What these Arizona voters see at the US-Mexico border that national politicians don’t

Nogales, Arizona CNN —

The handmade boots at David’s Western Wear, a short walk from the Nogales pedestrian crossing, have for 44 years been a favorite of customers on both sides of the US-Mexico border.

David Moore says about 99% of his customers were from Mexico before the Covid-19 border lockdown; about 70% now.

“A lot of it is because it is harder to go back and forth across the border,” Moore told us in an interview at his store. “Wait times are, like I said, just ridiculous.”

Walk a bit down Morley Avenue toward the border and the last shop on the right is Kory’s Bridal. It is the first business you see if you come from Mexico to Arizona through the Nogales pedestrian border crossing.

“We’ve always depended on our Mexican neighbors to support our local economy, and we’ve seen the ups and downs through the years,” Evan Kory said in an interview in a shop packed with white bridal gowns and bridesmaid dresses in every imaginable style and color. “Currently, we’re seeing a very difficult time where border crossing is more difficult and time consuming. So, we don’t see the same type of business that we’re used to.”

Our visit to Arizona is the latest in a CNN project tracking the 2024 campaign through the eyes and experiences of voters – in this case, in a state Joe Biden flipped blue in 2020. Tough talk on immigration and the border is a Donald Trump calling card, and voters have raised it as a top issue in each of the seven states we have visited previously.

Here, the issue is local and often personal. Moore and Kory, for example, are quick to name favorite restaurants they walk to in Mexico. So the border and immigration conversation tends to be different from what your hear on cable news, from Trump and