Biden wins Arizona, flipping a long-time Republican stronghold

[uk666]

Biden wins Arizona, flipping a long-time Republican stronghold

US President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has won Arizona, capturing the state’s 11 electoral votes, and strengthening his Electoral College margin as President Trump continues to make baseless attacks on the vote counts favouring Mr. Biden.

• Biden's win in Arizona gives the Democrat 290 electoral votes in the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the winner, more than the 270 needed to claim victory.
• Biden is also winning the popular vote by more than 5.2 million votes, or 3.4 percentage points.

Mr. Biden, whose margin in Arizona is currently about 11,000 votes, or 0.3 percentage points, is the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since President Bill Clinton in 1996. Four years ago, Mr. Trump won the state by 3.5 percentage points.

Arizona is the home of the late Senator John McCain and Senator Barry Goldwater, a founder of the 20th century conservative political movement and the 1964 Republican presidential nominee. Before the state voted for Mr. Clinton, the last Democrat it had supported for president was Harry S. Truman in 1948.

Mr. Biden’s win underscored a profound political shift in Arizona, a long-time Republican bastion that has lurched left in recent years, fuelled by rapidly evolving demographics and a growing contingent of young Hispanic voters championing liberal policies.

Last week, the Democratic challenger Mark Kelly defeated the state’s Republican senator, Martha McSally, in a special election, making Mr. Kelly and Senator Kyrsten Sinema the first pair of Democrats to represent Arizona in the Senate since the 1950s.

The Arizona victory brings Mr. Biden to 290 electoral votes, 20 more than the 270 required to take the White House.

The revenge of John McCain? 

The long-time public servant, Navy officer, Vietnam war prisoner of war, and 2008 presidential nominee was seen as representing the old guard of the party and butted heads with the president’s brash style of campaigning and leadership. 

Trump trails in Arizona after aides warned him to stop attacking state's late senator and favourite son
For years Mr Trump has attacked Senator McCain, continuing to throw insults even after his death in 2018.

“He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured,” the president said.

A Navy pilot, Sen. McCain was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967. He was captured, beaten, and held prisoner for more than five years, refusing to be released ahead of other US service members.

Both McCain's father and grandfather were four-star admirals.

In September, the senator’s widow, Cindy McCain, endorsed Mr Biden, citing the decades of friendship between her family and Biden’s and their bond as the parents of children serving in the military.