Victory Spotlight Candidate Dr. Matt Heinz was among ten candidates newly designated as “Emerging Races” within the Red to Blue program of the Democratic Party’s Congressional campaign arm.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) had previously held off on including Arizona’s District 2 in the program, despite the nearly even registration of Democrats, Republicans and independents. But the previous round of announcements to the program took place while many Congressional primaries were still underway, and before the rise of Donald Trump to the top of the GOP ticket.
The DCCC’s support of Heinz is significant since he still has a primary opponent. Though the presence of an opponent previously kept many national players out of the race, Heinz has shown his fundraising prowess in the primary. Heinz has raised more than $600,000 over the lifetime of his campaign and has nearly $390,000 cash on hand. His primary opponent only has about $45,000 cash on hand. (These figures exclude the second quarter of 2016, which the FEC requires to be filed by July 15.)
Arizona’s Second District was the most competitive Congressional district in 2014, with incumbent Republican Martha McSally winning by a mere 167 votes.
In their memo, the DCCC noted the district’s demographics:
AZ-02 is 56.7% suburban and Hispanics represent 19.9% of the voting age population – both clear indicators that the demographics of this district provide increasingly friendly ground for Democrats with Trump at the top of the ticket.
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