In an exclusive poll for AZ Free News, nearly 4.5 percent more of Arizona voters revealed that they prefer former President Donald Trump over current President Joe Biden. The poll also showed that Arizona voters have a low favorability of Gov. Katie Hobbs.
When asked who they would vote for should Trump and Biden serve as the 2024 presidential candidates, 39.5 percent picked Trump and 35.2 percent picked Biden. 19 percent said they would pick a third party candidate, and five percent were undecided.
George Khalaf, president of Data Orbital who conducted the poll, told AZ Free News that the polling serves as a troublesome portent for Democratic candidates in 2024.
“Arizona Democrats should be very concerned that we enter 2024 with Governor Hobbs and President Biden both having favorability ratings that are under 40 percent,” said Khalaf. “Former President Trump’s ballot test advantage of nearly 4.5 percent shows a strong early position for Republicans in Arizona. Both of these data points are in line with broader numbers coming out nationally from other swing states.”
When asked about Hobbs, only 38 percent of voters found her favorable. The disapproval rating comes close to other recent polling published this month. Hobbs was one of seven governors with an approval rating below 50 percent. The Morning Consult reported the governor had a 48 percent approval and 40 percent disapproval rating.
The favorability rating marks an improvement from over the summer, when Hobbs dipped to a 40 percent approval rating via Morning Consult: second to last for least-liked governor.
23 percent found Hobbs to be strongly favorable, and 15 percent found her to be somewhat favorable. 27 percent found her to be strongly unfavorable, and 11 percent found her to be somewhat unfavorable. 16 percent were neutral or had no opinion on Hobbs. Two percent were undecided or refused to answer.
In terms of general favorability, apart from serving as the 2024 candidate, 42 percent of voters found Trump favorable, with 29 percent finding him strongly favorable and 13 percent finding him somewhat favorable. About four percent were neutral or had no opinion, and about one percent were undecided or refused to answer.
Comparatively, only 36 percent of respondents found Biden favorable, with 20 percent finding him strongly favorable and 16 percent finding him somewhat favorable. Six percent were neutral or had no opinion of Biden. About two percent were undecided on the issue or refused to answer.
Over 52 percent of respondents were females, while over 47 percent were males.
38 percent of respondents were Republicans, 32 percent were Democrats, 27 percent were independents or unidentified, and two percent were “other.”
When asked to identify themselves outside party lines and along ideological descriptors, 37 percent identified as conservative, 38 percent identified as moderate, 20 percent identified as progressive, and about three percent were undecided.
Voter age groups were nearly split evenly, with the exception of the elderly crowd. Only six percent of polled voters were 18 to 24, 12 percent were 25 to 34, 14 percent were 35 to 44, 15 percent were 45 to 54, 18 percent were 55 to 64, and 34 percent were 65 and older.
71 percent of respondents were white, 19 percent were Hispanic, four percent were African American, three percent were Asian or Pacific Islander, and four percent identified as “other.”
Most respondents had some college but no degree: nearly 42 percent. Over 24 percent had a bachelor’s degree, 15 percent had a graduate degree or higher, 15 percent had a high school degree or equivalent, and over two percent had less than a high school diploma.
Most of the respondents had better turnout for the general elections compared to the primary elections. Only 18 percent voted in all four of the last four primary elections, but nearly 50 percent voted in all four of the last four general elections.
The poll had an approximated four percent margin of error.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Social Security and Medicare are so popular they are commonly known as the “third rail” of politics. Any politician who touches them gets a nasty shock. The politically smart thing for decades has been to periodically increase benefits and not worry too much about adequately funding these supposedly self-sufficient programs
Congress designates SS/Medicare as non-discretionary spending, which allows even fiscal conservatives to earnestly explain that Congress is unable to touch them, not even to reduce the benefit increases they themselves bestowed in the past. Of course, this is ridiculous since Congress could legally eliminate the programs if it chose to do so (not recommended).
