PHOENIX (AP/AZFamilia) – Donald Trump will win Arizona for the first time since 2016, the Associated Press projects, winning the state’s 11 electoral votes.

Polls showed the race between the former president and Kamala Harris was virtually tied in Arizona in the days before the election. with at least one survey indicating that Trump was moving forward.

Both candidates and their running mates made several visits to Arizona before the election, which remained a major electoral battleground in 2024. On their most recent visit, Trump made an appearance with conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson in Glendale last Thursday.

During a previous visit early last month in Prescott ValleyThe former president proposed hiring 10,000 additional Border Patrol agents and giving them a $10,000 retention and signing bonus. He accepted the endorsement of the agents’ union, the National Border Patrol Council, a longtime Trump backer who endorsed him during his previous two campaigns.

Trump made illegal immigration the focus of his campaign and blamed Harris for a record increase in unauthorized crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border. He frequently denounces people who enter the United States illegally as invaders and criminals, and has promised to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history if he is elected president again.

Maricopa County is by far the most influential of the state’s 15 counties in state elections. It is home to Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe and Mesa and contributed nearly 62% of the vote in the 2020 presidential race. Pima County came in a distant second with about 15% of the vote.

In 2020, Joe Biden defeated Trump by 49.4% to 49.1%, becoming just the second Democratic presidential candidate to do so since 1948 in the former Republican stronghold.

While Arizona is now a battleground, it was not considered particularly competitive eight years ago when it voted for Trump by a 4 percentage point margin in his race against Hillary Rodham Clinton.

See the latest election results here.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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