Arizona Democrat Candidate Voted Against Higher Sentences for Fentanyl Dealers

Amish Shah wants Arizona voters to trust him with a seat in Congress, but his own voting record tells a different story. When state lawmakers had the chance to get tougher on fentanyl dealers, the people flooding communities with a drug so lethal that a few grains can kill, Shah voted no. Not "no, but here's a better plan." Just no.

That vote matters more now than it did when he cast it. Fentanyl has become the leading cause of death for Americans under 50. Families in Phoenix and Tucson are burying kids who thought they took a Percocet and got a poison pill instead. Border towns and suburbs alike are dealing with the fallout. Against that backdrop, a lawmaker who balked at harsher penalties for dealers isn't showing nuance. He's showing where his priorities sat when it counted.

Democrats love to say Republicans politicize the fentanyl crisis. Fine. Then explain the vote. Voters don't need a seminar on criminal justice theory to understand that dealing poison that kills tens of thousands of Americans a year should carry serious consequences. Shah had a chance to say so with his vote, and he didn't.

Now he's running for higher office, hoping the record gets buried under campaign ads and talking points. It shouldn't. Arizonans deserve a representative who was willing to get serious about fentanyl before it became politically convenient to sound like it, not after.