U.S. Reps. Yassamin Ansari and Adelita Grijalva met with roughly 100 Arizonans on Saturday as part of an effort to assemble a Democratic policy blueprint inspired by the rapid, comprehensive planning that shaped Project 2025. The lawmakers described the session as an attempt to be ready to act “on day one” if Democrats regain the levers of power, and to translate concerns about rising costs into concrete legislative options. “It is critical for us to be thinking proactively and be ready to go on day one with the policies that we want to pass,” Ansari said, noting that the approach borrows from the playbook of recent conservative planning even as Democrats aim to pursue opposite outcomes.
A Democratic lawmaker speaks with attendees at a community meeting in Arizona as local Democrats work on a Project 2025–style policy blueprint.
The Phoenix meeting was the second of four sessions that the donor network Way to Win is conducting around the country to solicit voter feedback on affordability. Attendees broke into small groups to identify the pressures they face and to brainstorm policy responses, discussing topics that included single-payer health care proposals and expanded use of solar and wind energy to lower utility bills. Organizers described the gatherings as a way to collect ideas from residents directly affected by housing, medical and transportation costs and to translate them into a cohesive legislative agenda.
The impetus for the Democrats’ planning exercise is in part a reaction to Project 2025, the conservative blueprint compiled by the Heritage Foundation and other groups ahead of the 2024 presidential election. That plan was designed to guide the priorities and actions of a second Trump administration, and monitoring organizations have reported that elements of the Project 2025 agenda have been implemented in recent months — in some assessments amounting to as much as half of the document’s recommendations. The Democratic lawmakers said the speed and scale of that planning made it necessary for their side to prepare a comparable, proactive set of policy proposals.
A presenter displays the 'Mandate for Leadership 2025' volume at a conservative event — the Project 2025 document shaping the policy debate Arizona Democrats are responding to.
Ansari drew a direct contrast between the priorities she sees reflected in the conservative blueprint and the outcomes she critiques from the Trump administration’s early actions. “Within six months of taking office, Donald Trump passed historic tax cuts for billionaires and corporations in this country, while taking away health care from 15 million Americans,” she said. She added that, in her view, the administration also “handed $75 billion to ICE to have unprecedented food assistance cuts,” and argued that Democratic leaders should likewise be prepared to enact sweeping changes when they hold power, but with the aim of improving everyday life for working families rather than making it worse.
The effort by Arizona Democrats to craft an alternative policy road map is taking place against the backdrop of the 2024 and upcoming midterm debates, where affordability has emerged as a central theme. Democrats nationwide are emphasizing the cost of housing, health care and gasoline as priority voter concerns and are seeking to draw a sharp contrast with President Donald Trump’s agenda. The president has signaled in recent days that international priorities may take precedence over immediate domestic economic concerns; when asked about Americans’ financial struggles in the context of talks with Iran, he said, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation, I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.” He later told Fox News that the remark was “a perfect statement” he would stand by.
Lawmakers at the Phoenix meeting responded to those comments by underscoring the political stakes. “It's very clear by his actions every single day that he does not care about Americans' financial situation,” Ansari said in response to the president’s remarks, adding that she hoped his words would serve as a wake-up call to voters about his priorities. The Arizona congresswoman, who represents Congressional District 3, positioned the local sessions as part of a broader effort to marshal ideas and energy around tangible cost-cutting measures that Democrats can present to voters and put forward in legislatures.
Participants at the community meeting moved from general concerns to specific policy proposals in their small-group conversations. Ideas that surfaced included establishing a single-payer health care system as a route to universal coverage and lower out-of-pocket costs, and accelerating investment in renewable energy sources such as solar and wind with the explicit goal of reducing household utility bills. Organizers said those discussions were meant to produce a package of policy options that could be refined and deployed by Democratic officials when opportunities to legislate arise.
Saturday’s session brought together a cross-section of residents and activists focused on affordability. While no official policy blueprint was announced at the meeting, the lawmakers and attendees emphasized that the sessions are intended to be iterative: collecting grassroots input now to inform the development of a Democratic policy playbook for use in campaigns and in governing. The meeting in Phoenix was one piece of a national effort by the donor network to surface voter priorities and translate them into an actionable agenda that Democrats could use to present an alternative to the conservative Project 2025 framework.