PHOENIX – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott barnstormed Phoenix as the Trump campaign launched its policy tour nationwide.
“Arizona is pivotal to the outcome of this election,” Abbott said on a panel with Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., and former California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado.
“Arizonans, you’re facing so many challenges on the border. It’s going to be far worse if Kamala Harris were president of the United States. Do not allow yourselves as a state to be sucked into that,” Abbott said, saying the border was the most secure in decades under former President Donald Trump.
Abbott has made himself nationally known as a counterweight on border policy to the Biden administration, as he took various state-level actions in hopes of quelling some of the impacts of the crisis: declaring an invasion, placing buoys in the Rio Grande river, and constructing fences.
Many of these actions have faced federal court challenges from the Biden administration.
“The border doesn’t mean anything to her. That’s why she’s the border czar. That’s the goal,” Maldonado said of Vice President Kamala Harris. But on the campaign trail, the Harris campaign has touted the Executive Order from President Joe Biden in which border arrests have dropped, whereas critics have also argued it came too late.
In an interview with CNN last week, the VP said that there should be consequences for those who cross into the country illegally — a pivot from her previous position on illegal immigration.
This November Arizonans won’t just be choosing from candidates — they’ll also be voting on Prop. 314, a ballot measure that will make it a state crime to illegally cross the US-Mexico border. A recent Noble Predictive Insights poll determined that 63% of those surveyed support the border security measure, despite the state being hotly competitive for candidates of both parties.
“[Prop 314] is based on landmark legislation passed by the governor of Texas,” said Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Gina Swoboda.
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Tuesday’s event comes ahead of vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance campaigning in the Phoenix area this week. He appeared with Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA at a church in Mesa Wednesday morning and will speak at the ritzy Arizona Biltmore Hotel on Thursday.
Still, some Arizona pols defend the Democrats’ record on the border.
“Crossings at Arizona’s border continue to decrease thanks to the executive actions of the Biden-Harris administration. The data is clear: Vice President Harris is the only candidate who has a record of standing up for Arizona border communities like mine and can be trusted to support and fix this issue,” said Ken Budge, the Democratic mayor of Bisbee, Ariz., on a Harris campaign call last month.
Still, Republicans remain confident they have the edge on the border issue.
“So, we’re ready for the fight, and we’ll continue to do so,” Abbott said of his border hawk crusade in Texas. “But there’s a way to end this fight, and it’s by sending Donald Trump to the White House.”
