Editing Gila County, Arizona (section)

==Politics==
Historically, Gila County was a Democratic-leaning county in largely-Republican Arizona – for example, it voted for [[Adlai Stevenson II]] in 1952, [[Hubert Humphrey]] in 1968 and (very narrowly in a three-way contest) for [[John W. Davis]] in 1924. In much of the "[[dealignment]]" period from 1960 to 1980, when Arizona was the only state never carried by a Democrat, Gila was the second most-Democratic county in Arizona, behind massively unionized [[Greenlee County, Arizona|Greenlee]]. Only during very large Presidential landslides was Gila County carried by Republicans before 2000: indeed, apart from [[Ronald Reagan]] in 1980 and [[Richard Nixon]] in 1972, no Republican before 2000 ever carried the county by more than seven percentage points.

Since 2000, however, like Greenlee County, Gila County has trended heavily towards the Republican Party, and [[Hillary Clinton]]’s 2016 performance was the worst ever by a Democratic presidential nominee. Moreover, [[Barack Obama]] did worse here in 2008 than [[John Kerry]] did in 2004, one of a few non-[[Ozarks|Ozark]] or non-[[Appalachia]]n counties where this occurred (possibly due to Arizona Senator [[John McCain]]'s presence on the ballot).

Gila County was covered in the papers<ref>{{Cite news |last=Romero |first=Simon |date=March 2021 |title=Can't Get a Covid Vaccine? In This County, Everybody is Eligible |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/01/us/coronavirus-vaccines-gila-arizona.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303062244/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/01/us/coronavirus-vaccines-gila-arizona.html |archive-date=March 3, 2021 |work=New York Times}}</ref> as the site of a confluence between politics and public health as the conservatism of the county (with Democrat Joe Biden losing by 34 points in the [[2020 POTUS election|2020 presidential election]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.gilacountyaz.gov/Results.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301135035/https://www.gilacountyaz.gov/Results.pdf |archive-date=March 1, 2021}}</ref>) was considered one reason for vaccine skepticism, allowing the county to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to all adults well before other areas in the US.

The county was one of two in Arizona to vote against [[2024 Arizona Proposition 139]], which established a right to abortion in the state's constitution, along with neighboring [[Graham County, Arizona|Graham County]].<ref>{{cite web |title=2024 General Election Signed Canvass |url=https://apps.azsos.gov/election/2024/ge/canvass/20241105_GeneralCanvass_Signed.pdf#page=5 |website=Arizona Secretary of State |access-date=December 31, 2024}}</ref>

{{PresHead|place=Gila County, Arizona|source=<ref>{{Cite web |last=Leip |first=David |title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections |url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/ |website=uselectionatlas.org}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Republican|18,901|8,504|293|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|2020|Republican|18,377|8,943|415|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|2016|Republican|14,182|7,003|1,330|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|2012|Republican|13,455|7,697|443|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|2008|Republican|14,095|7,884|438|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|2004|Republican|12,343|8,314|220|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|2000|Republican|9,158|7,700|878|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1996|Democratic|6,407|8,577|2,427|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1992|Democratic|5,781|7,571|5,126|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|7,861|7,147|291|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|8,543|6,509|197|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1980|Republican|7,405|5,068|926|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1976|Democratic|5,136|6,440|386|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|5,673|4,295|404|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1968|Democratic|3,610|4,831|1,265|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1964|Democratic|3,713|6,821|3|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1960|Democratic|3,806|5,251|8|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1956|Republican|4,234|4,026|0|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1952|Democratic|3,770|4,928|0|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1948|Democratic|2,329|4,780|156|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1944|Democratic|2,260|4,818|29|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1940|Democratic|2,624|5,752|31|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|1,526|4,859|183|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|1,865|4,625|228|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1928|Republican|3,436|3,341|13|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1924|Democratic|2,193|2,218|1,937|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1920|Republican|3,311|2,894|0|Arizona}}
{{PresRow|1916|Democratic|1,495|3,686|552|Arizona}}
{{PresFoot|1912|Democratic|210|779|1,056|Arizona}}