Payson, AZ · the strongest Democratic and Republican presidential performances recorded here, measured three ways.
1912–2024 · 29 presidential cycles
Highest vote share
Largest share of the presidential candidate vote cast here.
Democratic
Franklin D. Roosevelt1936
74.0%
4,859 votes · D+50.7
Runner-up · Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932 · 68.8%
Republican
Donald Trump2024
68.4%
18,901 votes · R+37.6
Runner-up · Donald Trump, 2020 · 66.3%
Most votes
Largest number of votes cast for the party’s presidential nominee here.
Democratic
Joe Biden2020
8,943votes
32.2% of the vote · R+34.0
Runner-up · Bill Clinton, 1996 · 8,577 votes
Republican
Donald Trump2024
18,901votes
68.4% of the vote · R+37.6
Runner-up · Donald Trump, 2020 · 18,377 votes
Best relative to the U.S.
This Place’s margin against the national margin in the same election — positive when it leaned toward the party more than the country did.
Democratic
Woodrow Wilson1916
+35.1pts D vs U.S.
Place D+38.2 · U.S. D+3.1
Runner-up · Harry S. Truman, 1948 · +29.3 pts
Republican
Donald Trump2020
+38.5pts R vs U.S.
Place R+34.0 · U.S. D+4.5
Runner-up · Donald Trump, 2024 · +36.1 pts
presidential primaries
Nominating contests
Payson, AZ · which candidate this place backed in each party’s presidential nominating contest, cycle by cycle. A primary is a contest inside one party, so it has no Democratic–Republican margin and is not part of the general-election record above.
Akashic reports votes cast, not delegates awarded. The two can disagree: Clinton led the 2008 national primary popular vote by less than half a point and did not win the nomination.
Primary returns are published at county grain, and this place is a single county: Gila County, Arizona. The figures below are that county’s, which is the same territory — not a larger unit standing in for it.
Presidential nominating contests in Payson, AZ, by party and cycle.
○no contest record — Akashic holds no result for that party and cycle here. It is not a claim that no contest was held. Telling apart a contest that was cancelled, one that went uncontested, and one simply not yet ingested needs a nominating-contest calendar, which is a separate ingest from results and does not exist yet.
Republican presidential primaries are not yet ingested — the Republican series runs from 1856 and is in scope. The row is kept so its absence is visible: a Democratic-only panel would otherwise read as though no one else held a contest.
Akashic carries 10 states for 2012 and 3 states for 2024. Cycles in which an incumbent president seeks renomination are thin by nature — few states run a contested primary — so a sparse column is politics, not a hole in the record.
County returns carry a leader and a lead over the runner-up, and nothing more. The full candidate field with vote shares is published at state grain — follow a cycle above to the state contest for it.
voter registration
Registered voters
By party of registration, over time
Party registration · 2026R+27.3
vs
Presidential vote · 2024R+37.6
Registration leans Republican; the presidential vote runs 10 points more Republican than the rolls.
Domestic migration in Payson, AZ in Payson, AZ: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
−110
2012
−361
2013
+52
2014
+134
2015
+89
2016
+588
2017
+417
2018
+456
2019
+504
2021
+764
2022
+892
2023
+572
2024
+464
2025
+136
Payson anchors Gila County's Mogollon Rim corridor, where an influx of Phoenix-area retirees has gradually shifted registration patterns while the area's rural, resource-economy roots remain a persistent counterweight.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 50.7 points in 1936 and a Republican high of 37.6 points in 2024. Between 2020 and 2024 the metro moved 3.6 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 37.6 points.
A population of 53,795, a 61% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $61,986 describe the metro. The metro's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ and Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ.
Akashic
Political twins — metros
The metros whose fingerprint — 2000–2024 trajectory, demographics, ancestry, religion — sits closest to this one, and why.
Twin score (0–100) = weighted cosine between tier-standardized fingerprints: presidential margins 2000–2024 with 12-yr trend and elasticity, ACS income, age, education, population and race, top reported ancestries, and religious adherence — chips name the closest-shared dimensions and the widest gap. Re-weight the groups in the twins explorer.
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
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All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Payson, AZ, Arizona. Akashic. https://akashic.app/cbsa/37740/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
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In 2024, Payson, AZ, Arizona voted Republican by 37.6 points (R+37.6), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 27,648 votes cast, 8,504 went Democratic and 18,901 went Republican.
When did Payson, AZ, Arizona last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Payson, AZ, Arizona voted Democratic was 1996.
How many people live in Payson, AZ, Arizona?
Payson, AZ, Arizona has a population of 53,795 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Payson, AZ, Arizona?
Median household income in Payson, AZ, Arizona is $61,986 — below the national median of $80,734. The Arizona state median is $79,964.
What is the political history of Payson, AZ, Arizona?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in Payson, AZ, Arizona from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 14 went Democratic and 14 went Republican.
