Closed doors fueled Hamadeh protests

Brent Peak

Submitted photo/Northwest Valley Indivisible

OPINION — Abe Hamadeh has built the largest protest movement in the history of Arizona’s 8th Congressional District. He did it by refusing to let constituents in the room.

In February 2025, a handful of us asked to meet privately with his staff and share our concerns about his votes. We did exactly that with Sen. Mark Kelly’s staff and Sen. Ruben Gallego’s staff. Hamadeh’s office ignored us. When I told them we would stand on the public sidewalk with signs instead, they gave my name and number to Surprise police.

A month later, I learned through a mutual contact that nobody in his office would ever meet with me because I was part of the group that would eventually lead thousands in peaceful protest.

Dozens came to that first protest. We came back every week for months. Over a year later, 9,500 of us stood peacefully across this district for No Kings. We asked for one meeting with a staffer. Every step from there traces back to a door he would not open.

Hamadeh kept closing them. He has not attended a single public event since taking office. His advertised mobile office hours were unstaffed, and when I said so publicly, he canceled them. When I pointed out that his public calendar was empty, he deleted the calendar.

When a senior citizen came to his office asking for a meeting, her car was towed within minutes. The police report shows the call came from his own district director.

There is a lesson here, and it is not the one he thinks. People who are shut out do not go away. They organize. Almost two years of hiding produced 9,500 neighbors who now know exactly who their congressman is, and none of them are going to forget it in November.

Brent Peak is co-chair of the progressive grassroots group, Northwest Valley Indivisible. Rep. Abe Hamadeh is seeking re-election in Congressional District 8, which includes parts of Glendale, Peoria, north Phoenix, Sun City, Sun City West and Surprise. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.