Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is advancing in Arizona polls, while the Democrats are reeling from the FBI’s investigation of new emails belonging to a top aide to candidate Hillary Clinton. The campaigns are making their final gambits in the battleground state.
Less than one week to Election Day, both candidates and their respective running mates have upped their efforts in Arizona, with both Trump and Clinton holding large rallies in Phoenix. Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence made an appearance in Mesa, and his Democratic counterpart Tim Kaine spoke in Tucson.
The surge in political activity immediately followed the surprise announcement that the FBI is now investigating hundreds of thousands of emails the agency has deemed “pertinent” to its earlier, concluded investigation of Clinton’s personal email server.
The new emails belong to Huma Abedin, one of Clinton’s closest aides, and were found on a laptop seized by the FBI. The laptop belonged to Abedin’s estranged husband, former Congressman Anthony Weiner, who is under investigation in an unrelated case.
On Arizona Week we ask if news of the FBI probe has hurt Clinton or changed the contest in Arizona in any way. Trump now leads in Arizona in a poll average by RealClearPolitics. As of Friday morning, data-driven news website FiveThirtyEight gave Trump a 68 percent chance of winning Arizona’s 11 electoral votes and Clinton a 32 percent chance, a reversal of their chances published by the outlet just two weeks ago.
Also on the program, campaigns are instituting a full-court press to get Arizona millennials, Latinos and Native Americans to the polls. These groups could sway the presidential results by showing up to the ballot boxes in large numbers.
Two asteroids came very close to Earth this week, and both of them were spotted by telescopes in Arizona.
On the program:
- Bill Beard, Pima County Republican Party chairman and Trump supporter
- Ron Barber, former congressman and Clinton supporter
- Eric Christensen, Catalina Sky Survey Director
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