For a non-commentary item on the poll results laying out the data in a dry way, see Andrea Widburg’s post here.

Even with a number of mitigating factors in play, President Trump is still +2 in the Grand Canyon state.

At least, that’s according to a new American Thinker and Rasmussen Reports poll which ran last week between September 19 and September 22, surveying 1,030 likely voters—the verdict? Well, Arizonans agree with Tim Walz, “we can’t afford four more years of this” and they want Trump.

A quick disclaimer though for the progressive Democrats who are apparently too thick to understand nuance and figures of speech, but when I say President Trump is “killing” it in Arizona, I don’t mean literally—this isn’t an actual “bloodbath” but another figurative one—when I say he’s killing it, I mean that he’s ahead in the polls, and the issues he’s running on are the issues consuming the thoughts of most voters.

First of all, a majority (55%) of American voters determined that either the “economy” or “border security” were the political issues of greatest importance. And, in that context, 58% believed the next president should prioritize addressing either “rising prices” or “illegal immigration.” If the election were held today, 49% would opt for Trump; Kamala trails by 2, at 47%.

This is very good news for those of us who don’t want to see Harris installed as president this coming Inauguration Day. Again, who can afford this for another four years? Certainly not me.

It gets better though—when comparing “favorability” between the candidates, 51% of voters viewed Trump as either “very favorable” or “somewhat favorable” while the same metric for Harris only yielded a 48% favorable rating.

While we’re all living in border states now—a church friend who lives in a rural area of Alabama recently said that he “hates” to come to the town where I live because it’s “like Juárez” (he previously worked in Juárez when living in El Paso)—Arizonans know how bad Harris has been as “Border Czar” probably better than most.

But the good news doesn’t stop there, as it gets even better. Majority of voters (52%) trust Trump to deal with foreign adversaries… majority (55%) trust Trump to secure the border… majority (52%) trust Trump to “improve America’s economic situation”... and more voters (49%) trust Trump to handle energy policy over Harris (45%).

Lastly, a scathing review of Biden-Harris leadership:

57% said they were not better off than they were four years ago, 56% said today’s children are worse off than their parents, and a whopping 63% said America is less safe than it was when Trump was in office.

Like I said, Trump is killing it.

Of course, this is all pretty consistent with reality. The last four years of Biden-Harris have been costly, both literally and figuratively. Unless you’re an illegal or a beneficiary of the Democrat spending bills, you’re probably struggling to make ends meet, working like a dog and watching the purchasing power of the dollar dissipate into thin air.

I’m also starting to notice a trend, as one particular data point out of Arizona was reflected in both Pennsylvania and Georgia as well (see that blog here); more, from the realm of consistency: Arizona voters view the Democrat party as the “biggest enemy” facing America, beating out Iran, Russia, China, the Republican Party, and domestic extremists. Nearly one-in-four voters (24%) look at the Democrats as more of a threat to our stability, security, and way of life than our actual foreign adversaries, one of which has made it known that it wants to wipe us off the map; “Death to America” is pretty unambiguous.

Perhaps what’s most noteworthy about these poll results is that there are numerous mitigating factors that should seemingly put Trump behind Harris in Arizona, like the fact that Arizona has experienced an influx of California voters in recent years, that Arizona facilitates illegals voting in federal elections with its “federal only” ballot, and that some of the most corrupt Democrats in the country run Arizona (Maricopa and Pima County have achieved Soviet-like notoriety). Before anyone assumes that the California voters coming in are largely conservatives, let me stop you right there—while they might not be Marxist progressives, too many of them are still progressives, chased out by California’s high prices; but the connection between big government and big bills hasn’t yet formed in their brains. Arizona was also the site of a knock-down-drag-out fight this year over abortion, which really riled up the leftist women who violently vote Democrat, and the electorate has been in a hyper-polarized state for awhile now, especially when you consider the mainstream media attention surrounding Kari Lake, an institution which has demonized her as a racist-election-denying-extremist threat to democracy.

Despite all of this, Trump is still ahead.

Image generated by AI.