Former Vice President Joe Biden is the right kind of Democrat to win in Arizona and other Western states, former Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano says.

Appearing Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," the twice-elected former Democratic governor, said Western Democrats are different than coastal members of her party.

"Before I was in California and D.C., I was the governor of Arizona and Democratic politics play a bit differently there than on the coast," she said. "I’m not surprised Vice President Biden has come out of the gates so strongly because I do believe within the Democratic Party there is a core, a core of what I think of as kind of pragmatic progressives who want the country to be working in a more united fashion.

"They’re very conscious and supportive of civil rights, women's rights and human rights, but also kind of skeptical of some of the ideas coming from the far left," said Napolitano, who was the secretary of Homeland Security under former President Barack Obama and currently is president of the University of California system.

Napolitano served as governor of Arizona from 2003 until 2009 and is the author of the new book "How Safe Are We?, Homeland Security Since 9/11."

Asked whether Democrats should care whether candidates like U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., can carry Arizona, Napolitano said they should.

"There are states in the Rocky Mountain West, Arizona, New Mexico — I think Colorado is turning safely blue — but even in Nevada, there are a lot of electoral college votes in those states," she said. "Trump won Arizona by 3, 3½ (percentage) points. That’s a very doable contest in 2020."

So could Sanders win Arizona over Trump?

"That’s a more difficult question," she said. "I think Arizona Democrats tend to the more conservative side if we’re using that kind of spectrum."

Reach the reporter Ronald J. Hansen at ronald.hansen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4493. Follow him on Twitter @ronaldjhansen.

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