With the presidential election just two weeks away, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance made an impassioned plea to supporters at campaign rallies in the crucial swing state of Arizona on Tuesday. Vance painted a dire picture of a race that could come down to the wire, potentially hinging on a mere 700 votes in Arizona alone.
“Here’s the scenario that I want you to consider, and I don’t mean to give you nightmare fuel here, but I’m going to do it,” Vance warned the crowd gathered in Peoria, a suburb of Phoenix. “We wake up on November the sixth, and Kamala Harris is barely elected president of the United States by a 700-vote margin in the state of Arizona. Think about that. And ask yourself what you can do from now until then to make sure it doesn’t happen.”
Every Vote Counts in Battleground Arizona
Vance’s message was clear: in a state as closely divided as Arizona, every single vote could make the difference between victory and defeat. He jokingly suggested that each supporter should vote 10 times, quickly clarifying that he meant they should bring nine friends with them to the polls.
“You don’t have to agree with everything that I say. You don’t have to agree with everything that Donald Trump says. But who can deny the results?”
– JD Vance, Republican VP Nominee
Vance highlighted issues of particular concern to Arizona voters, such as rising housing costs, inflation, and border security, arguing that they were better off four years ago under the Trump administration. He also took aim at his opponent, deriding Kamala Harris for “softball interviews” and questioning her record as vice president.
Doubling Down on Deportations
At a later rally in Tucson, Vance brought up the recent killing of a US Marine in Mexico, believed to be at the hands of cartel members. He criticized the Biden administration’s border policies and response, pledging that “when Donald Trump is president, we’re going to kick the cartels’ asses.”
When pressed on Trump’s mass deportation plans, which have been a cornerstone of his campaign, Vance did not equivocate. While emphasizing that violent criminals would be the priority, he made clear that the deportations would not stop there.
“We also have to deport people, not just the bad people who came into our country, but people who violated the law coming into this country. We’ve got to be willing to deport them. And by the way, of course you can be humane about this. You can be compassionate about this.”
– JD Vance, Republican VP Nominee
The Final Push in a Divided State
Arizona, which delivered a surprise victory for Biden in 2020 after decades of voting Republican, is once again poised to play a decisive role in the presidential contest. Both campaigns are marshaling their top surrogates for a final blitz in the Grand Canyon State, with Trump himself set to hold a rally on Thursday.
Despite his focus on driving turnout, Vance stopped short of committing to accepting the election results in Arizona, pointing to printer issues that plagued Maricopa County in the 2022 midterms. Still, he expressed confidence that the campaign was “doing a hell of a lot better in 2024 than we were in 2020” in the state.
As the clock ticks down to November 5th, all eyes will be on Arizona to see if JD Vance’s dire warnings and last-minute push will be enough to swing the state back into the Republican column and propel Donald Trump to a second term. In a race this tight, it may well come down to which side can mobilize every last one of their supporters to the polls.
