Pence campaigns in Arizona with visits to Tucson and Mesa

MESA, Ariz. (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence returns to Arizona on Tuesday for two campaign events as he and President Donald Trump look to keep a state that was once solidly Republican in the GOP’s column.

Pence is scheduled to accept an endorsement from the Arizona Police Association, a union for law enforcement officers, at a Tucson resort.

He then travels to Mesa, where he’ll launch the campaign’s outreach efforts to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Pence, a devout Christian, has often served as the Trump campaign's ambassador to religious voters.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, planned to meet Pence in Tucson and fly back to Phoenix with him to attend the Mesa event.

In late June, Pence canceled events in Tucson and Yuma as Arizona experienced big spike in coronavirus cases in one of the world's worst outbreaks at the time. Instead, he flew to Phoenix and met with health officials.

Both the Trump campaign and that of Democrat Joe Biden are heavily focused on Arizona, which is trending toward the center after decades of GOP dominance.

Trump won the state by 3.5 percentage points in 2016 and Democrats won several key races two years later with the support of voters disaffected with Trump, particularly women from the suburbs of Phoenix.