GLENDALE, Ariz. — Both presidential candidates will be in Arizona on Halloween to make what is likely their final in-person pitch to swing the state voters.
Former President Donald Trump will be alongside Tucker Carlson at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale while Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to voters at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre less than six miles away in Phoenix.
Harris' event is scheduled for early afternoon while Trump's event is in the evening.
“It's fairly unprecedented to have both candidates in the state on the same day," said Paul Bentz, the senior vice president of research and strategy at Highground Public Affairs. “It'll be interesting to see if there are some coattails to these visits, because Halloween is a bit of a tough day. A lot of people are busy doing other things.”
Bentz said though early turnout has been high, there is still a large chunk of Arizonans who have yet to vote which can make these eleventh hour appearances effective.
“About 1.8 million ballots have been returned so far in the election, but we are anticipating about 3 million total voters plus to show up. That means there's a million folks who have not returned a ballot yet that are either going to drop it off in the next few days or vote on Election Day. So there's still about a third, at least, of folks that have yet to make up their mind that might still be in play at this point," Bentz said.
Bentz said there still could be a large number of Arizonans that are not planning to vote at all. Both campaigns face the biggest challenge in convincing those voters to change their minds.
History in Arizona elections has shown that the needle can move in these final days.
In 2018, Bentz said Democrats came back near the end to push then-Democrat Kyrsten Sinema past Republican Martha McSally. He said though President Joe Biden was victorious in 2020, the race narrowed as more ballots were counted that favored former President Trump.
“There's actually a reason for both sides to use history to demonstrate that these last minute ballots, these drop off voters, these people that are going to show up, they are essential because they can make a difference in these really narrow races.”