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| Arizona has served as a southwestern bulwark for Republicans for decades, voting for a Democratic presidential candidate only once since 1948. President Trump speaks at an event in White House on July 07, 2020.(Photo by=Reuters) |
[아시아뉴스통신=레악카나 기자] A surge of coronavirus cases in the state and President Donald Trump’s uneven response to the pandemic have compounded the troubles already facing his re-election bid. Randy Olsen, 65, voted for Trump in 2016, but he plans to support Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in the Nov. 3 election.
“He’s disrespecting the experts,” Olsen said of Trump’s response to the virus, noting his refusal to endorse face masks. “He’s looking out for himself only and isn’t looking out for anybody else.” Chuck Coughlin, a Republican strategist in Phoenix, said Trump’s handling of the crisis was costing him with key demographics in Maricopa County, including older voters and well-educated suburban whites.
The county includes more than half the state’s population. Since the end of May, Biden, a former vice president, has led in four of five state polls and holds an average advantage of 3-1/2 percentage points in a state Trump carried by the same margin four years ago, according to the poll-tracking website RealClearPolitics.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Samantha Zager said the president’s record in Washington, plus the large Republican Party field operation in the state compared with Biden’s nascent team, would deliver Arizona for Trump again.
