Wendy Rogers arrived in Camp Verde without staff. It was just the Republican Congressional candidate and her husband Hal, stopping by at Las Margaritas in Camp Verde on Monday, Oct. 1, for a brief visit before further traversing the enormous 1st Congressional District of Arizona.
Rogers sees her constant travel as the key to her campaign. As a former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, she not only drives across the Grand Canyon State, but flies a plane herself. She rattles off the names of small towns across Arizona — Eagar, Eloy, Catalina — that she has not only visited, but come back to multiple times. In Rogers’ view, this is her advantage over her opponent, incumbent U.S. Rep. Tom O’Halleran [District 1], whom she refers to as “invisible.”
“I show up, and I listen, and they know me,” Rogers said. This was Rogers’ third visit to Camp Verde between the primary and general election. “They know me face to face, and there’s nothing that can replace that. No one does that any more. They just try to phone it in. That’s what O’Halleran does. That’s just not going to hack it.”
Rogers’ shoe-leather campaign could have a tough hill to climb. In a year when polls show Democrats surging in districts all over the country, Rogers is trying to turn the tables on a well-funded incumbent Democrat. Election prognosticators like the Cook Political Report and University of Virginia Center for Politics have kept the seat as a likely Democratic hold.
Rogers is undeterred. She says she does not believe in the “blue wave,” and cites President Donald Trump having won the 1st District in 2016 by a percentage point over Hillary Clinton, as well as an increase in the number of Republicans who voted in August’s primary compared to 2016, dwarfing Democrats in the district.
“Don’t even think for a moment that we’re not in the limelight,” Rogers told supporters. “This is the district in Arizona that’s quote-unquote flippable.”
But above all, Rogers touts the enthusiasm of the voters, on clear display in the cramped room at Las Margeritas. Supporters ran out of seats and stood around Rogers as she fired off the Republican base wish-list.
“Build the wall,” Rogers said. The room applauded. “Repeal Obamacare,” The room cheered. She teased the possibility of the president visiting the district before the general election, which was met with delight from the audience.
The loudest eruption of support from the room came when Rogers heralded the need for Republicans to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, as they did in a 50-48 Senate vote Saturday, Oct. 6. Rogers asserted that Kavanaugh was being unfairly targeted by Democrats with sexual assault allegations she called “uncorroborated,” and demanded due process for the nominee. When pressed, she would not definitively say whether she thought the allegations against Kavanaugh by Christine Blasey Ford and others were false.
Rogers viewed the fight over Kavanaugh as emblematic of the kinds of battle the parties were engaged in this election. She accused the Democrats of having “Trump derangement syndrome” and made references to figures of Republican disdain like billionaire George Soros and actress Kathy Griffin. She complained about groups opposing her having hired a tracker to attend her events and videotape them, a figure whom she referred to as a “stalker,” and successfully obtained a restraining order against.
“If [the House] falls into the hands of the Democrats, they will impeach our president,” Rogers declared. She sought to fire up the voters to not just vote, but donate and volunteer to the campaign. She suggested they write and send op-eds to local newspapers supporting her candidacy.
“I will be there for them,” Rogers said of Verde Valley voters. “They can contact me. I will listen, and I will represent them well regardless of where in the district it is.”
cal newspapers supporting her candidacy. “I will be there for them,” Rogers said of Verde Valley voters. “They can contact me. I will listen, and I will represent them well regardless of where in the district it is.”
