Isaac Glover, an 18-year-old planning to cast his first vote for conservatives up and down the ballot in Arizona, said he had been so rattled by a shooting and carjacking near the Taco Bell where he works that he decided to start saving up for a bulletproof vest.
“You can get shot at any point in time,” he said. “We weren’t having this kind of crime in 2019.”
Arizona’s crime rates, which historically have been higher than the national average, did rise during the pandemic, and Phoenix has had a troubling spike in homicides this year. But other crimes, including rape, robbery, burglary and theft, are actually almost unchanged or down from their prepandemic levels, according to Phoenix police data.
While violent crime in most places is far below its historical peak, there are cities like Philadelphia and Milwaukee where homicides have recently set records. The trend has meant that these cities and their suburbs, which are already playing a critical role in races for the U.S. Senate and control of Congress, have figured prominently in campaign rhetoric.
In downtown Waukesha, Wis., on Tuesday, Dan Mulder, 72, said he planned to vote Republican in the state’s hotly contested races for governor and senator. He cited the violent rampage last year at the town’s Christmas parade — a man drove his S.U.V. through the crowd at high speed, killing six people and injuring dozens — as an example of what has given the Republicans’ anti-crime messages particular resonance.
“It’s made it more personal and more direct,” he said. “I think to have something that horrific happen, it’s going to stick with people for a while.”
Michael Gold, Brittany Kriegstein and Neil Vigdor contributed reporting.
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