, a series of reflections on the meaning and legacy of the Trump years.
As the national politics editor for the Arizona Republic, Dan Nowicki had a unique vantage of two of the bookending dramas of the Trump era: first Donald Trump’s attacks on John McCain and his military service, and then Trump’s ultimate electoral collapse in the state in 2020. Nowicki saw Trump’s triumph and eventual failure happening in real time. At the Arizona Republic, where he’s been since 2002, he spent two years on the road with the late Sen. McCain for his 2008 presidential run, and is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. On the phone recently, he described what national reporters miss when they show up in Arizona and why he saw Trump’s failure there this year coming.