The next President of the United States has seized Arizona’s eleven electoral votes on his way to a landslide victory in the November General Election.
About 24 hours after polls closed in the critical swing state of Arizona, the state was called for President-elect Donald J. Trump after his sizable lead proved to be too great for Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris to overcome. Trump had already reached his requisite 270 Electoral Votes, without needing the states of Arizona or Nevada, to put him over the top for a shocking and resounding victory for the White House.
The Republican Party of Arizona reacted to the news on its X account, posting, “PRESIDENT TRUMP WINS ARIZONA. Thank you Donald Trump for stepping back into the ring. You never gave up on us, and we will never give up on you. Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen. Let the Golden Age begin!”
🇺🇸 PRESIDENT TRUMP WINS ARIZONA 🇺🇸
Thank you @realDonaldTrump for stepping back into the ring. You never gave up on us, and we will never give up on you.
Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen.
After Fox News and other outlets declared the 45th and soon-to-be 47th President to be the victor of the whirlwind contest against Harris, Trump took to the stage of his party headquarters and thanked his supporters in attendance and millions around the country and world who tuned into his address. He said, “I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president. And every citizen, I will fight for you, for your family and for your future. Every single day, I will be fighting for you with every breath in my body.”
As of this report on Thursday night, President Trump leads his opponent in Arizona by more than 155,000 votes. He narrowly lost the state back in 2020 to current President Joe Biden by fewer than 11,000 votes. In 2016, Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in Arizona by over 91,000 votes. There are still hundreds of thousands of ballots outstanding across the state that will be tabulated in the coming days before the numbers are finalized and certified.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Barring a turn of events with additional ballots being tabulated from the November General Election, Maricopa County Republicans appear to be holding onto their positions for the upcoming term of office.
After Tuesday’s November General Election, a number of Maricopa County Republicans are likely returning and / or ascending to positions of leadership.
As of this report on Thursday night, Eddie Cook received 54.36% of the vote for re-election to County Assessor.
Rachel Mitchell acquired 55.01% of the vote to return as County Attorney.
Justin Heap won 52.56% of the vote to assume the position of County Recorder. Heap is currently a state representative.
In a statement, Heap said, “I look forward to immediately beginning the work of transitioning into the office, and working with the legislature to develop a common sense legislative agenda that will make our elections more effective, efficient, and most importantly, honest, while allowing us to deliver faster election results in the 2026 and 2028 elections.”
Shelli Boggs obtained 51.85% of the vote for County School Superintendent.
Jerry Sheridan received 53.78% of the vote for County Sheriff.
Sheridan posted a statement to his X account, writing, “The real work now lies ahead as we work with the community, the Board of Supervisors, and the amazing employees at MCSO to rebuild the Sheriff’s Office to better protect the people we are entrusted to serve. To those voters out there that didn’t support my campaign, I want you to know that I will work hard to earn your trust and support. I will keep the promises I made during this campaign, especially treating every person with dignity and respect, and protecting the civil rights of all Maricopa County residents.”
John Allen was unopposed for his reelection bid for County Treasurer.
As of Thursday’s report of ballot tabulation, Republicans would control the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors with a 4-1 split. Two races – both with a Republican leading – are within three percent or less.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Against all odds, former President Donald Trump appears to have won a decisive victory and will become the 47th president of the United States. He will be only the second American in history reelected to a non-consecutive presidential term. Trump prevailed despite the opposition of every institution in America, including the corrupt media and government.
Far from merely a defeat for his notional opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, a stand-in for the status quo, or the failed presidency of dotard Joe Biden, Trump’s victory marks a consolidation of the New Right. What lies ahead will be such a radical break that it will make Trump’s first term look like a warmup.
Many pundits across the political spectrum will hope that the election result is an aberration: that Trump is a populist who bewitched the Republican Party and then duped the electorate. Perhaps he won because of Biden’s decay, the late switch to Harris, or an electorate that the elite deems too stupid to understand how good it has it.
Unfortunately for the doubters, the reality is far more stark than merely a transient setback or misunderstanding. Trump is the vehicle. The force behind his victory marks a fundamental turning point in U.S. history and the politics of the right around the world. This is not the high-water mark of the fight against the system. Rather this marks a critical mass in the effort to replace that system.
Trump’s first victory in 2016 was a willingness by a public angered by a lost decade of economic stagnation and lost wars to give an unknown outsider a chance to mix things up. His second victory is a decision by that electorate, which now has his measure precisely, to supplant a corrupt system that runs through American and western society — a feckless compilation of self-appointed referees known also as the “elite” or the “establishment.”
What was whimsy then is now determination and it is much bigger than just Trump. The system put everything it had into this election and it lost.
Those at home and abroad who have estranged themselves from the MAGA movement will take false solace from Trump’s previous term. This time will be different. The degree to which Trump changes America will depend on the effectiveness of his administration and an always-disappointing Congress. But it will be different.
