Democrats may be banking on a blue wave this year, but statewide candidates don’t seem to have embraced their most rural voters and their seemingly untapped potential.

The divide between rural and urban Democrats can be even greater than the partisan divide. And as far as rural voters like Dave Tunnell can tell, few candidates have made the effort to better understand the state’s most far flung communities, leaving votes unharvested.

Arizona lawmakers get paid $24,000 annually. Most have full-time jobs beyond the business of sponsoring and voting on bills for four to five months out of the year.

To stand up against legislative heavy hitters like House Speaker J.D. Mesnard or Sen. John Kavanagh, you need the varsity squad, Rep. Ken Clark told voters during a debate.

With a surge of new candidates seeking state and legislative offices this fall, the Secretary of State’s Office has seen a jump in the number of candidate challenges this year.

The outlook of Democrats in the state got rosier on April 24 when the special election results in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District put the Republican candidate in the bright red district ahead by only 5 percentage points.

Even as national Republican groups spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, their Democratic counterparts have left Dr. Hiral Tipirneni to fend for herself.

In these early days of the 8th Congressional District special election, little attention – if any – has been paid to the two Democratic candidates running in the overwhelmingly red stronghold.

After resigning amid scandal, Trent Franks called on Sen. Steve Montenegro to run for his 8th Congressional District, a call the state senator embraced wholeheartedly in announcing his candidacy.

Gov. Jan Brewer fought President Barack Obama on immigration and border security for most of her tenure, earning national prominence by enacting tough laws that were mainly struck down by the courts and famously wagging her finger in the president's face during a meeting on an airport tarmac.