As the population has aged and birth rates have fallen, SS/Medicare have descended into serious financial distress. This year, the programs will spend $69 billion more than they take in. The programs’ trustees recently moved the date for expected insolvency up to 2031 for Medicare, 2034 for Social Security.
Yet there is little acknowledgment from the political class that a problem exists. To acknowledge it creates a mandate for making highly unpopular choices. Even Donald Trump, the would be “conservative” leader, has decreed that no part of making America great again will involve touching our major entitlements. The endless quest for re-election continues to dominate decision making in Washington.
Even beyond entitlements, America has a spending problem. The federal government spends about 25% of GDP but only takes in revenues of 19%. The rest is charged off to future generations. With interest rates returning to normal levels, federal debt service will soon exceed $1 trillion a year, roughly what we spend to defend our country.
Why do we continue to spend so recklessly in times of peace and prosperity? It’s partly our perverse politics, where spenders dare opponents to suggest fiscal reforms and then rip them for bringing it up.
It’s also a mindset. Not long ago, families were considered the primary caregivers for each other. It was contemptible to neglect your own.
Americans today believe they are entitled to have government assume what were formerly family duties. Politicians gain millions of grateful dependents and family structure suffers, but there’s no going back.
Federal decision-makers have adopted an all-purpose solution to the problems that plague us: throw dollars at it. Schools failing? Send money. Semiconductor industry struggling? More money. People still living in poverty? Appropriate even more money. Money papers over our problems but affords no actual solutions.
Nobody even talks about the monetary implications of our ongoing border crisis. Over seven million mostly unskilled illegal immigrants breached our borders. Immediately upon successfully registering their fraudulent asylum claims, they expect food, shelter, medical care, transportation, eventually education, and social services all without a thought of paying for them.
The direct and indirect costs are incalculable, but California already reports annual direct expenses of $21.76 billion while Texas pays $8.8 billion and Arizona $3.2 billion.
Yet Democrats contend only more money can solve the problem. Biden and border czar Kamala Harris claim Republicans are responsible for the border mess because they once blocked further spending increases, even though the money goes to accommodate more illegal immigration. It’s time to end this massive farce and lawfully control the border. Democrats will have to find some less costly way to recruit future voters.
Our response to the COVID epidemic was another giant boondoggle. There wasn’t much to do about the virus. Protect the vulnerable, treat the ill, develop a vaccine, and allow it to run its course.
Instead, we embraced an orgy of spending. Trillions went to infrastructure improvements, solar energy, daycare, schools, businesses, and even individuals, all inexplicably in the name of COVID. It didn’t affect the course of the disease, but our descendants will pay for this spree far into the future.
It gets worse. In 2025, the spending caps on Obamacare and other discretionary items are set to expire as are the low interest bonds the government issued when money was cheap. There will be tremendous pressure to spend yet more just to maintain the spending status quo.
Thomas Jefferson, 250 years ago, extolled the benefits of a “wise and frugal” government. We didn’t listen. We will soon wish we had.
Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.
It seems that any meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping inevitably presents another opportunity to render the U.S. increasingly reliant on China for its energy security.
This week’s meetings at the APEC conference in a suddenly cleaned-up San Francisco were no exception.
One of the most disturbing aspects of the bilateral meetings between the U.S. and China was the looming presence of John Kerry at the table. Kerry serves as Biden’s “climate envoy,” a made-up job that is not even a confirmed position and does not merit a seat at such meetings. But there he was, making sure the President and other U.S. officials toe the line on climate commitments.
Fox News reports that Kerry’s efforts resulted in more security compromising fruit, as State Department officials agreed with their Chinese counterparts to triple down on commitments to further inhibit American energy and national security in the name of climate change. The two governments agreed to “accelerate the substitution for coal, oil and gas generation” with renewables and electric vehicles in the coming years, a pledge that China has already undermined with its implementation of a new round of subsidies for the acceleration of its already-massive expansion of coal-fired power plants in the coming years.
