Safford, Arizona, Graham County seat is northeast of Tucson and 81% white. In 2016, the county itself-- part of the sprawling first congressional district-- gave Trump a massive 67.2% to 27.6% win over Hillary and gave McCain a similarly lopsided win to John McCain over Ann Kirkpatrick. Two years later, Graham County gave the win to Martha McSally over Kyrsten Sinema (64.8% to 31.8%) in the Senate race and was Wendy Rogers (R) territory by a wide margin over Blue Dog Tom O'Halleran. It was the reddest county in the district-- by far.Until yesterday when Safford City Councilman Chris Taylor withdraw from the congressional race, there were 5 Republicans vying for the nomination to take on O'Halleran or Eva Putzova (if she beats O'Halleran in the Democratic primary). Now there are 4-- John Moore, Nolan Reidhead, Doyel Shamley and Tiffany Shedd. Taylor, an opioid addict, pulled the plug on his campaign because he OD-ed on heroin. Taylor is just a typical right-wing Republican crackpot as you can see from the picture of his lunatic smacked-out program above.He tries to use the excuse that he's a combat veteran but he was a junkie in high school and, remember, we're talking about street drugs here, not medical opioids. Taylor says he's seeking treatment for his addiction. His statement to the Arizona Republic:
Today, I have suspended my campaign for the US House of Representatives and am seeking treatment for substance abuse disorder. I will fully cooperate with local authorities on any matters arising from my recent relapse and overdose. Please respect the privacy of my wife and children as we deal with this situation.I’m not going to hide from this. I’m not ashamed of what happened. I wish to sincerely apologize to the amazing people who have supported me. I don’t know what went wrong. I recently relapsed after having so many solid years in sobriety. I have to figure out where I went wrong. Thankfully I have every resource available to me through the Veterans Affairs Administration and I have the strongest support system one could dream of. My family stands behind me 100% and I feel the love and prayers of our amazing Gila Valley Community. I haven’t been able to respond to each of you yet but I have been overwhelmed by the amount of people who have reached out to me in love and understanding.The only thing I can do is face this head on in complete humility and put one foot in front of the other so that I can get the help needed to be the father and husband that my family deserves. I’m human and I have never pretended to be anything but. I know that through the Grace of my loving savior Jesus Christ I will be restored to full health and bounce back from this and be stronger than ever.
This morning I had a long talk with Eva Putzova about this situation. She was far more sympathetic with Taylor's plight than I am. "I wish Councilmember Taylor tons of strength while dealing with heroin addiction and related health struggles," she said, sincerely. "I’m sure this is very difficult for him personally and others around him who are also affected by this illness. I hope that he will succeed in getting healthy again and then use his experience to question his very own party’s positions that deny treatment to people who have no resources or societal support. I hope he will question the endless wars of choice that traumatized him and thousands of his combat colleagues--the wars that left them so broken that the only escape they could find was in using opioids. I hope he will rethink his position toward government and taxes, because it is our taxes that are now funding (as they should) his treatment and it is the government that is saving his life. I hope he will come through this episode and realize that criminalizing drug use is not only ineffective but also cruel and immoral and people caught in the web of drug abuse didn’t fail themselves, but rather our society failed to take care of them. People don’t abuse drugs and alcohol unless they deal with trauma, poverty, and despair or lack a sense of community, meaning in life, and human connection. The Republican Party led the efforts to put people like Chris in jail or on the streets. It’s time to reform that party’s positions or find ways to be politically active outside of GOP."