What Color is Arizona?

Arizona politics are deep in the red, or so we are led to believe.

The last presidential candidate to win Arizona was Bill Clinton in 1996. That is 22 years ago. The last time Arizona sent a Democratic senator to Washington D.C. was 1976. That was 42 years ago. It is easy to see how Republicans thought this was a state totally in their control.

Why would a Democrat even try to win in this state?

During the 2016 General Election, Donald Trump predictably won Arizona. What was not so predictable was the margin of victory. Mitt Romney had earlier won the state by 12 percentage points while Trump only won by 6%.

So the voters of Arizona did not turn out for Trump like they did for Romney, or did they?

Arizona politics and the 2016 election

In November of 2016, the presidential race in Arizona revealed more than just a slimmer margin of victory for Trump.

Maricopa County, the most populous in Arizona and home to the capital Phoenix, elected four Democrats to office in municipal elections, two of which were flipped as Republicans were defeated.

Most notable was the ousting of controversial Trump sycophant and former County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, long criticized as a racist. The winds of change was coming to Arizona politics and this was ignored by national media. They missed the boat.