Arizona

Opinion: Even blue-leaning Arizona border counties roared at the polls for Trump

Published

1 year ago

November 9, 2024

Press Room

Opinion: Even blue-leaning Arizona border counties roared at the polls for Trump

Cochise, Santa Cruz and Yuma counties served as the front line of Biden and Harris’ border policies, and they didn’t like what they saw.

Jon Gabriel
| opinion contributor

As Arizona political junkies feverishly refresh their screens for the remaining votes to be counted, the early numbers reveal one reason Donald Trump is poised to win the state he lost four years ago.

Call it the revenge of the border counties.

Based on the count so far, Pima County didn’t change its voting pattern. In 2020, Joe Biden defeated Trump by 18 percentage points, and Kamala Harris appears to have maintained that lead with a 17 percent advantage as of Thursday morning.

Most of Pima County’s border with Mexico is part of the sparsely populated Tohono O’odham Nation. The vast majority of residents live well to the north, in and around Tucson.

The story is much different in the three remaining border counties.

Trump gained, even in blue-leaning counties

Trump defeated Biden in Cochise County, located in the southeast corner of the state.

In 2020, the Republican received 58% of the vote, compared to the Democrat’s 39%. Despite Cochise County’s previous red leanings, Trump vastly improved his performance in 2024.

So far, Trump holds a massive 68%-31% lead over Harris.

Santa Cruz, with its county seat in Nogales, is a reliable Democratic stronghold. In 2020, Biden received a whopping 67% of the vote, with Trump garnering just 32%.

This year brought a big change. Trump gained eight percentage points, with the vote total on Thursday standing at Harris 59%, Trump 40%. This is significant for a county in which 82% of residents are Latino.

That leaves the last border county, Yuma, in Arizona’s southwest corner. In the previous presidential election, Trump bested Biden 52% to 46%. This time, Trump had 65% on Thursday, compared to Harris’ 35%.

Biden-Harris’ border policies are likely to blame

What could account for the 10-point shift to Trump in Cochise County? The eight-point GOP gain in Santa Cruz? And finally, the 13-point red wave in Yuma County?

Each served as the front line of Biden and Harris’ disastrous border policies.

While politicians bickered in Washington, undocumented migrants passed through these desert regions, disrupting the small communities and taxing their limited public services.

The numbers of migrants are truly staggering.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has divided our southern border into several sections, two of which cover Arizona. The Tucson Sector accounts for the border from the New Mexico state line to Yuma County.

The Yuma Sector handles the 126 miles from the Pima county line to the Imperial Sand Dunes in California. The California portion of this sector has been fenced since the 1990s, dramatically reducing the encounters along their area.

Arizona border counties roared at the polls

Adding up the border crossings from fiscal 2021 to fiscal 2024 demonstrates the Biden-Harris administration’s failure to provide basic security.

The Tucson Sector had 1,280,408 encounters. The Yuma Sector had 652,660 encounters.

Over Biden and Harris’ single term, Arizona’s four border counties had more than 1.9 million undocumented migrants pass through. When residents complained, the national media shrugged it off, often blaming racism, despite the high numbers of Latinos living there.

Of course, when a small number of migrants were flown to the elite enclave of Martha’s Vineyard, the Massachusetts National Guard had them bused out within hours. The wealthy playground couldn’t tolerate the crushing influx of 50 uninvited guests.

That’s for struggling border towns like Douglas, Nogales or Yuma to handle.

America has long welcomed immigrants, a fact demonstrated by our liberal naturalization laws. We want people to become citizens. But the unregulated entry of 1.9 million people into a single state alarms Americans of all backgrounds.

Tired of being ignored for years, Arizona’s border counties finally made their voices heard.

This time at the ballot box.

Jon Gabriel, a Mesa resident, is editor-in-chief of Ricochet.com and a contributor to The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. On X, formerly Twitter: @exjon.

Source link

Click to comment

Arizona

5 big Powerball lotto prizes won across Arizona days before Christmas

Published

6 hours ago

December 23, 2025

Press Room

5 big Powerball lotto prizes won across Arizona days before Christmas

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Five more lucky lotto players are heading into the holidays with a little extra cash in their pockets.

According to state lottery officials, the big winning tickets were sold around Arizona, each worth $50,000.

The tickets were sold at:

Goldfield Chevron
- 3265 S. Goldfield Rd, Apache Junction, AZ
Circle K
- 2088 W. Orange Grove Rd, Tucson, AZ
QuikTrip
- 918 E. Baseline Rd, Tempe, AZ
Desert Springs Travel Center
- 4031 Fleet St., Littlefield, AZ
Terrible’s
- 19985 N. Hwy 93, White Hills, AZ

The winning numbers from Monday’s drawing were 3, 18, 36, 41, 54 and Powerball 7. Nine $1 million tickets were sold nationwide.

The jackpot remains unclaimed and is estimated at $1.7 billion — the fourth largest ever — with the next drawing set for Christmas Eve.

Powerball tickets cost $2 per play, with odds of winning the jackpot sitting at 1 in 292.2 million, according to the lottery.

