Good morning, Rj! Happy Sunday! ☀️ 

Rep. Eli Crane uses derogatory term on House floor. While giving remarks on his amendment to the annual defense policy and spending bill, Crane used a derogatory phrase when referring to Black servicemembers. His use of the term was stricken from the record at the request of Rep. Joyce Beatty, who called the comment “offensive and very inappropriate”. Extremist lawmakers are using the defense bill to continue pushing their bigoted agenda and waging their culture war; Crane’s amendment would ban diversity considerations in the military. Other amendments would ban the Department of Defense from covering travel expenses for abortion care for service members and from funding gender-affirming healthcare for LGBTQ+ servicemembers. 

Mayes investigates MAGA fake electors. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is investigating the fake elector scheme by MAGA Republicans that were sent to the electoral college as part of the attempt to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. The fake elector slate included former chair of the Arizona Republican Party, Kelli Ward. Former Attorney General, Mark Brnovich, refused to look into the scheme while in office. Instead, he chose to dedicate over 10,000 hours to investigating the baseless claims of fraud pushed by MAGA election-deniers, and then failed to release the report disproving those claims. 

Tom Horne defends trans sports ban. Last week, Tom Horne went to court to defend a bigoted law signed by Doug Ducey in 2022 that prohibits trans youth from participating in school sports. Horne regularly pushes an agenda that is discriminatory towards LGBTQ+ youth, despite studies that show that denying trans children equal access and opportunity can lead to mental health issues and harm. He clearly does not care about the well being of Arizona students. Horne also recently pushed harmful and ineffective zero-tolerance discipline practices in Arizona classrooms during educator training sessions. 

Veto queen. This session, extremist far-right lawmakers have relentlessly attacked our voting rights, abortion access, public education, and more. But, Katie Hobbs had Arizonans’ backs with her veto pen. Catch our recap of some of the most impactful vetoes this session. 

Party for abortion liberation. Join the Abortion Fund of Arizona at their No Abortion Bans! Dance Party for community celebration and camaraderie on Thursday July 27th at 7pm. DJ TacoBella will be spinning hits from the 90s/00s, a photo booth for all your selfie needs, and raffles throughout the evening. All proceeds will benefit the Abortion Fund of Arizona. Buy tickets here. 

Thanks for reading Last Week, This Morning!

Abigail with Progress Arizona

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