Arizonans are ditching political parties, but not political candidates

PHOENIX — Almost 4,000 voters ditched their party affiliations in favor of the “other” label in March alone, according to a Monday announcement from the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office.

Additionally, over 1,200 Republicans and 1,901 Democrats chose to leave their respective parties, officials said.

However, just because voters are becoming unaffiliated with political parties doesn’t mean their mindsets are changing, according to Dr. Samara Klar, a political science professor at the University of Arizona, says just because voters are unaffiliating doesn’t mean their mindsets are changing.

“The vast majority of independents do prefer one of the two parties, and they do vote for that party every year,” Klar told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News on Wednesday.

Why are so many Arizona voters ditching their party affiliations?

There are currently over 2.5 million registered voters in Arizona.

“The most common switch that we see is Republicans becoming independents who support the Republican party, or Democrats who become independent who support the Democratic party,” Klar said.

Many people are ditching party affiliations because of the behavior of partisan representatives, she added.

“There is a stigma against partisanship. Americans may be conservative, they may be liberal, but they don’t associate with the aggression and conflict and hostility that we see in Washington when we turn on the news and we see Democrats and Republicans, you know, in Congress,” she said.

More details about Arizona voters and changing party affiliations

Republicans were the second fastest growing group in March, gaining more than 1,500 new voters. Klar attributed this to Arizona’s right-leaning political history but said that could be changing with the more moderate Democrats in the state Legislature.

“You look at Gallego, you look at Kelly, even Kyrsten Sinema,” Klar said. “These are Democrats who embody more of a centrist moderate image in their voting patterns or perhaps in their messaging and their campaign ads.”

This really appeals to Arizonans, she added.

“Arizonans have been sort of a moderate and non-partisan, post-partisan population for a long time,” Klar said.

Why so many Arizona voters lean independent

After Republicans, most Arizona voters are registered as independents, she added. That means voters who choose to switch out of the two major political parties hold a lot of power in the state when it comes to party support.

“They won’t put up the yard sign, they won’t make phone calls, they won’t donate money,” Klar said. “So for Republicans and Democrats to be losing affiliated voters is quite consequential because they are losing the grassroots activism that parties need in order to win, especially to win close elections like we have here in Arizona.”

Klar said looking to the future, it seems Arizona will continue to move away from committing to major political parties.

“The whole spirit of Arizona is really quite independent,” she said.

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