In Arizona, Republicans have outnumbered Democrats for a long time. But while it has become a swing state in presidential contests, the GOP registration advantage over Democrats has only grown.
On Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee announced a voter registration program meant to reverse that trend in Arizona and Nevada, another southwestern swing state. The party will recruit over 100 organizers in both states to register voters specifically as Democrats, signaling a reversal of years-old political strategies.
“We can no longer solely rely on outside partners. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment and a crisis,” said DNC chair Ken Martin in a call with reporters.
For years, Democrats outsourced voter registration drives to certain types of independent nonprofits that are legally barred from encouraging people to vote for a specific party. Those nonprofits often targeted demographics widely expected to vote for Democrats, like Latinos, African-Americans and young people.
According to U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego, that didn’t work.
“You can’t just rely on what we used to rely on, which is if they’re Latino, if they’re young, they’re most likely to support Democrats so let’s just register them to vote,” he said in the press call.
According to exit polls, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gained seven percentage points with young voters and 14 points among Latinos between 2020 and 2024.
Meanwhile, Republicans’ registration advantage in Arizona has grown. Between Nov. 2020 and Oct. 2025, Republican voter rolls grew by over 94,000 people. In the same time period, Democrats lost over 108,000 registrations.
The new program comes as Democrats hope to flip Arizona’s state legislature and Republican U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani’s congressional district in the 2026 midterm elections.
Independents are the fastest-growing category of voters in Arizona
While both major parties battle for new members, independent registrations have surged. The number of voters in Arizona unaffiliated with either party grew by over 190,000 between Nov. 2020 and Oct. 2025.
“This hyperpolarization that we see and feel, the data very much backs it up,” said Mark Noble, a pollster based in Arizona.
He said polls show many more self-identified Democrats and Republicans expressing highly negative views of the opposite party in recent years.
“That polarization is not leaving room for folks in the middle, so you’ve got a lot of people who are politically homeless as independents,” Noble said.
Independents now outnumber Democrats in Arizona and have almost caught up to Republicans, meaning they’re often the ones who sway elections one way or another.
But registering voters to their side still has advantages for parties. It means they are more exposed to party organizers and messaging. In Arizona, it also determines how many precinct committeemen — ground-level elected officials who help with further voter registration — each local party gets.
Local party chair says message is as important as numbers in voter registration
Voter registration has been a priority for Democrats in Pinal County since early last year, according to the chair of the county’s Democratic Party, Jennifer Hilsbos.
When persuading people to register as Democrats — rather than to register more generally — Hilsbos said it’s not enough to simply attack Republicans and President Donald Trump.
“You need to know what it is that your party stands for,” she said.
She said her local party settled on three ideas for volunteers to focus on while knocking on doors: affordability, healthcare access and investing in public education.
“I feel like that’s really resonated with people,” Hilsbos said.
The rapidly suburbanizing county between Tucson and Phoenix contains some of Arizona’s most competitive state and federal legislative districts. Hilsbos said that funds from Democrats’ new registration program will help her hire some of her volunteers full-time. She said she’s been told by the Arizona Democratic Party — which will distribute the funds locally — that her county is a priority for the program.
