Marine One, carrying President Joe Biden, arrives at the Wall Street Landing Zone on April 25, 2024, in New York. | Evan Vucci/APNew York and Arizona have suddenly become the focus of America’s media-soaked political culture as former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden find themselves enmeshed in both states in ways that no one could have predicted and will likely reverberate for the rest of the year.
The dynamic underscores how little control Biden and Trump have over the circumstances shaping the election. Biden traveled to New York on Thursday and Friday to campaign in a purple part of the state, attend a fundraiser at the home of actor Michael Douglas, and make an appearance onSpeaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks to the media on the Lower Library steps on Columbia University's campus in New York, on April 24, 2024. | Stefan Jeremiah/AP
Just hours before the indictment was announced, Arizona state House lawmakers repealed the near-total abortion ban enacted in 1864. Democrats successfully convinced three Republicans in the House to join them, putting on display the complicated political calculations for the GOP in in the aftermath of. Democrats in the state Senate are working to convince more Republicans to cross party lines when it comes under consideration next week.
Republicans, meanwhile, are trying to turn voters’ attention to other issues like border security. Arizona, which shares nearly 400 miles of border with Mexico, sees more border encounters than anywhere in the southeast. Immigration has come to dominate the state’s U.S. Senate race in a matchup that may very well determine control of the chamber.