How the Latino vote shifted historically red Arizona to blue
PHOENIX - It’s not just the big-ticket races trending blue in Arizona and Maricopa County, some other smaller, but important, races are also learning blue in the Grand Canyon State just a day after Election Day.
One reason could be the large Latino voter turnout in Arizona.
That effort was led by Mi Familia Vota, and by the looks of their Phoenix headquarters on Nov. 4, they were feeling good with the voter turnout.
Fox News and the Associated Press projected for Joe Biden to win 11 electoral votes from Arizona. Biden visited the state once during the election, the rest of the visits were done virtually. President Donald Trump and several from his campaign visited more than a dozen times combined.
In another historic win, Arizona will have two Democratic Senators since 1953 represent the state after Mark Kelly defeated incumbent Senator Martha McSally.
During the election, Mi Familia Vota volunteers efforted a 500 person ground game involving door knocks and phone banks.
“For us, it’s not only about red or blue, it’s about political power to stop the anti-immigrant hate and attacks on our community. And our policies are on the frontline," says Mi Familia Vota CEO Hector Sanchez Barba.
He pointed to both SB 1070 and former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio as driving motivational factors in the shift of how Arizonans vote.
“Arizona showed how things should be done. It’s a long term investment and strategy to promote the values and policy priorities of our community. The whole nation should be looking at Arizona on how to build political power, how to protect that power," Barba said.
Aliento AZ is another group with a big Latino ground game that started over the summer.
“We made over 25,000 contacts. We specifically targeted never voters or inconsistent voters, and many folks were being reached out to for the first time ever," Angélica César with Aliento AZ said.
Did the efforts work? The numbers so far on Nov. 4 look like they did.
“In the West Valley and South Phoenix, there’s a large Hispanic community. But also in Ahwatukee, there’s LD-18 going blue for a number of years, that’s a new influx of people in that area, also included in that is Chandler," said Sam Almy with Saguaro Strategies.
Changing demographics and enthusiasm from Hispanic voters, perhaps like the state has never seen before, might have done something many thought unthinkable not too long ago - turned the state blue.
Detailed demographics on who voted will be out in late November.
For more on election results, click here.