PHOENIX — President-elect Donald Trump wins Arizona — reversing the Grand Canyon state he lost to President Biden in 2020 and winning the battleground state in 2024.
Republicans lead Vice President Kamala Harris 52.1% to 47%, with 67% of votes counted, according to the Associated Press.
Following his victory in Arizona, where he won 11 electoral votes, Trump also won six in neighboring Nevada, a feat that no Republican has achieved in 20 years.
Both candidates made their final trip to the southwestern battleground state on Halloween, giving Arizonans contrasting visions of how terrible America would be if the other won.
At Glendale's Desert Diamond Arena, President Trump galvanized voters by promising “very large scale deportations” and reflected on his time in office.
“We defeated ISIS, there was no war, and our economy was the best in our country's history,” he told the audience Thursday.
Meanwhile, Harris promised progress to the Phoenix crowd and called on voters to help “turn the page on Donald Trump.”
“Let me tell you, I'm not trying to score political points. I'm looking for progress…Unlike Donald Trump, I don't believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy. ” Veep said Thursday.
But throughout the campaign, the border was a mainstay of candidates' stump speeches in the Grand Canyon State. The state has been plagued by encounters with hundreds of thousands of migrants in recent years and has been plagued by fighting, making it a trafficking route for fentanyl and other drugs. border.
On the Arizona stump, Trump promised mass deportations, while Harris focused her arguments on a border bill that Congress rejected months ago.
Both Trump and Harris have visited the southern border, including a visit to Douglas, Ariz., on Sept. 27 after Harris' role in the Biden administration's border policy came under scrutiny. Also worth noting.
“We will do more to secure our borders and reduce illegal border crossings,” Harris said in Douglas. “We will take further action to keep borders closed between ports of entry.”
“Those who cross the border illegally will be arrested, deported and prohibited from re-entering the country for five years,” she added at the time.
Arizona's economy also became a top priority, as price levels remain high even after inflation reaches 13.3% in 2022.
Mark Hernandez, a 25-year-old rancher who voted for Donald Trump after supporting Biden in 2020, told the Post that the economy motivated his vote.
“After graduation, I started working on my family’s ranch, and the economic climate of the last few years has been very tough for ranchers and farmers.Inflation has eaten up most of our profits, and ranchers We've had to give up some of our money. We're also dealing with rising water and electricity rates,” Hernandez said.
But Democrats touted Arizona's population growth and economic opportunity as reasons to support the issue, including promoting the CHIPS Science Act, which would subsidize the semiconductor industry, which plays a major role in the state's economy.
Abortion was also a top priority for the Democratic Party in Arizona, and a key issue in the election campaign. In Arizona, an amendment to the state constitution that would recognize abortion as a “fundamental right” is also on the ballot at the state level.
When it came to the border and the economy, it gave Democrats an opportunity to appeal to the conservative policy leanings of many Arizonans on this issue. Harris is also part of the “Republicans for Harris” coalition, which targeted supporters of former Republican Sen. John McCain and those who voted for former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the 2024 Republican primary. was strongly promoted.
Meanwhile, Arizona is the state where President Trump is planning to set up his big tent after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. withdrew from the race in August and endorsed the former president at a rally in Glendale hours later. This was an important point in our efforts to do so. He also made an effort to appeal to younger voters, holding a rally at Arizona State University's Mallett Arena in Tempe over the weekend.
Harris also saw the state as an opportunity to rally Hispanic voters, giving a closing speech at a rally in west Phoenix with her band Los Tigres del Norte.
President Biden narrowly won the state in 2020. In 2016, Trump won with 48% of the vote.
Early voting was strongly promoted by both parties, including President Trump, in hopes of “banking” votes and speeding up the vote-counting process.
Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Gina Swoboda previously told the Post that early voting is key to the party's strategy.
“Unless the Democratic Party makes major policy changes, [voting] If we do well by Tuesday, I think we are in a very good position to win at the top of the ticket,” Swoboda said last week.
Polls showed the state firmly in his favor, but polls in the weeks leading up to the election gave Mr. Trump a slight advantage.
