Daily US Times: For just the second time in more than seventy years, a Democrat will carry the state of Arizona in a presidential election, a monumental shift for once a Republican stronghold.
On Thursday, CNN projected that President-elect Joe Biden will carry Arizona, defeating President Trump and providing Democrats in Arizona and the universe of allied grassroots organizations in the state with a crowning achievement a decade in the making.
Biden’s win in the state that propelled Republican leaders like John McCain and Barry Goldwater to national prominence could foretell problems for the Republican party going forward. Three key shifts in Arizona helped Democrats this year: a surge in voters moving to
Arizona from more liberal states like Illinois and California, a growing Latino population that leans Democratic and the way suburban voters have starkly broken with a Republican Party led by someone like Trump.
By going blue, the state is moving closer to its neighbor to the northwest — Nevada, where the Democratic party have taken control of almost all aspects of government — and away from the state’s traditional rightward bent.
The Democratic victory was anchored by Maricopa County, home to Phoenix and nearly 60% of all people in the state. Maricopa is the fastest-growing county in the US, transforming over the last twenty years into a sprawling mass of metropolitan hubs, sun-scorched planned communities and bustling strip malls.
Steven Slugocki, chair of Maricopa County’s Democrats, said: “Maricopa County won the state of Arizona for Mark Kelly and Joe Biden.”
Biden is just the second Democrat to win Arizona since Harry Truman won in 1948. Bill Clinton narrowly won the state in 1996, but Arizona moved further right in the next two decades.
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