Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are now tied in Arizona.
Clinton has 35 percent to Trump’s 34 percent, according to a new Arizona Republic/Morrison/Cronkite News Poll.
That’s really all you need to know about this election. America is essentially split down the middle, with traditional red states like Arizona now in play.
Why?
One need only to look at Trump’s rhetoric on immigration and the border to find the answer.
The poll found that among Arizona’s likely voters, 55 percent don’t like his big border wall proposal. And from that group over 40 percent really hate the idea. Only 25 percent say the wall should “definitely” be built.
When asked if they backed Trump’s proposal to deport all illegal immigrants currently in the United States, 68 percent of Arizonans said no. That’s nearly seven in ten Arizonans. Only 6 percent said they “strongly agreed” with his position.
And it’s not just Democrats and Independents who hate his immigration and border ideas, but nearly 60 percent of Republicans in the Grand Canyon State do too.
That adds up to a traditionally Republican state — land of conservative icon Barry Goldwater — being very much in play in 2016.
“His supporters in this state will be reduced really to that group of people who are proud of their anti-Mexican views, their anti-immigrant views,” said Alfredo Gutierrez, president of the governing board of the Maricopa County Community College District. “Whatever the number is, we are not going to pick up 11 million to 30 million people and put them in trains and buses and take them to the border without consideration for human rights, civil rights and legal procedures.”
Further evidence that Arizona is more progressive today than in past elections, 50 percent of poll respondents said they supported the legalization of recreational marijuana for adults over 21 years old, while only 40 percent opposed.
That’s an idea, ironically, that the libertarian-leaning Goldwater backed — mostly alone — twenty years ago.
If Arizona is truly in play for Clinton, who has started spending more money on staffing in the state, it’s an indication she’s headed for an electoral vote landslide in November.