Arizona Lawn Signs Point Toward a 2024 Trump Victory
This piece was written by Masada Siegel and originally appeared in Wall Street Journal.
Scottsdale, Ariz.
My neighborhood was flooded with Biden signs in 2020. As I wrote in these pages then, I knew Joe Biden would win Arizona because it was apparent the tide had shifted significantly in my once-red city. These days, Trump flags on poles fly high, with only few Kamala Harris signs in sight.
There are other indications of change all over Arizona, both on the streets and in homes. In late September, I attended an event in northern Phoenix sponsored by the conservative Independent Women’s Network. It was a diverse group of Republican women including Native Americans, African-Americans and Latinas. I met Yanilda Rivera, 50, a mother of two young children. She is originally from the Dominican Republic and moved to Arizona in 2005 from White Plains, N.Y. She told me she and her relatives in New York are voting for Donald Trump.
“It’s a no-brainer I’m voting Republican,” she said. “My life was better under Trump. Everything now is so expensive—it is out of control. I was a lifelong Democrat until President Obama’s second term. Over time I realized the Democratic Party wants people to be on welfare to keep them dependent.”
Last week at Target, the saleswoman who helped me find a toy for my son’s birthday looked around hesitantly, then confided she was voting for Mr. Trump. She had grown up in Europe and explained that she thought Ms. Harris lacked a basic understanding of international affairs. She worries that under Democratic leadership, the U.S. is perceived as weak.
Arizona women often focus on individual liberties. Many moms are like Andrea Nicole, 37, a lifelong Democrat who sat out the 2020 election and now backs Mr. Trump. “The values of the Democratic Party have changed too much,” she says. “It feels like the Democrats focus on the extreme viewpoints and identity politics and there is no room for moderate voters in the Democratic Party anymore. They no longer advocate for individual choice and freedom. They focus on promoting personal liberties even for kids under 18, but are taking away families’ rights and freedoms on how to raise their children.”
Women like these will help make Arizona red again.
