Rural Arizona Project

The Rural Arizona Project is not its own 501(c)(4), but rather it receives its funds through RUP. The Rural Utah Project has received funding from various center-left and left-of-center organizations, including at least $400,000 from the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, a left-of-center environmentalist organization that supports the Green New Deal and opposes conventional energy production. ^{4 5 6}

The social media for the Rural Arizona Project has far less reach than the social media for the Rural Utah Project, and it has been less active than RUP’s social media since the conclusion of the 2020 election. ^{7 8}

Founding and History

The Rural Utah Project started in late 2017 after a federal judge declared that county commission districts in San Juan County, Utah disenfranchised Native American voters and ordered them redrawn. ⁹ After redistricting, the Rural Utah Project set out to elect an “Indigenous majority” to the commission. ¹

In 2018, the Rural Utah Project spent $203,241 on voter registration and county organizing efforts. ⁶ RUP’s efforts succeeded in electing a Democratic and Navajo majority to the San Juan County Commission. ⁹ One of the new commissioners that RUP helped elect was Kenneth Maryboy, the brother of Mark Maryboy, a member of the board of trustees of RUP. The Rural Utah Project failed to properly make voters aware of this conflict of interest. ¹⁰

In 2020, RUP formed the Rural Arizona Project. ¹¹ Led by RUP field director Tara Benally, the Rural Arizona Project expanded RUP’s voter registration efforts to members of the Navajo Nation residing in Arizona. ^{12 13} The programs registered almost 6,000 voters total in Utah and Arizona before the 2020 election. TIME magazine and the New York Times credited RUP’s efforts with helping the Democratic ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris win Arizona. ^{2 3}

Political Activism

The Rural Arizona Project is not a separate 501(c)(4) from the Rural Utah Project, though it is unclear precisely how much of RUP’s budget went toward supporting the Rural Arizona Project. The Rural Utah Project has received funding from various center-left and left-of-center environmentalist and education organizations, including $400,000 from the Southern Utah Wilderness Organization, an organization that supports the radical environmentalist Green New Deal. ^{5 6} Other notable RUP funders include the Arizona Advocacy Foundation, the Denver Foundation, the Tides Foundation, the Movement Voter Project, the National Congress of American Indians, and the National Education Association. ¹⁴ The Rural Utah Project also receives individual donations through Act Blue, the online fundraising platform for left-wing organizations and candidates. ¹⁵

Tara Benally has served as the chair of the Native American Caucus for the Utah Democratic Party. ¹⁶