President-elect Donald Trump’s lead over Vice President Kamala Harris continues to widen as votes from late-counting states are tallied, including in a crucial swing state that narrowly went in his favor on election night. The Western Journal reported on the ongoing count in Arizona, a state that was closely contested heading into Election Day but ultimately flipped to Trump after he won Maricopa County, home to more than 60% of the state’s voters. The latest figures show Trump leading Harris by more than 187,000 votes, a margin 18 times larger than the 10,000-vote edge President Joe Biden had in 2020.
This outcome is prompting observers in the Sun Belt to question whether Arizona is still a true swing state, with some speculating that it may be shifting to reliably red status, similar to Ohio, Iowa, and other battleground states. With 98.9% of votes counted, Trump has expanded his lead in Arizona to 5.5%, making it the largest margin of victory among all seven swing states. That said, the state’s two US senators, its governor, secretary of state, and attorney general are all Democrats.
Arizona has finished counting.
Trump won by 5.5% in the end, making it the reddest of the seven swing states. pic.twitter.com/CjRf7mqK9w
— Christian Heiens ? (@ChristianHeiens) November 26, 2024
A key factor in Trump’s victory in Arizona appears to be his historic growth in support among Hispanic voters, who make up more than a third of the state’s electorate. In Maricopa County — which includes Phoenix and its surrounding areas — Hispanic Americans shifted significantly to the right, reflecting similar trends in southern Texas and Miami-Dade County, Florida. In these regions, Trump either won or narrowly lost but notably increased his share of the electorate by double digits. The Trump campaign also targeted Hispanic communities in places like Reading, Pennsylvania, home to a growing Puerto Rican population. Ultimately, Trump carried Arizona by 1.7%.
Arizona has also been at the forefront of the national debate over illegal immigration, which has escalated into a crisis. Kari Lake, the defeated U.S. Senate candidate, made her opposition to the Biden-Harris administration’s border policies a central theme of her campaign against Senator-elect Ruben Gallego, accusing him of being complicit in lax border security. High-profile incidents, such as the tragic death of Georgia college student Laken Riley, intensified frustrations for Democrats in states like Arizona, where the impacts of illegal immigration have become a daily reality and overwhelmed underfunded state agencies left to address a federal issue.
Latino and Hispanic voters have informed pollsters that Trump’s harsh remarks against undocumented immigrants have encouraged them to support Republicans.In Arizona, there have been “notable rightward shifts included the Latino-heavy neighborhoods of south and west Phoenix, and the East Valley cities that moved toward Biden four years ago,” AZCentral reported. “Trump’s strength in Maricopa County was particularly stinging for Democrats because of how consequential it was in Biden’s defeat of Trump in 2020.”
