Maritza L. Félix, director and founder of Conecta Arizona (Art: Daniel Robles).
Denied accreditation. That was the subject line of the email I received from Donald Trump’s campaign for his visit to Arizona this week. It took them just a few minutes to reject my request for coverage the first time; the second time it took them a couple of hours, and the third time they haven’t even responded. While they’re shutting out local journalists who work in Spanish, the Latino electorate is being bombarded on Facebook with tickets that they haven’t been able to sell out in three days. Ironic.
Trump arrives in Arizona just as the Democratic National Convention is taking place in Chicago, an event that gained a momentum that was impossible to imagine just a month ago when Biden was still the candidate. He plans the rally thinking of all those Republicans who are disgusted by Kamala Harris’s popularity and rise in the electoral polls. He does it here, in this swing state that weighs 11 electoral votes, because he has not given up, because deep down he knows that it is not too late yet.
For the event, he chooses the same arena that Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, packed just a couple of weeks ago. The Democrats sold out the tickets in less than 24 hours and the Republican continues to pay for advertising on social media to ask the public to accept a free ticket. Will this be one of the clearest messages?
There is no way to predict what will happen in November. The polls are too close and the voter base, at least here, remains volatile.
Arizona is, by definition and affiliation, a mostly Republican and conservative state, with an independent bent. Democrats are always in third place, but they have still gained ground that has secured them the most important positions in the state, such as Governor, Congress and Secretary of State. In 2020, they also elected Biden. However, Trump is getting his third wind here. He does not let up, he does not let himself be defeated, he does not slow down, he does not concede or retreat… like the hurricane that he is, he only grows in category. What will he be like when he makes landfall?
Trump is at a turning point in a race he thought he had won. He had it very easy for too long. Now he doesn’t want anyone to question him, verify him or criticize him, which is why he has perhaps denied us access. He wants a stadium full of allies, but it is possible that there are not enough of them. Perhaps Trump at this point, with everything he has said, done and invented, is no longer a hurricane; but he is not -yet- a storm either. He no longer devastates, but he has a force that cannot be minimized and if the winds change, he could become an electoral cyclone.
Art: Daniel Robles.