It is the sort of deal China has routinely violated in recent years as it continues to prioritize its own energy security at the expense of stated climate goals. It is also the sort of deal that Kerry, Biden and other Democrats have systematically used over recent decades to render the U.S. increasingly reliant on China for its own energy future.
“The agreement speaks heavily about advancing — doubling down and tripling down on renewables, wind and solar. The majority of them are made in China,” Daniel Turner, the founder and executive director of Power The Future, told Fox News Digital. “It is basically guaranteeing China decades of wealth, guaranteeing America is going to buy their products.”
Turner isn’t wrong, and the effects on climate change from the latest Kerry-led deal will be negligible, if not actually negative given China’s far lower environmental regulations and standards. Even worse, China’s control of the supply chains for most of the parts and metals that go into the making and deployment of renewables and EVs leaves the U.S. and other western nations with a steadily diminishing sphere of geopolitical leverage.
But Americans did receive a bit of positive news in the green energy realm this past week from a seemingly unlikely source: Oil major ExxonMobil. The biggest U.S.-based oil company announced the kickoff of a new project to produce lithium from a deep underground saltwater formation in southern Arkansas called the Smackover.
Somewhat ironically, ExxonMobil will deploy standard oil and gas drilling, production and reinjection technologies and processes to produce, extract and process the lithium. If successful, the project will turn America’s biggest major oil company into one of the country’s biggest lithium companies, too.
This is probably not exactly the model Biden’s regulators, many of whom are alumni of leftist anti-fossil fuel lobby groups, envisioned when they began launching their myriad efforts to subsidize and regulate this artificial energy transition into being, but they should be glad to take the help where they can get it.
Given that the ExxonMobil project will qualify for the tax incentives contained in the Orwellian-named Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden officials will even be able to point to it as a success story related to that costly legislation.
Given that the administration’s own efforts to source domestic supplies of critical energy metals and free their supply chains from Chinese dominance have to this point borne little fruit, the project being mounted by ExxonMobil amounts to a great leap forward.
What it all demonstrates is that all the handshake deals between government Mandarins like Kerry in the world cannot match the power of innovation and ingenuity from America’s private sector. It also demonstrates the absolute necessity of maintaining a healthy and robust domestic oil and gas industry, without which none of this is remotely possible.
David Blackmon is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation, an energy writer, and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
A long-time United States Senator was recently honored by the President and Arizona’s governor.
Late last month, President Joe Biden traveled to Arizona to announce the pending construction of the John S. McCain Education and Community Center.
In his remarks, the president said, “I have come to honor the McCain Institute and Library because they are a home of a proud Republican who put his country first. Our commitment should be no less because democracy should unite all Americans, regardless of political affiliation.”
Biden added, “Our institutions and our democracy are not just of government. The institutions of democracy depend on the Constitution and our character and the habits of our hearts and minds. Institutions like the McCain Institute and the new McCain Library that will be built at Arizona State University with the funding from the American Rescue Plan, which I signed into law when I came to office. A library that’s going to house John’s archives, host dialogue and debate, inspire future leaders around the world, to serve tens of thousands underserved Arizonans as a reminder of our obligation to one another.”
Governor Hobbs was in attendance for the announcement and issued the following statement after the conclusion of the event: “With today’s announcement of the McCain Library, the stories of Senator McCain’s bold defense of Americans’ rights both at home and abroad will become much more than just stories. Everything ranging from advancing human rights, to developing capable leaders, to safeguarding democracy, will run through this center, just as it has run through Arizona. I am proud to make this investment in our state and our community, and I am so looking forward to what we will accomplish together.”
The Governor’s Office shared that “the State of Arizona was instrumental in securing funding for the Library, leading the application through the federal government’s Capital Projects Fund.” The Office also revealed that the new building “included a visitors’ center, conference center, an Arizona home for the Washington, DC-based McCain Institute, and a McCain Library and Archives.”
