DIVIDED NATION WAITS
Arizona voters lean toward Biden, Democrats Other battleground states still counting Record turnout despite pandemic, fears of unrest
The hard-fought presidential race in Arizona was too close to call in early returns on Tuesday night, along with several battleground states across the nation.
The first batch of Arizona results posted Tuesday night, reflecting early votes, broke mostly for Democratic nominee Joe Biden, which was expected as Democrats turned out at higher rates before Election Day. But results from Tuesday’s voting were expected to favor President Donald Trump.
The race brings the potential that Arizona, once seen as a safe bet for Republicans, could get picked up by Democrats.
The last presidential election saw Arizona on the verge of competitive for Democrats.
Trump’s margins in his 2016 victory in Arizona were much thinner than the Republicans before him. He carried the state by about 3.5 points.
The state last voted for a Democratic president in 1996, when Bill Clinton won the state and reelection as president. Before that, it had not voted for a Democrat since 1948, when President Harry Truman carried Arizona.
Elsewhere in the country, Trump and Biden each claimed early and predictable state calls, with Trump projected to win Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and North and South Dakota. Biden locked down a slew of blue states in the Northeast, including his home state of Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.
Polls had closed in most of the other battleground states that will ultimately determine the election, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida and Wisconsin. But the country was still hours away — at best — from knowing the results in virtually all of those states.
The ballot counting in Arizona comes after a whirlwind of activity as both campaigns worked to capture residents’ votes.
For about two months leading up to Election Day, and especially in the final few weeks, Arizonans saw regular visits from the Trump campaign, including the president and Vice President Mike Pence multiple times. Biden and running mate Sen. Kamala Harris of California visited Arizona in person in October, and campaign surrogates, including
Cher, held events here or online geared toward the state’s voters.
This is what it’s like to be a swing state, the next step in Arizona’s evolution to a purple state seen as in play for both parties at the highest level.
Polls repeatedly showed Arizona in play for Biden. The Trump campaign’s frequent visits, sometimes one every day or two in the final weeks before Election Day, suggested the president’s team understood the need to fight for Arizonans’ votes.
Voters turned out on golf carts, in caravans, at events and at the polls this
year to support their preferred candidate. They showed up at rallies. They knocked on doors, made phone calls, sent text messages. Airwaves filled with constant, expensive campaign ads.
Many shared that, while occasionally annoying, the fact that the presidential candidates spent so much time and money courting their votes made them feel like their votes really mattered.
“It kind of makes you feel a little bit more important, seeing them put money into your state and knowing that you’re not like a Republican in California or a Democrat in North Dakota, where
your vote doesn’t matter,” Dalton Ries, a 29-year-old Gilbert resident and independent voter, said in October, as campaigns were constantly pinging his phone.
Trump’s campaign visits sought to rally support with his base at times, and at other times sought to expand or solidify his standing with specific groups.