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The Swing States Series: #3 Arizona

Aug 20, 2024 | Elections & Politics

The Swing States Series: #3 Arizona

The Swing States Series: #3 Arizona

Elections & Politics | By: Abigail Hunt| August 20, 2024
Featured Photo: www.pacaso.com
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From 2010-2022, Arizona’s population increased 11 out of 12 years l. World Population Review logs the state’s 2024 population at just shy of 7 and a half million. Although it is the sixth in the nation in size, most of the state’s population is in one county, Maricopa, which houses nine of the 10 largest cities in the state, including more than four million citizens. For the past 70 plus years, Arizona has gone red for every presidential election save two instances – when the state went blue for Bill Clinton in the 1990s, and most recently for Joe Biden in 2020.

The state has about a 57 percent employment rate. Approximately 33 percent of the state’s citizens have a bachelor’s degree or higher, slightly lower than the national average of 35.7 percent. More than 67 percent are homeowners. Per the U.S. Census Bureau, the single largest employee group in the state are the 1.4 million people working in management, business, science, and arts occupations. The state’s Gross State Product (GSP) is $434.4 billion annually, per IBIS World, and the highest-grossing industries in the state are Third-Party Administrators and Insurance Claims Adjusters ($51.4 billion), New Car Dealers ($30.1 billion), and Drug, Cosmetic, and Toiletry Wholesaling ($26.8 billion). Arizona ranks 18th in the nation in state Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per Statista.com.

Approximately 31% of Arizona’s population is Hispanic, per Pew Research Center. As the state ranked 4th in the nation in the size of Hispanic population, will Arizonans vote for a man who called all Mexicans rapists? In late August 2016, Katie Reilly with TIME Magazine compiled a list of Trump’s comments about Mexicans. Among them were, “They are not our friend, believe me,” he said. “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,” is a quote from June 2015. And an older one is, “Sadly, the overwhelming amount of violent crime in our major cities is committed by blacks and hispanics-a tough subject-must be discussed” (June 5, 2013, Trump’s own Tweet, on X, formerly Twitter).

Arizona is third in the nation in Native American population and is home to more than 405,000 Native Americans, approximately 5.4 percent of the state’s population. Comparatively, black citizens number more than 450,000 and make up 5.67 percent of the state’s population.

To understand the state’s two-party breakdown, there are some terms needed: per Ballotpedia, a government trifecta exists “when one political party holds majorities in both chambers of the state legislature and the governor’s office” and a government triplex is “when one political party holds the following three positions in a state’s government: governor, attorney general, and secretary of state.”

An Arizona Mirror article published August 12, 2024, details how Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake is hemorrhaging supporters to the Democratic camp, where historically Republican voters are signing up to vote for Ruben Gallagos and Kamala Harris. The muddled government and voter exodus across party lines colors the state purple.

Arizona ranks 31st out of 50 states in the number of hunting licenses per person, with 4.2 percent of the population in possession of a hunting license, beating Texas, which comes in at 33rd with 3.9 percent. Arizona ranks seventh in the nation with 258,691 gun licenses. Being in the top ten for gun ownership certainly shows that any discussion of new gun laws will twist some heads. Trump’s assassination attempt could revive pleas to the government for greater mental health care awareness, a necessary and worthy investment. Healthcare is one of the priorities of Arizona voters, and mental health care is an important part of overall wellness.

Another major concern for Arizona is the rising heat. According to the Maricopa County Department of Health, the number of heat-related and -caused deaths has increased for more than the past ten years. Two-thirds of the deaths were those in their 50s or older. Most were male, many were homeless. Arizona is 12th in the nation for elderly population. As the elderly age and are less able to care for themselves, fear, like of dying of heat stroke in your own home due to limited mobility and no air conditioning, becomes real.

Voters 65 and over make up 28 percent of the state’s registered voters. Voters aged 18 to 34 are 26 percent of the voting population; as the eldest and youngest groups, they hold near equivalent voting power, however, the elders choose to exercise their right to vote far more often.

Will there be another attempt to file false elector votes? It seems Trump & Co. are focused on their new Project 2025 plan, which is too horrific and absurd to detail here. By spring of this year, it seemed that election season already had one foot in the grave. After his shooting, Trump was circling the wagons and preaching unity. His Vice-Presidential candidate choice is J.D. Vance, of Hillbilly Elegy fame. Trump appeared to be a poised for takeoff. Kamala Harris filled out the ticket with Tim Walz as her VP choice, and his solid Midwestern dad persona has humanized Kamala. Trump and Vance’s attempts to paint Harris as a “weird, cat lady” backfired spectacularly. Harris and Walz pointed out just how weird Trump and Vance are themselves, and because it is kind of true, the two have made a big scene in the media about how “not weird” they are, which just makes them seem all the more strange.

Background Resources on Arizona
Background on the Candidates
Other Reading:

This is the third article in a series of articles about U.S Swing States, for the other editions please click here.

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1 Comment

  1. kalorifer sobası
    kalorifer sobası on August 26, 2024 at 4:08 pm

    I just wanted to express my gratitude for the valuable insights you provide through your blog. Your expertise shines through in every word, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn from you.

    Reply

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