More information on games and prizes can be found on the Arizona Lottery website.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Source link

Arizona

No. 1 Arizona wraps up Bethune Cookman 107-71

Published

18 hours ago

December 23, 2025

Press Room

No. 1 Arizona wraps up Bethune Cookman 107-71

Arizona wrapped up their pre-Christmas schedule with a nice bow in the form of a 36 point victory over Bethune Cookman. Seven players scored double figures as Brayden Burries lead the game with 20 points. Partway through the first half Mabil Mawut was ejected from the game while on the bench, a rare occurrence under the Tommy Lloyd led team. Arizona will take Christmas off with practice resuming on the 26th and their next game at home on the 29th.

Source link

Arizona

Will Arizona see a white Christmas? What the holiday forecast says

Published

1 day ago

December 22, 2025

Press Room

Will Arizona see a white Christmas? What the holiday forecast says

After a week of persistent warm weather, a storm system is expected to bring rain, not snow, to Arizona for Christmas.
Flagstaff and other high-country areas are also too warm for Christmas snow, with precipitation expected to be mostly rain.
The same weather pattern is bringing heavy rain and potential flooding to Southern California and parts of the Northwest.

Arizonans dreaming of a white Christmas will likely have to settle for rain this year as warm temperatures persist.

A storm system off the West Coast is expected to funnel moisture into the state later this week, giving much of Arizona chances for rain around Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

The unsettled pattern could bring measurable rainfall, but temperatures are expected to stay too warm for snow, even in the high country. Arizona won’t get the soaking Southern California is expecting from incoming atmospheric rivers slamming the coast, but that same system will push moisture into the Southwest.

“Unfortunately, no white Christmas. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news,” said Ted Whittock, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix.

In Phoenix, rain chances as temperatures cool from record highs

In Phoenix and the lower deserts, Christmas week will start off unusually warm before gradually cooling as rain chances increase.

Phoenix could break a daily temperature record for the second day in a row on Monday, Dec. 22. The current record is 79 degrees, with a forecast high of 82. A high of 81 degrees on Sunday, Dec. 21, broke the daily record for the third time this month.

But the weather should shift as a low-pressure system moves in from the Pacific.

“We’ll see a strong low-pressure system move in just off the West Coast and bring plenty of moisture into the region starting tomorrow,” Whittock said. “As a result, we’re going to see periodic rain chances this week.”

Forecasters say there will be two main windows for rain: late Tuesday into early Wednesday and again from Christmas Eve into Christmas Day.

Temperatures will start to trend downward midweek, with highs potentially dropping into the 60s and low 70s by the weekend.

Rainfall totals in the Valley could add up to around a half-inch or more in spots.

In Flagstaff, mostly rain early with uncertain snow chances later

Up north, Flagstaff will also see an unsettled and warmer-than-normal Christmas week. But snow lovers may be disappointed.

“It’s very warm for this time of year compared to what it usually is in December, so we’re expecting this week’s events to mainly be rain instead of snow,” said Jacob Lewandowski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Flagstaff.

The first chance of rain in the forecast is Tuesday, Dec. 23 in the evening. Snow levels are expected to stay high through midweek, generally between 9,000 and 10,000 feet. That puts Flagstaff below the snow line during the initial rounds of precipitation.

Chances for snow could increase later in the week as cooler air moves in, but confidence drops significantly after Wednesday.

“The chances for snow start increasing by Thursday and Friday, but it’s still a lot of uncertainty with it,” said Lewandowski. “It’s just how warm it is through the week and whether it’s going to be all rain or a little bit of snow mixed in. Most likely not a white Christmas, though. It’s too warm.”

Atmospheric rivers hit the West Coast as much of the U.S. stays warm

The storm system affecting Arizona is part of a broader pattern impacting much of the western United States. Atmospheric rivers, or long plumes of moisture from the Pacific, are expected to bring heavy rain to parts of coastal California this week.

“The atmospheric rivers are going to impact Southern Calfironia, particularly on Wednesday,” Whittock said. “This is an especially impactful system for people that are traveling to and from Southern California, especially coastal areas.”

Forecasts from the National Weather Service in Los Angeles show an extended period of heavy rain expected from Tuesday through Saturday, with 4 to 8 inches of rain likely across coastal and valley areas. Prolonged rainfall could lead to flooding and debris flow concerns, especially in burn scar areas.

Unusual weather isn’t limited to just the West. Much of the United States will have a warmer than normal holiday, with some areas experiencing their warmest Christmases on record.

A northward shift in the jet stream over the middle of the country is allowing warmer air to spread east, causing above-normal temperatures. From the Rockies to parts of the Appalachians, temperatures could reach 15 to 30 degrees above average for Christmas Day.

So whether it’s rainy or warm, much of the country will miss out on a snow globe Christmas this year. In Arizona, that likely means a damp holiday instead of a snowy one.

Hayleigh Evans writes about extreme weather and related topics for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Email her with story tips at hayleigh.evans@arizonarepublic.com.

Source link