Why Arizona Is Tilting Blue: 'The State's Clearly in Motion'

[RandySF]

When the pandemic struck and the country’s economy hit the rocks, Mr. Trump found his most powerful argument for re-election thrown into jeopardy. That was particularly true in Arizona, where business had been booming. Corporations across industries — including tech, insurance and defense contracting — had opened new operations in the state in recent years, bringing high-paying jobs by the tens of thousands.

Partly as a result, Phoenix and its surrounding county, Maricopa, are now the fastest-growing city and county in the country, according to census data. On average, more than 250 people move to the Phoenix area each day.

A few years ago, a flood of good jobs into the suburbs around Phoenix might have been great news for Republicans, bringing an influx of middle-class and predominantly white voters to a county that accounts for three of every five votes cast in Arizona.

But particularly under Mr. Trump, the suburban political calculus has changed. Voters in the suburbs are now far less likely to support him or members of his party than they were just five years ago.

“It used to be that in Maricopa County, if you put an ‘R’ in front of your name, you’d win,” Chuck Coughlin, a longtime Republican strategist based in Phoenix, said in an interview. Now, he added, “that is not the case.”



https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/us/politics/arizona-biden-trump-kelly-mcsally.html

[marlakay]

1. I read a lot of people from Cali moving there

Tired of the fires. Also to other states, a friend of mine just moved to Boise.

This is what we need, liberals moving to red states. It will balance them out.

[UTUSN]

2. K&R

[Cha]

3. Interesting.. TY.. Capt Mark Kelly, Cindy McCain!

ThANKS PSYCHO IN WH.

[sarcasmo]

4. Climate Migration

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. My (now ex) husband and I moved to Phoenix in the fall of

1983, from Minneapolis. I had lived in Tucson from 1962 to the fall of 1968, and went to high school there. So I already knew the state somewhat.

What I found peculiar and distressing was that a lot of people (especially husband's co-workers) honestly thought that so long as they didn't have to shovel snow off their cars in the winter, everything was just fine.

That fall there was a mayoral election in Phoenix. And no matter which guy won, it would be a change in the fundamental power structure that had been running the city since 1948. We both registered to vote as soon as we got there, and took a look at the mayoral race. We honestly felt that we couldn't make an informed decision about it, since we were so new to the city. Clearly, we could have voted for our preferred political party, but didn't feel that was the right thing to do.

On election day itself, my husband was out of town on a project for his company, along with two co-workers. One had lived there for about seven years, the other for nine years, and they were of the "If I don't have to shovel snow off my car in the winter everything is just fine" ilk. That night, when we spoke on the phone, I told husband that Terry Goddard had won the election. He said thanks for telling me, I'll let the guys know when I see them tomorrow at breakfast. The next morning, at breakfast, he said, "Oh, by the way, Terry Goddard won the election yesterday." They responded, "Who? What? What election? What are you talking about?" Yeah. Since they didn't have to shovel snow off their cars in the winter literally nothing else mattered.

During the next four years that we lived there, such responses were typical. It made me crazy. Look, I get why it's nice not to have to shovel snow off your car in the winter, but that is not the only thing that contributes to quality of life.

And in the four years we lived there, I never met anyone whose roots in Arizona predated mine.

When I was in high school, one of my teachers commentated rather bitterly (and this was in an era when people like high school teachers did NOT make their political feelings known) that the only reason we had Barry Goldwater as Senator was those people in Phoenix.

And don't get me started on John McCain's duplicity about where he lived and where he moved to when he decided to run for the Senate.