Political Notebook: Tucsonan, 83, started country's biggest Tesla protest

Before many people were talking about protesting Tesla, Phineas Anderson, 83, and his 77-year-old wife, Mitchell, were out there.

On Feb. 7, they protested at the Tucson Tesla dealership, 5081 N. Oracle Road, joined by around 50 other people.

They weren’t aware of the “Tesla Takedown“ idea of targeting Tesla in order to hurt Elon Musk financially for his role in the Trump administration. They just knew they didn’t like what President Trump and Musk were doing.

“I woke up in the middle of the night and said, ‘We’ve got to do something,’” said Phineas Anderson, who was headmaster of the Greenfields Country Day School from 1980-92. “The most obvious place to do it was in front of the Tesla dealership.”

Since then, the protests here have been the biggest at Tesla dealerships anywhere in the country, hitting about 1,900 in the last effort on Saturday, according to organizers’ counts. They plan to protest again Saturday, April 12.

In the meantime, similar protests have spread around the country under the Tesla Takedown slogan. Some vandals have also graffitied, scratched and set fire to Tesla vehicles in moves that the Trump administration has deemed “terrorism” and that protest organizers disown.

And Musk himself has claimed without evidence that the movement against his car company is a top-down effort by shadowy groups using paid protesters.

In Tucson, the crowds at Tesla have been mostly older Tucsonans and snowbirds who are angry at Musk for his unchecked rampage through the federal government and who think Trump is taking dictatorial control of the country.

It’s not so surprising that there are 2,000 or so people willing to show up on a beautiful Saturday morning in a county that Kamala Harris won by 15 percentage points.

What drove the Andersons, Phineas said, was the pardons of Jan. 6 felons, the blaming of Ukraine for being invaded by Russia and the cruelty of Musk as he fired people willy-nilly in the federal government.

Lately, though, he’s been networking with other protest groups, talking to Arizona’s attorney general, Kris Mayes, and even traveling to Washington D.C. Mayes reiterated something Anderson had already heard: “Courts and crowds will make a difference. She added another C (word), which is ‘courage.’”

“I’m praying that somehow a dam will be broken at some point,” Anderson said. “It’s going to require a protest to make that happen.”

Anderson has been careful to distance the protest movement he started here from property damage, always warning in his announcements of protests against property damage or crossing onto Tesla’s property.

“Anybody who destroys any of their properly should be arrested and jailed,” he said.

At Saturday’s protest, a man came from St. David to watch Tesla’s property. Anderson said they met and talked early in the morning, found common ground, and had no issues.

In fact, that man, Jeff Grant, said later on Facebook, “The protesters at Tucson Tesla on Saturday were NOT PAID!”

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‘Influencer’ enters CD7 race

A self-described “influencer” from Tucson is shaking up the race for the Democratic nomination in Congressional District 7.

Deja Foxx, 24, already was an activist when she attended University High School, before heading off to Columbia University for college. She advocated for a sex-education curriculum in the Tucson Unified School District and famously confronted then-Sen. Jeff Flake at a 2017 town hall in Mesa, when she was just 17.

“I didn’t pick politics; politics picked me,” Foxx said at the start of her introductory video, posted on Instagram this week. “Raised by a single mom, SNAP benefits, Section 8 housing, and Medicaid helped us make ends meet. I know what it feels like to have elected officials make decisions about the things you need to just get by.”

Foxx is a progressive Democrat who led “influencer strategy” in Kamala Harris’ first campaign for president. She’s one of 14 candidates who have filed statements of interest to run for the nomination in the race to replace Rep. Raul Grijalva, who died March 13.

Foxx is different in being a young candidate with a strong online profile. Eight years ago, in April 2017, Foxx told the Arizona Daily Star in an interview, “I’m hoping to go to Columbia for political science and from there ... community organizing is where my passion is, but I want to take that one step further and be an elected official.”

Challengers in Ward 3

Speaking of young challengers, it looks like Kevin Dahl will have competition after all in the race for the Ward 3 Tucson City Council seat.

Sadie Shaw, a member of the Tucson Unified School District board, has filed to run against Dahl in the Democratic primary election. In addition, Janet Wittenbraker, a Republican who ran in the recent races for Tucson mayor and District 3 Pima County supervisor, plans to run in the general election.

Shaw noted in a Facebook post her frustration with Democrats losing “the most critical election in the last 100 years because we refused to engage on issues that matter most to young people and others who demand action on human rights violations, both foreign and domestic.”

She added, “It’s time for the elders to step aside and let young people lead — not just in elected positions but at every level. Too often, young voices are dismissed, and forward-thinking candidates are told their ideas are too radical.”

The candidates must submit signatures by the end of business on Monday, April 7.

Supervisor candidate forum

The League of Women Voters will host a virtual candidate forum Wednesday for those seeking to replace Adelita Grijalva in the District 5 seat on the Pima County Board of Supervisors.

The deadline to file the materials to become candidates for the job is the end of the business day Monday.

At 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, the virtual forum will take place. Here’s how to access the meeting: Go to this link: http://tucne.ws/1s46

Webinar number: 2502 852 5361

Webinar password: FxUcDTUU244 (39823888 when dialing from a phone or video system)

The board is scheduled to appoint a replacement for Grijalva at its April 15 meeting. Whoever is appointed will serve until Dec. 31, 2026. Primary and general elections for the seat will be held in 2026 and the winner will serve the remainder of the term until Dec. 31, 2028.