Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz opened the first day of voting in Arizona on Wednesday with a spree of campaign events across the state, zeroing in on a crucial swing state after their debate last week.
Arizona, with its 11 Electoral College votes, has no clear favorite in the presidential race — even as polls there show a slight lead by former President Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump won the state by a significant margin in 2016, and President Joe Biden won the state in 2020 by less than 11,000 votes — a narrow victory that both campaigns highlighted as evidence that every vote in the state will matter this year.
The two vice-presidential candidates fanned out in the morning from luxury hotels near Phoenix and Tucson, and their motorcades crisscrossed desert highways to campaign in the two urban centers. Vance first held a rally in Tucson before attending a town-hall event hosted by the Conservative Political Action Conference in Mesa, near Phoenix. Walz visited a Veterans of Foreign Wars post and met with tribal leaders on tribal land, near Phoenix, before holding a campaign rally in the evening at a high school gym in Tucson.
Walz and Vance said little of each other — instead directing their attacks at each other’s running mates — even as the two came close to crossing paths in Phoenix. Vance flew from Tucson to Phoenix in the midafternoon, and his campaign jet was parked nearby as Walz boarded his own campaign jet for the short hop to Tucson later that day.
Speaking to supporters at an outdoor rally in sweltering heat at the Tucson Speedway, Vance urged Arizona residents to vote early, saying that “the best way to make sure your voice is counted is to make sure it’s counted early.” The appeal contradicts the messaging by his running mate, Trump, who continues to stoke doubts about mail voting.
Vance ended his speech by jokingly urging the crowd, as he often does, to “vote 10 times,” raising the specter of voter fraud, as he appealed to Trump supporters to bring their friends and families to the polls. After his speech, Vance lingered to shake hands and take pictures with supporters alongside his wife, Usha.
Walz’s visit to Arizona closed out a four-day West Coast trip, which included fundraisers, events and rallies in California, Washington state and Nevada. In Arizona on Wednesday morning, he linked up for breakfast with Doug Emhoff, Harris’ husband.
In each of his Arizona appearances, Walz largely left the get-out-the-vote push to the people who introduced him, who got the events started with exhortations to show up and vote for the Harris-Walz ticket and the abortion amendment on the state’s November ballot.
Instead, Walz elaborated on Harris’ proposals for at-home care, new families and small businesses. To the veterans, he pledged a government that supported them. To the tribal leaders, he affirmed the ticket’s commitment to preserving their sovereignty and working as their partner.
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