TUCSON — Both vice presidential candidates, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), fanned out across Arizona on Wednesday, urging their supporters to cast their ballots early in the Grand Canyon State.
With less than four weeks until Election Day, the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is in a dead heat, with the former president ahead by just over 1 percentage point in the state as early voting began statewide.
In a short speech Wednesday afternoon in the scorching heat at the Tucson Speedway, Vance and other Republican speakers encouraged supporters to vote early and by mail. This was a sharp departure from the rhetoric Trump used in 2020 when he questioned mail-in ballots and early voting, calling them unreliable and susceptible to fraud.
“The best way to make sure your vote is counted is to make sure it’s counted early," Vance told the crowd.
The Ohio senator appeared to acknowledge President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in Arizona in 2020 with just 10,457 votes, a narrow win that has led to years of conspiracy theories and false claims promoted by top Republicans. The misinformation has led to protests outside vote-counting centers and death threats against election workers and has prompted election officials to increase security this cycle.
“Arizona — 11,000 votes, that was the margin last time,” Vance said. “And set to the side all the problems, 11,000 votes. If every single person in this room, in this audience because we’re outside if every single person in this audience gets their friends and family to vote, that could be the difference between Donald Trump becoming President of the United States and Kamala Harris.”
Trump even got on the phone Wednesday evening to make a mass call to supporters, urging them not to wait until Election Day to vote. As the phones rang for unsuspecting Arizona voters, the caller ID showed up as "Donald J. Trump."
Early voting by mail has been popular in Arizona. In the last cycle, nearly 80% of voters submitted their ballots before Election Day in 2020, according to the Secretary of State’s office. The Washington Examiner spoke to 10 voters at Vance’s rally, and every single one said they planned to vote early, even those who had previously been hesitant about early voting.
“I didn’t vote early last time because I was very suspicious,” said Ann Marie Ellis, a 59-year-old small business owner from Tucson. “[Trump] had said at one point it wasn’t safe, and now he’s turned it around.”
In a sign that the tide may be turning, even GOP Senate nominee Kari Lake plans to vote early in Scottsdale on Thursday. Lake lost the 2022 election for governor but has not conceded, citing widespread voting problems and fraud.
Despite the push. Trump has relayed inconsistent messages on the topic, often sowing doubt in the legitimacy of the practice and resurrecting claims of early and mail voting fraud. However, some Republicans have seen problems with attempting to suppress the early vote. In Arizona specifically, there were long lines and voting machine malfunctions on Election Day that primarily affected Republicans who hadn’t cast early votes.
“An operative I know has been telling him [Trump] since 2019 not to bad mouth early voting because it just hurts,” said Chuck Coughlin, a longtime Republican consultant in the state who has since left the GOP when Trump turned the party against his former boss, the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).
“Historically, we started it back with McCain in ‘92 was the first cycle we started doing early voting, and we perfected it in a gubernatorial campaign in ‘94,” Coughlin explained. “It used to be Republicans would sprint out way ahead, and then Democrats would slowly catch up, and on Election Day, they would get back to where their quotas ought to be."
“Now, it’s just the opposite. Democrats sprint to the front, and Republicans slowly catch up and come closer to their own on Election Day turnout,” he continued.
The Harris campaign sees a competitive landscape in Arizona and is investing time and resources to turn out the early vote. Nearly 6,000 people have already signed up to canvass and operate phone banks this week, and the campaign said over the weekend that it had scheduled more than 7,500 canvassing and phone-banking shifts.
Walz began his day in Chandler, a city southeast of Phoenix, and participated in a veterans roundtable with Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Jim McCain, the son of the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). He also participated in an event with the Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis and other tribal leaders in Phoenix.
Walz wrapped up the day with a rally inside a high school gym in Tucson. Standing against a backdrop that said “Arizona votes early,” the Minnesota governor reminded Arizona voters they can begin casting their ballots.
“We have 27 days to close the book and not have to hear from Donald Trump again,” Walz said to a boisterous applause from the crowd.
“We get to do — well, you know the saying, when we fight — we win, when we vote — we win,” he added.
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Both presidential candidates will get in on the get-out-the-vote efforts in Arizona this week. Harris will hold a marquee rally in Phoenix on Thursday to increase turnout. Trump will make a stop in Prescott for a Sunday rally in the Republican stronghold of Yavapai County.
“There’s only so many times you can go to Phoenix,” said Barrett Marson, a Republican consultant in the state. “To get out of Phoenix is important — to hopefully reach a couple thousand people in the Prescott area who were on the fence is really important.”
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