A former Republican who won’t say she supports universal healthcare is not the Democrat AZ-01 needs
WASHINGTON, DC — With less than three weeks until Arizona’s July 21 primary, and with over 50,000 Arizonans dropping their health insurance since Republican cuts took effect at the start of the year, Marlene Galán-Woods recently refused to answer whether she believes every Arizonan deserves universal healthcare.
At the June 23 Citizens Clean Elections Commission debate, Galán-Woods was the only candidate on the stage who did not back universal health coverage, dodging the defining healthcare question of our time while standing feet away from Dr. Amish Shah, an emergency room physician who has spent his career treating patients who have been failed by our broken healthcare system—and who backs a universal Medicare buy-in option as a path to guaranteeing care for every American.
After another debate two weeks prior, the Arizona Republic reported that “Galán-Woods was the only candidate who did not back universal health care.”
Maybe this shouldn’t be a surprise. Galán-Woods was a lifelong Republican who spent decades as part of Arizona’s GOP elite and enthusiastically supported Mitt Romney over President Obama in 2012—when Romney’s top campaign promise was the full repeal of the ACA.
Meanwhile, more than 100 million Americans are drowning in medical debt, and Arizona families are watching their premiums spike and dropping their insurance plans after Republicans in Washington gutted ACA subsidies.
Voters in AZ-01 don’t need a candidate who polls her answers on healthcare. They need a doctor who has spent decades in the emergency room seeing exactly what happens when coverage fails — and who has the courage to say, plainly, that healthcare is a right, not a choice.
“Healthcare is not a gotcha question — it is the difference between life and death for Arizona families, and if Marlene Galán-Woods can’t give them a straight answer on universal healthcare, she has no business representing them in Congress,” said 314 Action Executive Director Erik Polyak. “Galán-Woods dodged the question, and that tells you everything you need to know about her. Dr. Amish Shah has spent his career in the emergency room caring for patients when the system fails them, and he’s been crystal clear: he will fight for universal coverage because he’s seen firsthand what happens without it. Arizona’s 1st District deserves a leader guided by science, medicine, and facts — not a former Republican who won’t tell voters what she believes.”
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314 Action is the only national organization working to recruit, train and elect Democratic scientists across all levels of government—from the Senate down to local school boards. The organization is powered by a grassroots community of over six million people supporting scientists and health care professionals who will use science and facts to address the most urgent issues facing our generation.