Veterans and their family members crowded a small union hall in Tucson Thursday night for a town hall event with Democratic politicians.
In attendance were Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva, congressional candidate JoAnna Mendoza and Arizona state representatives Nancy Gutierrez and Aaron Márquez. The event was organized by VetsForward, a liberal veterans’ advocacy group led by Márquez, himself a veteran.
For most of the night, the politicians listened as veterans stood up to speak, one by one. Some worried about their VA healthcare and federal layoffs. Others shared thoughts on current events or recounted their years in the service. The room was emotional; testimonies brought tears to people’s eyes. “This feels like an AA meeting,” one speaker remarked.
In the view of 79-year-old Henry Trejo, who was drafted into the Army in the 1960s, veterans weren’t a priority for President Donald Trump.
“He never mentions veterans. He never gives us a pat on the back,” he said.
Trejo is one of several regular demonstrators outside the Tucson VA Medical Center. He criticized the Trump administration’s request for a 17.4% cut to VA healthcare paired with a 50.7% funding increase for community care.
The Community Care Program allows veterans to visit non-VA facilities for care. Its creation received bipartisan support. But more recently, some Democrats and VA doctors have argued that prioritizing the program harms veterans’ healthcare and amounts to privatizing the VA.
The 2026 VA appropriations bill passed the House and Senate this summer with a 13.4% cut to VA healthcare and a 71.6% increase for community care. It also included a moderate increase in funding for VA facility maintenance. Arizona Senator Mark Kelly voted for it, while Sen. Ruben Gallego did not vote. Both are Democrats.
While active service members may receive praise from Trump now, Trejo said, they will someday be veterans, too.
“These guys that are serving now, all these people in the military, they’re going to come to something terrible if we don’t do something about it,” he said.
The VA is reducing its workforce by 30,000 people under the second Trump administration, down from initial plans of an 80,000-person cut.
Other speakers discussed broader national security concerns. Jenny Mahvi, a 65-year-old Army veteran “almost had a panic attack” when a leak revealed White House officials discussing war plans in Yemen on a Signal group chat. Her son is in the Navy, she said, and has been in “that arena.”
She decided to write a letter to her congressman, U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, a Republican.
“It took me two days to write this letter, I was so shook up. And I mailed it in to him, I got nothing,” she said.
At the time, Ciscomani had called the leak “extremely serious” to 12 News in Phoenix but said he was “confident the White House will take the necessary steps to safeguard sensitive information and our Armed Forces.”
“That is the most disrespectful, disgraceful treatment of our brothers and sisters in arms,” Mahvi said of the Signal leak during the town hall.
“Mr. Ciscomani had nothing to say to me. So I would like another representative,” she said.
At least one politician in attendance had a similar wish: political newcomer JoAnna Mendoza, the current Democratic front-runner to take on Ciscomani in the 2026 midterm elections.
Mendoza’s pitch to the assembled veterans hinged on her own military — and post-military — experience. She served 20 years in the Navy and Marine Corps.
“I came home, like many of you, looking to find camaraderie, looking to find community,” she said. “But home wasn’t the same and neither was I.”
“I was so depressed, I felt so alone until I finally found my community,” she said.
Mendoza worked as a veterans services staffer for U.S. Rep. Tom O’Halleran, who represented Arizona’s 1st district from 2017 to 2023. She said State Representative Aaron Márquez brought her “into the fold.” Mendoza is a board member of VetsForward, Márquez’s advocacy group.
Towards the end of the night, Márquez himself stood up to speak.
“I think there’s a lot of power in this room,” he said.
Márquez said there was political science research showing an advantage for veterans running for office in swing districts as Democrats.
District 6 is Arizona’s swingiest district, according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index. Ciscomani won the seat by fewer than 11,000 votes in 2024 and fewer than 6,000 votes in 2022.
The district contains the Army’s Fort Huachuca and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Over 80,000 veterans live in the district, according to the U.S. Census.
From 2015 to 2019, much of the area was represented by Republican Martha McSally, a 22-year Air Force veteran.
