The 2020 White House race, an unusual and sporadic event in American history, was up in the air on Tuesday evening as initial statewide results showed a marginal lead for Trump over Kamala Harris. As per preliminary, unofficial statistics from Arizona’s Secretary of State on Wednesday around 3 a.m., Trump seemed to have a slight advantage and had slightly increased his lead from the night before.
The county tallies indicated a minor lead for Kamala in Maricopa County, a significant region in terms of voter density, right after the polls closed on Tuesday night. It’s worth noting that 60% of Arizona’s voter base resides in Maricopa County. The selection of 1.1 million ballots in the Maricopa County, which make up 43.43% of the county’s 2.5 million voters, had the potential to cast a significant impact on the election as the county prepared for 2.1 million voters and estimated around 700,000 votes still to be tabulated.
However, this figure from Maricopa County only included the ballots received by Tuesday, Oct. 29. It was clear that the votes cast on the Election Day would be posted periodically over the course of the evening. An evident hustle was observed among the voters even at 7:30 p.m., half an hour after the Arizona polls were officially closed. Still, those who were queued before the closing were able to cast their ballots post-deadline.
Arizona was shaping up as a critical player in this Presidential election, given its significant sum of 11 electoral votes that is poised to play a vital role in deciding the ultimate winner of the White House. The current battle for the presidency has been wracked by uncertainty and a series of unpredictable events. Not many times in history has the United States seen a former president challenging to retake the office or an incumbent quitting mid-campaign.
Interestingly, the Arizona race remained a close contest according to the latest surveys. Donald Trump was slightly ahead of Harris, but the gap was so minimal that either side stood an equal chance of taking over the Grand Canyon State. The sentiment of Arizona’s electorate with the economy and immigration policies seemed to favor Trump’s slim advantage.
A confident aura surrounded the former president in recent Arizona gatherings, where he playfully suggested that he ought to be in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania. ‘We’re going to win Arizona,’ Trump confidently announced during an October rally in Tempe, expressing his satisfaction over the early vote statistics. ‘We’re going to defeat Kamala Harris.’
Meanwhile, Harris was barely trailing. She banked on issues regarding democracy and reproductive rights, and her campaign trusted in a substantial ground operation to outshine Trump, especially in a state where Democrats made considerable advancements during Trump’s term. ‘This will be a very tight race until the very end. And we are the underdog,’ said Harris, attempting to mask her underperformance by branding her campaign as the dark horse in the Arizona race.
Originally, the battle for Presidency in 2020 was anticipated as a rematch between Biden and Trump. However, Biden’s pitiful performance against Trump in the last debate rattled the Democrats. Subsequently, within weeks, he was discarded by his own party. He renounced his bid for reelection in July, well after the primaries, showcasing the kind of disarray the Democratic party was in.
Adding to the unexpected events, Trump was the target of a failed assassination attempt during his campaign in Pennsylvania in July. A gunshot landed near his ear on live television, leaving him bloodied but mostly unharmed, as the Secret Service agents promptly escorted him offstage. Just months later, in September, he was subject to another failed attempt on his life.
Post Biden’s abrupt exit, Kamala Harris stepped in to fill the gap just weeks prior to the Democratic National Convention, outpacing her high-profile party colleagues that had their eyes on the presidential position and the possibility of an open convention. Barely three months were left for Harris, in her newfound role as the nominee, to put together a comprehensive presidential campaign.
Harris was left to clean up the mess, inheriting Biden’s campaign operations across multiple states, including Arizona. These operations had been preparing for the general elections since February. It’s a pity that such well-laid plans had to fall into the hands of Harris, who has been struggling to prove herself as a formidable candidate against Trump.
While the Democrats scramble to put together a coherent campaign led by Harris, Trump continues to dominate the battleground. His confident demeanor and focus on economy and immigration, issues that resonate with the Arizona voters, positions him favorably in this race, while the Democrats seem to lack the solid leadership and vision that a potential Presidential candidate should display.