In Arizona, this Latino family is switching to Trump after four generations of voting Democrats

Kathleen Gomez needed new election symbols. She arranged for our meeting to take place at the Gloo Factory in Tucson, a two-hour drive from her home in Douglas, Cochise County, Arizona, where she is running for a seat on the Board of Supervisors on November 5th.

The candidate was hoping to replace one of her signs lost in the battle at a roundabout in Bisbee, the county seat, a Democratic stronghold where “they hate Donald with a passion,” she said. The former president’s sign did not survive the heated passions, and neither did hers, which was vintage red with only a small elephant in the right corner.

The Gloo Factory, a printing and sticker factory, was in full swing, filled with T-shirts and posters: for Kamala Harris, for a cease-fire in Palestine, and for abortion. “I must be their only Republican customer,” Gomez said before hitting the road again in his Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck. Two hours there, two hours left for a poster, this is Arizona.

At 68, Gomez is on the campaign trail to “inform” his 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 split in three — left by left in Bisbee, right by right in Tombstone and the Latinos, mostly Democrats, in Douglas — she hopes her name will help her 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 seek 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 back room. 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.

Migrant arrivals are falling

In the United States, Arizona is a separate state, part Wild West landscape populated by ranchers, part mission land for aerospace and semiconductors. With almost 7.5 million inhabitants, it would not matter if the political landscape and the US electoral system had not made it one of the seven main 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 get 11 seats in the Electoral College and perhaps in the White House.

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