PHOENIX (AP/AZFamily) — Donald Trump will win Arizona for the first time since 2016, according to the Associated Press, taking all 11 of the state’s electoral votes.

Polls showed the race between the former president and Kamala Harris was virtually tied in Arizona in the days leading up to the election, with at least one survey indicating that Trump was ahead.

Both candidates and their running mates made several visits to Arizona ahead of the election, which remained a major electoral battleground in 2024. During his most recent visit, Trump made an appearance with conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson in Glendale last Thursday.

During a previous visit early last month in the Prescott Valleythe former president proposed hiring 10,000 additional Border Patrol agents and giving them a $10,000 retention and signing bonus. He accepted the support of the agents’ union, the National Border Patrol Council, which is a longtime Trump supporter who supported him in his two previous campaigns.

Trump made illegal immigration the focal point of his campaign and blamed Harris for the record increase in unauthorized crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border. He frequently denounces people entering the United States illegally as invaders and criminals, and he has pledged to stage the largest deportation operation in American history if he is elected president again.

Maricopa County is by far the most influential of the state’s 15 counties in statewide elections. It is home to Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe and Mesa and contributed nearly 62% of the vote in the 2020 presidential race. Pima County came in a distant second with about 15% of the vote.

In 2020, Joe Biden defeated Trump 49.4% to 49.1%, becoming the second Democratic presidential candidate to achieve such a result since 1948 in the longtime Republican stronghold.

Although Arizona is a battleground today, it was not considered particularly competitive eight years ago when it voted for Trump by a 4 percentage point margin in his race against Hillary Rodham Clinton.

View the latest election results here.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a news report? Send it’s ours here with a brief description.

Copyright 2024 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.