In broad terms, one should assume that Trump will reduce regulations and taxes to spur the productive part of the economy. Conceptually, his polices will supplant globalism with nationalism, including higher tariffs.
He will dispense with the progressive religions of climate change alarmism and racism under the banner of diversity. Despite being a late addition to his campaign, he will seek reductions in government spending except Social Security and Medicare.
Internationally, he will devote fewer resources and less time to irrelevant or exotic alliances and partnerships, focusing instead on ones that matter most. He will order the largest deportation program since the Eisenhower administration. However, he will otherwise seek the reduction of the national security state, especially the intelligence bureaucracy, the Justice Department and the secret police, all of which sought to undermine his presidency and reelection campaigns.
The big question is how far Trump wants to go and how far he will be able to go. In a nation of 335 million, it theoretically should not be hard to find effective and loyal people to fill the roughly 4,000 politically appointed positions in the executive branch. Yet subject-matter expertise in government and a willingness to confront the swamp while living in it are evidently rare qualities.
Trump One had more than its fair share of appointees who were indifferent or opposed to the president’s wishes, joined by two million federal civilian employees, most of whom hated his guts. Trump’s own aides recognized the failure with personnel and were planning big changes in a second term. Trump himself acknowledged the problem in his recent podcast with Joe Rogan.
If Trump and his top lieutenants manage personnel better — acknowledging that some duds and flops among appointees are impossible to avoid entirely — his impact will be magnified greatly. His term could see big tech broken up, the military transformed radically and reoriented to the Pacific, the seeds planted for the type of news media that America deserves, the border secured and all illegals deported, mass reductions in government employment and handouts in order to balance the budget, and universities regulated to teach real things instead of disdain for America.
However, no matter how well Trump does, one thing is already clear. The New Right he has helped to create is now not only dominant but insurmountable on its side of the political spectrum. The “NeverTrump” Republicans may still land some media money, but they no longer exist as a political force.
They have gone the way that Rockefeller Republicans did during the Reagan administration. The fact that anyone under fifty will have to look up what a “Rockefeller Republican” was is a testament to their extinction — and that of today’s opponents of Trump and the New Right among Republicans.
A final point is that this election’s rebuke of the system is not just political but cultural as well. Trump and the rise of the New Right are not just about the economy, inflation, tax rates and America losing. It is also a cultural shift. The system told Americans that voting for Trump would lead not just to bad policy but was morally wrong. He is a (fake) felon. He is a (fake) fascist. He is a lout and a liar — or so came the word from the system’s hypocrites projecting their own traits on Trump.
Electing Trump was a rejection of this schoolmarmery. It is a rejection of they/them pronouns, tampons in boys’ rooms, school shutdowns, neurotic Karens who politicize everything, celebrities who deign to preach, attempts to emasculate the military and everything else in America, and all of the other progressive passions. Trump’s election marks a return to normalcy in which merit and achievement are celebrated instead of politics and preening.
Like President Calvin Coolidge observing that “the chief business of the American people is business,” it is a deliberate turn inward, a focus on real life, and a decision to keep politics in its place.
Presumably there will be much emoting ahead. Who can forget the screaming woman at Trump’s first inauguration or the boo-hoo look on the faces of reporters for most of the following four years? (I was reminded of my own return to State Department headquarters after President George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection — I had Darth Vader’s “Imperial March” tune in my head as I enjoyed all of the sadder-than-usual faces.) Less amusing were the Russia hoax, the phony Ukraine impeachment, and the “Summer of Love” riots orchestrated by Antifa and BLM.
Who knows what lies ahead this time. But it is important to keep in mind that Trump and his policies have a clear mandate from the republic he will soon lead again. The country has spoken. And the country and the world will be changed.
Christian Whiton is a contributor to the Daily Caller News Foundation. He was a State Department senior advisor in the Trump and Bush administrations. He is a senior fellow at the Center for the National Interest and a principal at DC International Advisory. The author of “Smart Power: Between Diplomacy and War,” he co-hosts the “Domino Theory” podcast and edits “Capitalist Notes” on Substack. This article was first published on “Capitalist Notes.”
A recent release from the Northeast Arizona Native Democrats has raised concerns about the ethical and legal considerations involved with partisan operatives helping voters fill out and mail in their ballots.
According to the release from Northeast Arizona Native Democrats, the group held a “Ballots, Stew & Socks event,” in Sawmill, AZ, a village on the Navajo reservation described as “a remote, census-designated area in the Navajo Nation,” boasting a population of less than 800.
The Democrat group explained their mission writing:
“In that small town, our team was able to engage with over 50 voters, some who had traveled far distances, and helped them fill out and mail their ballots on time.
While in Sawmill, we were joined by a truck-load of Pinon Pickers who shared a bowl of stew with us, while talking about the issues they care about. After this engaging, inspiring conversation, they thanked us for the information we provided and committed to voting early.”
