Trump wins Arizona and Nevada, completing sweep of swing states: AP

(NEXSTAR) – Arizona’s 11 electoral votes and Nevada’s 6 will go to President-elect Donald Trump, the Associated Press projected on Saturday.

The victories helped Trump complete his sweep of the swing states — North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Arizona — and pushed his electoral vote count to 312.

Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as their surrogates, spent considerable time in Arizona and Nevada during the campaign as they hoped to win over one of the crucial “Sun Belt” swing states.

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Thom Reilly, co-director of the Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University, said both Harris’ and Trump’s campaigns — and their allies — put a remarkable amount of effort into micro-targeting in Arizona.

However, their campaign events took different approaches to the issues important to Arizona voters. Trump hammered home the message that Harris’ record on immigration “disqualifies her from the presidency.” Meanwhile, vice presidential candidate Tim Walz said during a Phoenix rally that another Trump term posed a threat to democracy and freedom.

Four years ago, during the 2020 presidential election, the margins in Arizona were tighter than anywhere else in the country, the Arizona Republic reports. President Joe Biden beat Trump 49.36% to 49.06%, or fewer than 11,000 votes.

A week before the election, polls were showing a close race – but not quite that close. The Hill reported Trump had a bigger advantage in Arizona than most of the other swing states. Biden’s 2020 victory was the first time Arizona went blue since 1996.

Nevada has one of the nation’s best track records as a presidential bellwether. The candidate who won the state has gone on to win the White House in 27 of the last 30 presidential elections. It voted for the losing candidate only in 1908, 1976 and 2016, when Democrat Hillary Clinton carried the state. Democrats have won Nevada in the last four presidential elections.

In 2020, President Joe Biden carried the state with 50% of the vote to Trump’s 48%.

According to tracking by Decision Desk HQ on The Hill, Trump garnered 52.6% of the vote, edging out Harris’s 46.4% — a margin of nearly 200,000 votes. The margins were closer in Nevada, with Trump beating Harris, 50.6% to 47.5%, or by about 46,000 votes.

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Trump didn’t need either state to secure his path to the White House. He was declared the winner early Wednesday after the races in two key swing states, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, were called in his favor.

In the lead-up to the election, there was wide speculation we’d be waiting on Arizona’s election results for a while. Arizona’s election results take a relatively long time to be reported due to the way ballots are counted. Mail-in ballots cast and pre-processed before Election Day are able to be reported right after polls close, but those dropped off on Election Day take much longer. Election workers aren’t allowed to even start processing those ballots until after polls close.

The final word on Nevada’s many competitive races was expected to drag on given the way the state conducts elections. All registered voters receive a mail-in ballot automatically. While they still have the choice to vote in person, mailing in ballots has proved popular. In the 2022 midterm elections, 80% of voters cast their ballots in-person before Election Day or by mail.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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