Will an influx of Californians into Arizona tilt the battleground state's politics?

[RandySF]

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

[msongs]

1. a million CA dems moving could get us a bunch of states nt

[LauraInLA]

2. If I could find a place to move to that wasn't too cold, too humid, or bound to have water supply issues soon/

isn’t sustainable, I’d consider it. My husband and I are actively looking. If you have any candidates, I’m all ears.

[Kali]

3. too many of them are repukes

they may make it worse

[yonder]

5. That seems to be happening in Idaho.

Cash out their stuff in California, move to their imagined Aryan Nirvana in Idaho and all of the sudden they're pushing political might even more to the right with their new-found, exchanged buying power.

[Kali]

6. while demanding all the ammenities that California taxes pay for

they are such ignorant, bigoted assholes

[Ontheboundry]

4. I think people need to understand

Many of them are.not.democrats

I know four families in East Tennessee that recently moved from California

Three are big trump supporters. Yes, I'm aware the sample size is small but I doubt very much it's very tilted either way

My old neighbor from.seattle.was.very liberal and moved back