Arizona State University President Michael Crow said, “John McCain is an important symbol of American democracy, and he holds a special place of respect and appreciation in Arizona and with Arizona State University. We will work with others around the country and in the community to take this unique portion of the ASU Tempe campus and create a place that honors his extraordinary life and legacy, serves the principles he devoted his life and career to, and carries that legacy forward for future generations to learn from.”
According to reports, the library is expected to encompass over 80,000 square feet on a 22-acre property on the sprawling ASU Tempe campus.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
At the end of the Cold War in 1989, the common understanding was that, with the emergence of the United States as the world’s single superpower, an era of order and peace would ensue. The perpetual struggle between nations vying for hegemonic dominance was over.
America had won, and the world was better for it. Compared to Nazis, Communists, Islamists, and others seeking control, America, as the world’s leading democracy, was clearly the least self-seeking and most committed to the common welfare.
It hasn’t worked out that way. Unfortunately, over the ensuing decades, Americans have elected a series of manifestly unqualified leaders. Two undistinguished leaders of small southern states, two scions of a well-respected family with limited leadership instincts, and a leftist “community organizer” who had been an inconsequential member of a state legislature, but who orated well and wore great suits.
We most recently elected a lifelong politician with a reputation as an incompetent plagiarizer and a weakness for outrageous lying and corruption. At this writing, he seems set for a rematch in the next election against another incumbent who must be one of the most incurious, entitled, and self-absorbed people to ever achieve high office.
Elections have consequences. America’s record of electing mediocre-at-best leaders has created a world very different from 1989. America’s standing in the world has sharply declined. Competition and chaos once again dominate international affairs.
America’s leaders no longer understand the critical importance of peace through strength. Instead, they seem to believe that successful statecraft is based on accommodation and concession. In a nuclear world, acting forcefully with enemies is just too risky. Better to make nice with autocrats and hope not to rile them up.
So, we get the contrivances of “leading from behind” and “red lines” which disappear when needed to obscure the lack of resolve. Autocrats just read the concessions as weakness. Allies learn to not depend on us.
For example, by 2010, the U.S. was on the verge of a lasting victory in the Iraq war, which had been brokered by the Bush administration. But Obama, in his eagerness to respond to America’s war-weariness, botched the job.
He needlessly interfered in an Iraqi election, destroying the fragile coalition that had contained the terrorists. Then he mishandled the withdrawal of U.S. troops, ignoring the agreements that had been forged with the Iraqis. The result was the collapse of American goals in Iraq and the resurgence of Islamist terrorism. A new organization called ISIS was inflicted on the world
In August 2021, President Biden ordered the immediate evacuation of troops and personnel from Kabul to end the Afghanistan War, based, he said, on the advice of senior U.S. military officers and information that a collapse of the Afghan government was highly unlikely. But no such advice was actually given.
Instead, Biden’s haste to end the war without proper preparation squandered 20 years of American blood and sacrifice. Thirteen U.S. service members were killed in a terrorist attack, hundreds of Americans were abandoned, and our trusted interpreters and local advisers were left in the lurch.
Military weaponry worth billions was simply abandoned as the Taliban once again assumed de facto control of the country. Sharia law and Islamist oppression of women resumed. Biden to this day insists he did nothing wrong.
America also regularly folds like an accordion in hostage negotiations. The deserter Bowe Bergdahl and basketball star Brittney Griner were both exchanged for pennies on the dollar in strategic value.
Recently, our negotiating geniuses agreed to swap five higher-value Iranian military personnel for five American civilians—and we even sweetened the pot by releasing $6 billion to the Iranians, which could only be used for humanitarian efforts.
Whoops! The Iranians immediately announced they would use the funds for whatever they pleased, including enriching uranium ore to near weapons-grade levels. State Department spokesman John Kirby explained that the deal was “the best we could achieve.” The impotent superpower was humbled once again.
In a democracy, voters get what they deserve. Our leaders’ obvious mistakes are ours for electing them.
America needs to elect leaders who are principled, competent, and decisive. Our next chance is coming up in 2024. It could be our last.
Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.
