| More than 400,000 Arizonans – nearly half of all SNAP program participants in the state – are going hungry after Eli Crane and Juan Ciscomani cast decisive votes to rip food off of families’ tables to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.
Crane and Ciscomani’s cruelty has left the state with the largest decline in SNAP participants in the entire country, including roughly 180,000 children. Roughly 47% of Arizona participants lost their food assistance since July – a number that eclipses the second highest loss: 17% in Florida.
DCCC Spokesperson Lindsay Reilly:
“Juan Ciscomani and Eli Crane don’t care about hardworking Arizona families. Arizonans are feeling the pain of Crane and Ciscomani’s callous decisions every day. Voters will hold them both accountable at the ballot box.”
READ THE REPORTING FOR YOURSELF:
ProPublica: “The Alarm Bell”: Arizona’s Drop in SNAP Participation Signals Potential Nationwide Impact of Trump Legislation
- More than 400,000 Arizonans have lost their SNAP benefits since July — the largest decline in the nation by a wide margin — as an underfunded state agency administered changes called for in President Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
- The drop represents nearly 47% of the state’s participants in the program better known as food stamps and includes about 180,000 children.
- Arizona officials attribute the plunging caseload to swift implementation of policy changes forced by the bill.
- “Arizona is just the alarm bell,” said Joseph Palomino, executive director of the Arizona Center for Economic Progress, a nonpartisan advocacy organization. “This is likely going to happen in every state.”
- Charisma Garcia, a 25-year-old mother of two, has tried for months to obtain an interview to complete a SNAP application…“I need to do the thing that gets me the food,” she said.
- Meanwhile, some seeking SNAP assistance told ProPublica that their applications remain in limbo, sometimes for months.
- Garcia, the mother of two, said she will keep trying to obtain the benefits. She’s looking for work as a cook after being laid off from a car wash in January. Her family is living with her grandparents, where groceries are shared among six people.
- Sometimes, her 3-year-old pats his belly when he’s hungry for his favorite fruits like strawberries. At times, she hasn’t received fruit in the boxes she receives from the food bank.
- “I’m in a pinch,” she said. “I’m struggling.”
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