Q&A: Kai Newkirk’s progressive Congress bid

Since 2019, Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton has represented a safely blue district based in several East Valley cities — Tempe, Mesa and Chandler. He’s won each of his four general election contests by anywhere between 7 and 23 percentage points without once facing a challenger from within his own party.

But this year, that’s set to change.

Enter Kai Newkirk — a grassroots organizer and co-chair of the Arizona Democratic Party Progressive Council — who unceremoniously entered the race just 12 days before he needed to turn in 1,374 voter signatures to qualify for the ballot.

The quick turnaround was no problem for his team, which turned in more than 2,100 signatures, according to the Arizona Secretary of State. There are no signs of a challenge.

While Stanton enjoys the name recognition of a several-term incumbent, Newkirk is a relative unknown to the wider voter populace.

But for people engaged in Phoenix politics beyond the screen, Newkirk has been a constant presence as one of the most articulate protesters of U.S. support for Israel’s military operations in Gaza and, more generally, President Donald Trump.

He was arrested at Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly’s office in the fall of 2023 — shortly after Israel launched an annihilative war in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks against it — when he and others demanded Kelly push for a ceasefire.

During the presidential primary in Arizona, he challenged President Joe Biden‘s approach to the conflict by organizing a symbolic protest vote for candidate Marianne Williamson. It didn’t change anything — but did foreshadow Democrats’ lackluster performance in the November contest.

He’s helped organize countless protests of Israel’s Gaza campaign, as well as played a major role in the No Kings events of the past year.

Newkirk has been critical of his centrist congressman for years, particularly as Stanton has largely supported Israel through its brutal military campaign in Gaza, paid little concern to widespread reports of human rights violations and enjoyed robust financial support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). He’s also accused Stanton of not taking a strong enough stand against the Trump administration’s authoritarian moves.

We sat down with Newkirk at Eden Tea & Coffee House in Tempe — the city he calls home — to discuss his campaign, background and love for meditation. He opted for a tea at the late morning meet-up.

It was a pretty fascinating interview, so we let it run longer than usual and squished the rest of today’s email into an Other News We’re Laughing At section.

Hell no, man.

It's closer to 30 now, but I know for sure of 25. I have a list somewhere, but I have to update it. I see every one as the furthest thing from a market of shame, but rather, as a badge of honor. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested 29 times, Dolores Huerta over 25 times, and John Lewis, I think, was around 30. I'm just a humble follower, you know, in a larger, noble American and global tradition.

Going into 2010, I led a campaign called the Mobilization for Healthcare for All. We were organizing protests and nonviolent sit-ins across the country. We started out doing them at the offices of insurance companies, and we were trying to push to build up as much power and support for the strongest possible healthcare reform at that time — pushing for the Affordable Care Act, which was seen as on the ropes.

Towards the end of that campaign, we decided to go to some of the members of Congress that were involved. So we did a sit-in in (U.S. Sen.) Joseph Lieberman's office with the demand that he reject any money from insurance companies as part of the negotiations — and I think he got a lot of money from Aetna, which is headquartered in Connecticut.

We did a variation on the “jail, no bail” tactic from the civil rights movement, which we called “jail, no name.” If you don't give your name, they don't want to release you. I fasted for that entire time — seven days in D.C. jail. We got a commitment from the chief of staff of Lieberman's office to meet, so we figured, “Okay, that's enough.”

Ultimately, it (the Affordable Care Act) passed, and although it was so far from what we need, there were some major victories that have helped tens of millions of people for a long time, including myself and my family. So, yeah, I'm grateful to have played a small part in that, and to have made that sacrifice for the benefit of others.

NOTE: Our personal favorite arrest — which has the quality of an obscure trading card — was a rare protest of the U.S. Supreme Court within its chambers in 2014, apparently related to the Citizens United ruling. A video of Newkirk disrupting oral arguments was uploaded online, making it perhaps “the first time video footage of a Supreme Court proceeding has ever been taken,” per Reuters.

A lot of community members and leaders asked me to do it, and I had a lot of conversations across the district. People have asked me to run for office for years and years in different places I've lived. I've considered it at times, but never felt it was the right thing to do.

I won't say his name, but a friend and a leader in the district’s Muslim community — who has lost many, many family members in Gaza — just appealed to me again and again to do something. And so he's been all in for me, organizing support for our campaign.

