Will an influx of Californians into Arizona tilt the battleground state's politics?
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Michele Pitek moved to Arizona from California, her lifelong home, with her husband, Mike, about seven years ago in part because they were tired of struggling with the cost of living in the Bay Area despite both earning six-figure salaries.
Once they settled into a newly built home on more than an acre at the edge of Scottsdale with stunning views of rocky peaks, Pitek, 57, said there were some adjustments: learning to depend on a septic tank, treating well water that contains arsenic, for instance, or seeing John Deere bulldozers pull into the parking lots of shopping centers. But the abundant desert beauty, such as seeing shooting stars streaking over their home nearly every night, hearing coyotes howl and watching hawks swerve overhead, make up for it.
The Piteks are part of an exodus of Californians who have moved to the Grand Canyon State — more than 74,000 in 2022, according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s more than a quarter of the people who moved to Arizona that year and easily the most from any state.
The influx has led to questions about their impact on politics in this once ruby-red state, which is now among a handful of battlegrounds that will determine whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Trump wins the White House in November. Trump leads by 1.4 percentage points in an average of recent polling, according to Real Clear Politics.
President Biden won Arizona by fewer than 11,000 votes over Trump in 2020. After the election was called, one of Pitek’s former colleagues from Oakland, Calif., texted her: “You turned it blue Michele.”
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2024-10-07/2024-election-california-arizona-politics
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