julio Gomez, who died in 1928, is buried in Sacred Heart Cemetery, said to be the only south-facing cemetery in North America. Michael Gomez, the grandfather, ran a grocery store where he sold dried fruit and dispensed advice to politicians who came to canvass for the Mexican vote. The store was decorated with prints of Jesus, the Pope and John F. Kennedy. “That was our Trinity,” said Kathleen Gomez, who caught the political bug in the backroom. Mike Gomez, her 93-year-old father, was one of Arizona’s first Latino dentists and was mayor of Douglas from 2008 to 2012. The family had always been Democrats, until Donald Trump arrived.
In the United States, Arizona is a state apart, part Wild West scenery populated by ranchers, part mission land for aerospace and semiconductors. With almost 7.5 million inhabitants, it would have no importance if the political landscape and the American electoral system hadn’t made it one of the seven key swing states in the 2024 election. In 2016, Trump won by 91,234 votes over Hillary Clinton. In 2020, Joe Biden won the state (by 10,457 votes). The winner on November 5 will take 11 seats in the Electoral College and, perhaps, the White House.
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Publish date : 2024-10-30 07:00:00
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