Arizona Republican Party Records

The bulk of this collection documents the post Goldwater period (Barry Goldwater's 1986 retirement from the U.S. Senate), after which Goldwater exerted less direct influence upon the activities of the state Party. Among the collection's strengths are documentation of reapportionment and redistricting, grass roots political activities, fundraising, the selection of local, state, and national delegates, and local and national political campaign material. This collection is arranged in three series and alphabetically within each series.

The folders in Series I: Arizona Republican Party, 1962-2009 reflect the original headings created by Arizona Republican Party staff. There are many gaps in the records as party files are reportedly purged every two years when the Party leadership changes. With the exception of Mike Minnaugh's Chairmanship in the late 1990s, there are few Party Chairman files with correspondence and memos documenting policy making and campaign strategies. Only a few issues of the Party's newspapers, the Arizona Republican Voice and the Arizona Republican, are found in this collection. Series II: Photographs, 1952–2001 contains an extensive collection of original photographs showing Arizona Republican Party officials, delegates, candidates, office holders, meetings, dinners, receptions, and various political events from the 1970s to 2000. Also included are photographic files of national political figures including Dwight D. Eisenhower and family, Richard M. Nixon and family, Mary Dent Crisp, Spiro Agnew, Henry Cabot Lodge, Gerald M. Ford, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Dan Quayle dating from 1952 to the 1990s.

Series III: National Republican Party, 1952-2000 was compiled by Sylvia Barnes, a longtime Arizona Republican Party volunteer and activist, who attended Republican National Conventions for almost fifty years and was an inveterate collector of campaign literature and memorabilia. She donated these extensive materials to the Arizona Republican Party. The 1952 and 1956 Presidential Campaigns are particularly well-documented. Barnes was a staff member of the 1952 Eisenhower Presidential Campaign while residing in New York City. These staff files show campaign schedules and appearances.

A box of binders containing Arizona Republican Party Executive Committee minutes (1983-1998) and other files was discovered and added to the collection on April 23, 2012 (Box 18).