Ashley Lopez

I'm Ashley Lopez.

Yeah.

So just like last time, we talked to 14 voters, seven in each focus group.

This time there was a pretty good mix politically.

Four people out of the 14 identified as Democrats, three as Republicans, and we got seven independents, which make up a big chunk of swing voters.

So this was a really good mix of folks.

Sure.

So not surprisingly, because we're in Arizona or, you know, virtually in our case in Arizona, a border state, immigration and ICE were very top of mind.

When Rich Tao from Engages, who moderated these focus groups, asked, you know, at the top, give me a word, something top of mind.

What is really concerning you right now?

Almost unanimously, we heard immigration.

We heard ICE.

And just to give people context, the last time we talked to swing voters, this was right after the killing of Renee Macklingood and the killing of Alex Preddy hadn't happened.

So this is the first time we've heard from voters after both those shootings in Minneapolis.

Yeah.

And I will say compared to Pennsylvania, the amount of people.

So it was nine out of 14 people said they or someone they knew had actually changed their life out of concern about possibly interacting with ICE.

And part of the understanding with these focus groups is that folks only provide their first name.

So we're going to hear Carolyn, Esmerita and Stephanie talk about how ICE is affecting their lives and the lives of people around them.

Yeah.