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Arizona
The Grand Canyon State, admitted 1912
Arizona packs more dramatic geography into its borders than almost any state — from the mile-deep gash of the Grand Canyon to saguaro-studded desert that grows nowhere else on Earth. The northern third rides high on the Colorado Plateau, a layered tableland of red rock, mesas, and pine forest cut by deep canyons. The south drops into the hot basin-and-range desert of the Sonoran, where Phoenix and Tucson sprawl across former farmland. Between them runs the Mogollon Rim, a 200-mile escarpment marking the plateau's ragged southern edge.
The Colorado River and its tributaries built much of this landscape, carving the Grand Canyon over millions of years and now feeding the reservoirs that make modern Arizona possible. Water, not land, is the state's defining constraint: canals and aqueducts move it hundreds of miles to desert cities. Humphreys Peak near Flagstaff tops out at 12,633 feet (3,851 m), high enough for snow and ski runs, while Yuma in the southwest is among the hottest, driest places in the country.
Most Arizonans live in the desert basins around Phoenix and Tucson, two of the fastest-growing metros in the nation. The state holds the largest Native American land base in the country, including the Navajo Nation across its northeast. Booming Sun Belt growth and a warming, drying climate keep the long-term question of water supply at the center of Arizona's future.
Economy
Arizona's economy once rested on the so-called Five Cs - copper, cattle, cotton, citrus, and climate - but it has modernized around aerospace and defense, semiconductor manufacturing (with massive new chip fabrication plants), tourism drawn to the Grand Canyon and Sedona, real estate, and a fast-growing Phoenix metropolitan area. The warm, dry climate that long attracted visitors and retirees remains an economic draw in itself.
Politics
Arizona carries 11 electoral votes and was for decades a reliably Republican state - the home of Barry Goldwater and John McCain - but it became one of the most closely contested battlegrounds of the 2020s. A rapidly growing Latino population and the expanding, more moderate suburbs of Phoenix and Tucson have made statewide races highly competitive.