AP PHOTOS: Scenes from Arizona's growing, pivotal suburbs

Election 2020 America Disrupted Suburbs Photo Essay (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

America’s suburbs are undergoing a political transformation. Democrats who once were confined to dense cities have made inroads into the suburbs that were once dependably Republican.

President Donald Trump faces pressure to win back these areas as he seeks reelection, while Democratic challenger Joe Biden hopes an the increasingly diverse suburbs will deliver him the presidency.

For a photo essay, photographer Dario Lopez-Mills roamed the neighborhoods around Phoenix where the political makeup is changing the most. Amid the pandemic, he found few people but plenty of signs of explosive growth: desert scrub cleared away for new home construction, the skeletal frames of apartment buildings, and restaurants and businesses catering to an increasingly diverse population.