Democrats make a play to turn Arizona blue

Politico ^ | August 2, 2016 | Theodoric Meyer

[Impy]

Wisconsin was in play the last 2 elections we won. In fact it was stolen in both 2004 and 2000.

It’s only slighty more rat than the nation. If Trump wins narrowly in may be stay in rat column but would be one of the narrowest rat wins, top 5 certainly.

A better comparison to AZ on the other side would be....Michigan perhaps, or MN, or even OR. AZ has not been in danger recently.

In responce to Clintonfatiuged; I doubt Obama would have won it in 2008 if McCain had not been the nominee, it would have been closer but I doubt it, very much doubt it.

If AZ is close it means the dems are winning easily. I don’t think it will be close.

[Angels27]

The polls are showing a very close race in several reliably red states this year. AZ, UT, GA and I even saw a poll from TX which was tied that shocked me.

Yet Trump has been polling better than GOP nominees of late in PA, MI and CT.

Strange election

[kozanne]

It’s blue in the barrios of Phoenix and the sinkhole of Tucson [think Raul Grijalva]. Lot redder than people think. But the monster vote should wake everyone up soon enough.

[kozanne]

EXACTLY. We have to keep focused and stay the course. Support Donald J. Trump with your prayers, your contributions, etc.

We knew it was going to get like this up to the general, let’s just keep riding the Trump Train.

MAGA! Trump 2016!

[Luke21]

We care about our guns here. The Politico hacks really think we will vote for gun grabber Clinton? They report from the Twilight Zone every day.

[Galactic Overlord-In-Chief]

The polls are showing a very close race in several reliably red states this year. AZ, UT, GA and I even saw a poll from TX which was tied that shocked me.

Yet Trump has been polling better than GOP nominees of late in PA, MI and CT.

The only reason I can think of for that to be the case is that Trump's alpha male-ish populist appeal is doing well in the Rust Belt and places with large pockets of working class voters (and I hear lots of chatter that he could win places like Ohio's Mahoning County, which almost always goes Democrat) but is not going over as well in states with big moderate-to-conservative suburban areas. That at least would explain GA and AZ, which have large suburban/exurban rings that do have some moderates lurking around in there (I also heard the Utah poll that shows Trump in trouble there is actually quite old).

But it sounds like the Democrats are banking on driving up Hispanic turnout to win the state, which doesn't sound like a winner. Obama crushed with the Hispanic vote in 2012 and still didn't get AZ. He also won smashingly with Georgia blacks but didn't grab that state either.

[LS]

I don’t buy that AZ has slipped at all. Don’t see evidence of that, but I’ve only been here 8 weeks. This is one of those states that the Dems always say is in play and isn’t.

[Galactic Overlord-In-Chief]

Yeah, AZ generally feels like “Lucy pulling away the football” for the Dems. Even when Bill Clinton did win the state in 1996 and broke a long losing streak for the Dems there, he had to win a lot of older white voters to do it. Can’t see that happening with Hillary.

[LS]

AZ is/was a Progressive state-—denied entrance to the union because of its constitution. Carl Hayden, D, was senator here forever. But there are a lot of entrepreneurs and post-war new immigrants here so the economy is very important. I think Clinton tapped into that and probably little else. But I was in OH, so it’s only a guess.

[Luke21]

Dole was so bad in 1996 there was no enthusiasm. He wet the bed and threw the game. He was barely ahead in the Republican areas so communist Tucson decided the thing. That’s the only Dem victory here since Truman.