What’s So Important About 1 County?

Arizona was key to Biden’s victory in 2020. A Washington Post analysis showed that flipping 43,000 votes across three states—Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin—likely would have changed the outcome of the presidential contest.

Without carrying Maricopa County by a significant margin, Biden would not have carried Arizona.

Maricopa County, the state’s most populous county and second-largest voting jurisdiction, was key to Biden’s victory in traditionally Republican-leaning Arizona. The county has 4.4 million residents; the county seat is also the state capital, Phoenix.

In 2016, Maricopa County narrowly went for Trump in 2016 over Democrat Hillary Clinton. In 2020, it went for Biden over Trump by a significant amount.

Trump increased his vote total in Maricopa by almost 250,000 votes compared with four years earlier. However, Biden’s vote tally exceeded Clinton’s performance by about 337,000, according to research by the Foundation for Government Accountability.