New quarterly voter registration numbers from the Arizona Secretary of State’s office reveal that independents now tie Democrats with 32 percent of voters each, behind Republicans who make up almost 35 percent. Democrats only gained 539 new voters this past quarter, whereas Republicans gained 3,093 and independents gained almost 90 percent of the 28,042 new voters.Â
The 2020 presidential election in Arizona may be what caused the recent defection from Democrats according to one longtime Arizona political consultant. Paul Bentz, senior vice president of research and strategy for HighGround Consultants, theorized, “While you can vote in other races, you can’t vote for the president without being of the party. We saw a pretty significant shift to Republicans, a significant uptick in Republican registration, for people who either wanted to vote for Trump or vote against Trump.” Arizona is one of 31 states where residents must choose a party in order to vote in the primary.Â
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