The question of legality for holding an event to assist in mailing ballots, such as the Sawmill effort, could be unlawful under A.R.S. 16-1005(H), which states: “A person who knowingly collects voted or unvoted early ballots from another person is guilty of a class 6 felony. An election official, a United States postal service worker or any other person who is allowed by law to transmit United States mail is deemed not to have collected an early ballot if the official, worker or other person is engaged in official duties.”
As the event appeared on Facebook, it advertised: “Free Meal, Warm Socks, Voter Info.” This could potentially run afoul of A.R.S. 16-1005(C), which states, “It is unlawful to receive or agree to receive any consideration in exchange for a voted or unvoted ballot. A person who violates this subsection is guilty of a class 5 felony.”
Recent legal battles have been fought pertaining to everything from providing food and water to voters as they wait in line, to Elon Musk’s efforts to forward a petition by offering a $1 million giveaway each day until the election with winners chosen from the signatories.
However, specifically in Arizona and under Arizona law, these electioneering efforts carried out in the Navajo community by the Democratic party could prove to be illegal if challenged.
As I endure the last few months of this election cycle, REM’s “It’s the End of the World As We Know It,” has been playing on repeat in my mind.
From cable networks to talk radio, from my X feed to late night TV, partisans are working overtime to convince us that the world will never be the same if the candidate they oppose is elected.
It’s divisive…and exaggerated. They hurl invectives at one another and then they all scream that “we’ve never seen a political climate like this!” In fact, we have. This is a repeat of what typically happens every four years in a Presidential election.
“Nazi.” “Leftist crank.” “Baby Killer.” “Mush for brains.” These insults are as unoriginal as they are pernicious. They’re trotted out each election cycle.
Case in point, every Republican presidential candidate since Barry Goldwater has been called a Nazi, a fascist, or Hitler—usually all three.
While every Democratic candidate since Johnson has been called a socialist, communist, or Marxist.
And yet through the six Republican presidents and five Democratic presidents we have had since 1964, we’ve remained a vibrant Democratic Republic, not a fascist state or a socialist hotbed.
But wait, “This is the most important election of our lifetime!” “This could be the last election in our nation’s history.” Well, until the next one.
Presidential elections are consequential. But this is the United States of America; one election is not going to make or break our union. Despite the dire warnings of civil war coming from both sides of the political spectrum, we will remain a free and prosperous people.
Might there be protests, unrest, maybe even riots after the election? Probably. But those engaged in these disruptions are a tiny fraction of the American public. Most people will wake up the next morning, get on with their lives, and continue working hard to better their future.
And isn’t that the beauty of our system? Our Founding Fathers were damn smart. To a person, they were better read on government, philosophy, language, and mathematics than the vast majority of today’s PhDs. They also cared deeply about creating a system of government that protects our God-given rights and allows us to pursue “a more perfect union.”
Their genius shines brightly in our three-branch system of government: Executive (President), Legislative (House and Senate), and Judicial (the Courts).
While partisans on either side always cry that their opponents will govern with “unchecked power,” the truth is considerably less dire. Just look at history.
When Trump was elected in 2016, the Left went into a panicked frenzy that he would be a dictator and imprison his political enemies. It didn’t happen.
When Biden won in 2020, the Right claimed that the election was stolen, that Biden would expand the Supreme Court, and that everyday Americans would lose all their rights. That didn’t happen either.
So, we must take these drastic predictions with a grain of salt. This is not new. It happens in every election. It was happening all the way back in our third Presidential election when John Adams defeated Thomas Jefferson. According to Adams’ supporters, a Jefferson presidency would mean “Murder, robbery, rape, adultery and incest will all be openly taught and practiced, the air will be rent with the cries of the distressed, the soil will be soaked with blood, and the nation black with crimes.” So, they may have been more elegant in their hyperbole, but it’s safe to say, not much has changed.
Despite this turmoil every four years, our nation endures.
The Founders knew that they were creating something special. The Declaration of Independence laid out the argument of self-government and that informed the debate that drafted the Constitution. By diffusing power among three separate branches, the Founders created a check on each branch against the other, and even checks within each branch.
We have seen multiple examples of this in action in just the last few years. The House of Representatives impeached Trump (twice), and the Senate failed to convict. The Executive branch attempted to prosecute a former President, and the Supreme Court ruled that Presidents have immunity while engaged in official actions.
Partisans wail and gnash teeth at the process, but it works and cooler heads prevail. Are there abuses that have yet to be rectified? Absolutely, but the system was designed to work slowly and deliberately. In this age of instant gratification, it is good for us to be reminded that we don’t want to live in a country where snap judgments by a government entity can forever change the trajectory of our nation.
If you feel anxiety creeping up as you watch the final days of the election unfold and the results come in on election night, just take a breath, and express gratitude to our Founders that we have a system that will work, despite the failings of the players in the game.
Sean Noble is the president of American Encore. You can follow him on X here.
