Fox News drew the ire of Republicans for calling Arizona for former Vice President Joseph R. Biden late Tuesday with 73% of the vote counted.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, tweeted that, “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,” Mr. Ducey said. “In AZ, we protected Election Day. Let’s count the votes—all the votes—before making declarations.”
Fox called Arizona for Mr. Biden at about 11 p.m. EDT, but the Associated Press, New York Times and the broadcast networks had not called Arizona an hour later.
With 77% of the estimated vote counted, the AP had Mr. Biden ahead by 52.6% to 46.1% for Mr. Trump.
Trump senior campaign adviser Jason Miller called it “WAY too soon to be calling Arizona … way too soon.”
“We believe over 2/3 of those outstanding Election Day voters are going to be for Trump,” tweeted Mr. Miller. “Can’t believe Fox was so anxious to pull the trigger here after taking so long to call Florida. Wow.”
Fox defended the decision and refuted rumors that the network had retracted its Arizona projection.
“We do not retract that,” said Fox anchor Bret Baier.
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
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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