Mormons could be the key to Kamala Harris potentially winning Arizona.
Although Mormons have long been one of the most loyal Republican voting blocs, former President Donald Trump struggled to gain their support in both 2016 and 2020, and the vice president is working to win over the state's more than 440,000 Latter-day Saints, reported Newsweek.
"We're doing a mix of activities: outreach over social media, organizing events online like August's national call that drew an audience of over 1,400 people, and in-person gatherings in key states such as Arizona and Nevada to volunteer for the campaign," said Rob Taber, the national director for the group Latter-day Saints for Harris-Walz.
Taber described his group as "a big tent made up of Republicans, independents, and Democrats" who view Harris and her running mate Tim Walz "as a breath of fresh air" and are "ready to turn the page on the Trump era."
"[Harris] stands for pro-family policies, especially on the cost of housing, protecting in vitro fertilization, and lowering the number of women who die in or shortly after childbirth," Taber said. "We also align much more closely to her balanced approach to immigration reform and appreciate her willingness to tackle price-gouging while promoting entrepreneurship."
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Jacob Rugh, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Brigham Young University, said data suggests Mormon voters appear to support Harris and Walz "more than any other presidential ticket in 60 years," and that could be significant in Arizona.
"If the trends we found in 2020 in the heavily LDS East Valley of Maricopa County (greater Phoenix area) continue, more and more suburban Phoenix precincts will flip blue and more and more votes will trickle in for Harris in what will no doubt be another close election — where every vote counts," he said.
LDS women have been especially active in organizing against Trump, both online and offline, and many cite the Jan. 6 insurrection as their "breaking point."
"We know from the detailed audits that well over 100,000 Arizona Republican voters cast a straight ticket GOP vote in 2020 with the one exception of not voting for Trump," Rugh said. "Those numbers will rise for sure in the aftermath of Jan. 6."
