The United States has not seen a Democratic president in 24 years, but Joe Biden is hoping to change that. Early voting has been underway in Arizona for weeks, and reports of voter intimidation at the polls continue. The stakes are high: a race for the Senate, which could determine the balance of power in the House, and an election for governor in which a Republican who denies elections leads the polls. Voters in the Grand Canyon State have a difficult choice to make when it comes to the Arizona general election.
The current head of the Arizona elections, Katie Hobbs, is facing off against Lake in the race for governor, making it a particularly difficult choice for those who care about the integrity of elections. Maricopa County has consistently won about 60 percent of the votes cast in Arizona, meaning that the candidate who wins Maricopa usually wins in Arizona. Along with the state's small black and Native American populations, Latinos constitute the Democratic base in Arizona. An analysis based on the FiveThirtyEight Urbanization Index suggests that if Arizona's density had been the only factor when it came to voting, Hillary Clinton would have won by 6 points.
Biden and his running mate, U. S. Senator Kamala Harris, visited Arizona for the first time in early October, when they promised to offer financial aid and combat the coronavirus pandemic. Tyler Cherry, spokesman for the Arizona Democratic Party, said that Arizona has become a “critical state” for whoever wins the elections, and he believes that will be his party.
Arizona has participated in 28 United States presidential elections since it entered the Union in February 1912. Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona on New Year's Day 1909, three years before it became a state. Ross Perot, the independent candidate in the 1992 presidential election, won the highest percentage of votes (23.79%) ever obtained by a third party candidate in Arizona. Jim Chilton, an 81-year-old rancher, lives in Arivaca, a small town on Arizona's southern border with Mexico. On Sunday afternoon, in Tucson - the second most populated city in Arizona - a small caravan of vans carrying “Let's Make America Great Again” flags passed by a movie theater whose tent read “Black Lives Matter.” The marginalized people of this state include asylum seekers at its southern border, people with different gender identities and women of reproductive age.
As one of the most urbanized states in America, Democrats have consistently fared better in other parts of Arizona than in Maricopa County where most votes were obtained. This could be good news for Democrats as they look to make history this election season.
