PHOENIX — President-elect Donald Trump has won Arizona — scoring a comeback in the Grand Canyon State after losing it to President Biden in 2020 and completing a 2024 swing-state sweep.
The Republican leads Vice President Kamala Harris 52.1% to 47%, with 67% of votes counted, the Associated Press reports.
Trump’s victory in Arizona, with its 11 electoral votes, follows that in neighboring Nevada, where he picked up 6 — a feat no Republican has completed in 20 years.
Both candidates made their final trips to the southwestern swing state on Halloween, haunting Arizonans with their contrasting visions of how scary America could get if their opponent won.
Trump teed up voters at Glendale’s Desert Diamond arena with promises of “a very large deportation,” and reminisced on his time in office.
“We defeated ISIS, we had no wars. We had the best economy in the history of our country,” he told the crowd Thursday.
Meanwhile, Harris promised progress to a Phoenix crowd, and urged voters to help her “turn the page on Donald Trump.”
“I tell you I am not looking to score political points. I am looking to make progress… Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy,” the veep said Thursday.
Throughout campaign season, though, the border was a mainstay for the candidates’ stump speeches in the Grand Canyon state, which has been afflicted with hundreds of thousands of migrant encounters in recent years, and battles becoming a conduit for trafficking fentanyl and other drugs over the border.
On the stump in Arizona, Trump promised mass deportations while Harris’ talking points honed in on a congressional border bill that was shot down several months ago.
Both Trump and Harris made visits to the southern border, including Harris’ notable visit to Douglas, Arizona, on Sept. 27 following scrutiny for her role in the Biden administration’s border policies.
“I will do more to secure our border, to reduce illegal border crossings,” Harris said in Douglas. “I will take further action to keep the border closed between ports of entry.”
“Those who cross our borders unlawfully will be apprehended and removed and barred from re-entering for five years,” she added at the time.
Arizona’s economy was also a top issue, as price levels remain high following 13.3% inflation in 2022.
Marc Hernandez, a 25-year-old rancher who voted for Donald Trump after backing Biden in 2020, told The Post the economy motivated his vote.
“After graduation, I began working on my family’s cattle ranch and the economy has been really rough on ranchers and farmers these last few years. Inflation has eaten up most of our profits and we had to let some of our ranchers go. We also have issues with water and power rates going up,” Hernandez said.
However, Democrats touted Arizona’s growing population and economic opportunities as reasons to back them on the issue, such as promoting the CHIPS and Science Act, which subsidizes the semiconductor industry that plays a major role in the state’s economy.
Abortion was also top of mind and a key campaign issue for Democrats in Arizona, where a proposition to amend the state constitution to 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 prompted Democrats to appeal to the conservative policy leanings of many Arizonans on the issue. Harris also heavily pushed a “Republicans for Harris” coalition focused on targeting supporters of former Republican Sen. John McCain and those who voted for former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley after she dropped out of the 2024 Republican primary.
Meanwhile, Arizona was a key point for Trump’s efforts to build his own big tent, as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. exited the race in August and endorsed the ex-prez at a rally in Glendale hours later. He also made an effort to court young voters with a rally at Mullet Arena at Arizona State University in Tempe last weekend.
Harris also saw the state as an opportunity to rally Hispanic voters, including making her closing pitch at a rally in west Phoenix with the 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 pushed heavily by both parties, including by Trump, in hopes of “banking” the vote and speeding up the ballot counting process.
Arizona GOP Chairwoman Gina Swoboda previously told The Post that early voting was the key to the party’s strategy.
“Unless Democrats drastically change their [voting] behavior by Tuesday, I think we’re in a very good position to win at the top of the ticket,” Swoboda said last week.
Polling indicated that the state was a firm toss-up, but Trump did have a slight edge in various polls in the weeks leading up to the election.
