President-elect Donald Trump owes his Arizona comeback in part to a rightward shift in Maricopa County, the vote-rich center of the state that he narrowly lost four years ago.
Maricopa County saw strong rightward swings in western and southern Phoenix in the 2024 presidential election, according to an analysis of precinct-level election results by The Arizona Republic.
Much of the county moved to the right compared to the 2020 presidential election results, a shift that was key to Trump’s defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris last week.
“Maricopa County is the heartbeat of the swing voters,” said Chad Heywood, the former executive director of the Arizona Republican Party. “When Republicans win Maricopa County, they win the state, and that's all there is to it.”
