Arizona governor says too early to call Trump, Biden race

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) said late Tuesday that it was still “too early” to call the presidential race in the state, even as Democrat Joe Biden appeared to have a lead over President Trump in the traditionally red battleground.

“It’s far too early to call the election in Arizona. Election Day votes are not fully reported, and we haven’t even started to count early ballots dropped off at the polls,” Ducey tweeted around midnight.

“In AZ, we protected Election Day,” he said. “Let’s count the votes — all the votes — before making declarations.”

It’s far too early to call the election in Arizona. Election Day votes are not fully reported, and we haven’t even started to count early ballots dropped off at the polls. In AZ, we protected Election Day. Let’s count the votes — all the votes — before making declarations.

— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) November 4, 2020

Biden led Trump 53 percent to 46 percent with 75 percent of precincts reporting early Wednesday morning, according to The Associated Press.

The governor weighed in after Fox News projected late Tuesday that Biden would win Arizona, which has not gone for a Democratic presidential nominee since 1996.

Trump’s campaign has slammed Fox for calling the race, with adviser Jason Miller labeling it “a complete outlier” from other media outlets.

“There are still 1M+ Election Day votes out there waiting to be counted – we pushed our people to vote on Election Day, but now Fox News is trying to invalidate their votes!” Miller tweeted, noting the president needs 61 percent of those uncounted votes to win the state. 

“@FoxNews should retract their call immediately,” he said. 

2/ We only need 61% of the outstanding, uncounted Election Day votes in Arizona to win.

These votes are coming from “our counties,” and the 61% figure is very doable based on what our other Election Day votes are looking like.@FoxNews should retract their call immediately.

— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) November 4, 2020

Former White House aide Kellyanne Conway also retweeted an analysis from a Phoenix ABC affiliate reporter who said that “Trump is typically gaining votes 2 to 1 on updates” in the state. 

#Arizona ⬇️ https://t.co/LcnHaz1c3C

— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) November 4, 2020

Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders joined in on the critique of Fox News while appearing on the network. She said some people believed that Fox News called the state “too early.”

Arnon Mishkin, the director of the Fox News Decision Desk, told viewers that “it’s been clear for a while that the former vice president is in the lead in Arizona and was most likely to win the state.”

“Yes, there are some outstanding votes in Arizona,” Mishkin said. “Most of them are coming from Maricopa, where Biden is currently in a very strong position. And many of them are mail-in votes where we know from our Fox News voter analysis Biden has an advantage.”

He added that the president will likely win 44 percent of the outstanding vote when he needs at least 61 percent. 

“I’m sorry, the president is not going to be able to take over and win enough votes to eliminate that seven point lead that the former vice president has,” he said.

Updated 1:37 a.m.