Trump wins Arizona, completing sweep of all seven battleground states, AP declares | Arizona

Donald Trump has won the presidential election in Arizona, the Associated Press declared on Saturday, completing a clean sweep of all seven battleground states and locking in a decisive electoral college victory over the Democratic vice-president, Kamala Harris.

Trump, who had secured the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the White House by early Wednesday, now has what is expected to be a final total of 312 votes to Harris’ 226.

The win returned the state to the Republican column after Joe Biden’s 2020 victory and marked Trump’s second victory in Arizona since 2016. Trump had campaigned on border security and the economy, tying Harris to inflation and record illegal border crossings during Biden’s administration.

Trump has also won the swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Nevada. In 2020, Biden defeated Trump by winning six of the seven swing states – he narrowly lost North Carolina – and won 306 electoral college votes to Trump’s 232.

Trump also won 306 in his 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton.

The Associated Press said Trump has won 74.6m votes nationwide, or 50.5%, to Harris’ 70.9m, or 48%.

In the key US Senate race in Arizona between Republican Kari Lake and Democrat Ruben Gallego, Lake, who always denied that Biden won the White House fairly in 2020, was trailing the Democrat 48.5% to 49.5%, or by about 33,000 votes, as of mid-morning on Saturday.

Other Arizona races remain close, including the sixth congressional district battle between incumbent Republican Juan Ciscomani and Democratic challenger Kirsten Engel.

However Republicans appear close to clinching control of the US House of Representatives, in addition to control of the Senate, which they have already won, meaning Republicans will have sweeping powers to potentially ram through a broad agenda of tax and spending cuts, energy deregulation and border security controls.

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