Arizona

Arizona has been a reliably Republican state at the presidential level in every election since 1952 — except when Bill Clinton won in 1996. But a rapidly growing population has chipped away at the Republican advantage. In 2020, Arizona is rated a toss-up.

The state has had no-excuse absentee voting since 1991 and the numbers of voters who use this method continue to grow. As the president continues to malign the U.S. Postal Service and absentee ballots and question the integrity of the upcoming election, we hear from Katie Hobbs, Arizona Secretary of State, KJZZ Phoenix host Steve Goldstein, and Professor Lisa Sanchez from the University of Arizona.

Latino voters are a growing share of the population in states like Florida, Texas, and Nevada. In Arizona, they account for about a quarter of voters in the state according to Pew. 

While national polling indicates that Joe Biden is ahead of President Trump when it comes to Latino voters, he hasn’t been able to match Hillary Clinton’s margins from 2016. The Trump campaign is appealing to Latinos with a message centered on crime and the economy. The Biden campaign is using President Trump’s response to the pandemic to illustrate that he’s unfit to lead. 

Daniel Garza, president of the conservative Libre Initiative, and Carlos Odio, co-founder of democratic Latino polling and analysis firm Equis Research, share their insights as to what’s at stake for this electorate.  

These conversations are part of a series called Every Vote Counts.

April 26, 2018: The National Memorial For Peace And Justice opens in Montgomery, Alabama today. The monument, conceived by the Equal Justice Initiative, intends to memorialize the more than 4,000 known victims of lynching in this country. The project’s precursor was a body of research collected by the E.J.I. which uncovered thousands of instances of lynchings that had not previously been documented. The research culminated in a 2015 report entitled “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror,” which unearthed incidents of hangings and other brutal measures of “racial terror” in twelve different states. The Takeaway explores America’s first memorial dedicated to the victims of lynching. Plus, we look at the latest series of teachers’ strikes in Alabama and Colorado; after 40 years, a potential suspect in the case of the Golden State Killer; and an exploration of the misogynist ideology called ‘incel’ culture that may have played a role in the Toronto van attack.

April 20, 2018: It’s been 19 years since the massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, but just 65 days since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. Today, as students across the country are once again walking out of their classrooms in protest, demanding “Never Again,” we hear from people who have survived mass shootings and been forced to consider what comes next. The Takeaway hosts a conversation between Columbine survivors and survivors of the Aurora massacre. Plus, we examine the unfolding teachers’ strike in Arizona; a new film by Amy Schumer that’s stirring some controversy; and after seven seasons, the very end of ABC’s smash-hit, “Scandal.”