Arizona: Blue State On The Map, 'Magenta' State In Reality
On the 2020 electoral map, Arizona is officially a blue state for the first time since 1996. President-elect Joe Biden eked out a narrow victory against incumbent President Donald Trump, and Senator-elect Mark Kelly won a slightly larger victory over incumbent Republican Sen. Martha McSally.
Pollster Mike Noble says that Arizona is far from joining the ranks of other so-called blue states like California and Oregon. He says that, given the GOP’s success in down-ballot races, Arizona is still a reddish shade of purple.
“I would say that Arizona is actually magenta, which is the lightest color of red," Noble said. "And I say that because, if you look at Arizona, Democrats did win for President. However, when you look down ballot, Democrats didn’t perform as well as they probably should have.”
With most ballots counted, Democrats lost several county-level and municipal elections. They failed to win both chambers of the Arizona legislature as expected, winning only one new seat in the State Senate. Noble says it looks like a lot of voters showed up to vote against President Trump - but not for Democrats, and many voters split their tickets.
“Voters that are typically center-right or in the center have typically gone GOP in the higher level didn’t due to Trump," Noble said. "However, down-ballot, it seems like Republicans fared far stronger than the President. When looking at it, I thought there would be better gains by the Democrats down-ballot. Really didn’t see that.”
In Maricopa County, Democratic Sheriff Paul Penzone was a bipartisan vote-getter: his 1.09 million votes were higher than either presidential candidate's total.
Easily the biggest vote-getter in Maricopa County (and statewide) was Proposition 207, which legalized recreational marijuana for adult use. It passed by a 60-40 margin, indicating large bipartisan support.