Many people believe that he (Stanton) has been actively complicit in the genocide (in Gaza), and I think it's fair and judicious to say that. It's a failure of moral leadership on a historic question that will be remembered for generations.

I've voted for Stanton every time, and I'll do it again if he wins the primary — I'll support a neighborhood alley cat with a “D” on its collar over any Republican that would help give Donald Trump the majority, right?

But it's always been clear that he’s not the kind of Democrat that we need. I just think that in being a leader and using every nonviolent tool to defeat this authoritarian menace, Stanton’s been way, way behind.

He's a New Democrat, a pro-business Democrat who takes corporate money. They're part of the anti-fascist coalition that we need to defeat Trump and the Republicans. But I think we can do better than that in this district. He's never going to fight to transform this corrupt, political and economic status quo that produces billionaires with more wealth than entire nations while we have hundreds of thousands of people sleeping on the streets of our country.

I don't think that was necessarily a decisive factor — there were a number of factors that were really big.

Biden did a lot of great things on the economy, but it wasn't enough to really deal with the difficulty for people. He refused to really accept and face that and then say, “I’m going to do bigger things.” I think that was a huge, huge issue.

And then Harris wasn't able to really address that and go in a different direction. We lost ground around immigration in the sense that disorder on the border and so on, it was a bunch of different fronts. But definitely the genocide in Gaza played a role in the sense that the Democratic Party, Biden and Harris were complicit in that and didn’t push back on it. I think it was a really big factor with many young people — and certainly in Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities.

Yes, and there's some shifting happening. You see Sen. Ruben Gallego coming out and saying he won’t take AIPAC money.

There are these donors and these players they think are important, even though they push this disastrous policy of blank check unconditional support for the Israeli government no matter what they do — violating international human rights law, endangering and killing Americans.

We need a huge turning of the tide there. We need to break with the whole lobby that pushes that policy. And we need to commit to a foreign policy that is principled to human rights and international law across the board. That's a commitment for me.

I think there are a number of Republicans that are up and demanding transparency and accountability regarding the Epstein files.

I endorsed Brooke St. George and Bobby Nichols. I think we need change there, too.

Bobby and I are on the same page in terms of really being committed to do whatever it takes to make not just Tempe, but Arizona and America affordable for all of us — not just the wealthy. I think that means a major shift, both in power and priority from billionaires, the wealthy and big real estate developers towards poor and working class people.

That's what we need and that's what we're building. You know, we were only able to do that because so many volunteers believed in what we're trying to do — they believed in my leadership and the vision and values of what we're doing and were willing to come out and bust their own butts. I was just inspired and humbled.

I really believe our only chance is if we can build a powerful grassroots campaign. I'm going to work as hard as I can and do everything I can. But there's going to have to be hundreds and ultimately, I think, even thousands of people who really take some ownership of this campaign.

I love to hike, get out on and in the Salt River, and get out with our dog, Luna.

I love to play music. Guitar is my primary instrument — acoustic mainly. There are fewer opportunities to break out the Stratocaster.

Damn. I love “The Lord of the Rings,” I love “Star Wars.” I love, you know, Terrence Malick stuff, like “The Tree of Life” — contemplative stuff like that.

Definitely Dr. King, for sure. I think I've read that he liked to enjoy some sherry or something like that with Harry Belafonte — a big movement guy and a big supporter of the King family.

I was raised in different Christian churches, and the love ethic of Jesus of Nazareth is right at the heart of my life. I've practiced mindfulness meditation and those practices that come out of the teachings of the Buddha but really can be related across our different faiths.

Those practices of meditation really helped to cultivate a heart and mind that's, you know, much more open to seeing how we're connected. If I can help one person access this medicine that's been so helpful for me, then that will be enough.

The bodhisattva comes from a very traditional view — it’s sort of like, “I'm not going to seek nirvana, I'll continue to be reborn.” To me, that kind of concept is not important; death is a mystery to me. But this idea to me means, “I will never stop, so long as I exist in any form, I will seek to serve the liberation and the well-being of all beings.” When I say political bodhisattva, I mean that the idea and ethic of loving our neighbors as ourselves shouldn't be just in our churches or mosques, temples and so on.