The race for Arizona’s governor is tight. One nominee is Donald Trump-backed candidate Kari Lake and the other is Democratic nominee Katie Hobbs.
Poll after poll points out that a majority of Republicans believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that President Joe Biden wasn’t the legitimate winner. Lake, a former Fox 10 Phoenix news anchor, is using the sentiment as leverage and making election denial the forefront of her campaign.
During the 2020 elections, Arizona flipped blue for the first time since 1996, helping Biden win, according to NBC News. The state is still neither red nor blue but deeply purple.
That is also the state of the gubernatorial race — polls indicate that the two candidates are neck and neck.
- CBS News/YouGov poll had the two tied at 49%.
- Fox News poll put Hobbs at a one-point lead with 44%.
- But Marist College had Lake at 46% and Hobbs at 45%.
How do Arizona races compare?
The race is tighter than the battle for the U.S. Senate spot, where Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat, has a substantial lead over Republican nominee Blake Masters, according to Politico’s forecasts.
Masters, too, touted Trump’s claims that the election was stolen, although he has since backtracked and said the election wasn’t fair. So, why does Lake have a better chance of winning? It could be due to Kelly’s popularity and Hobbs’ lack thereof, a FiveThirtyFive analysis pointed out.
Putting Kelly’s 50% approval rating and public goodwill aside, there is much that holds Hobbs back. For one, she “was responsible for administering the 2020 election and certifying the results,” making her the target for many who believe it was a fraudulent outcome, the report said.
Another reason is her commitment not to debate Lake, so voters haven’t really seen the two square off.
What does Kari Lake stand for?
A big part of her campaign is “ensuring election integrity” by requiring voter ID on all ballots, requiring that ballots be pre-printed and regular audits as well as setting aside software machines for counting votes, according to her website.
Other than that, Lake says that she is pro-life but supports birth control. She supports police and the First Amendment, and believes in religious freedom.
She says that she is also willing to put up a fight against cancel culture. For government institutions, the price of limiting speech means no more state grants under Lake’s rule. As for businesses and corporations, this means no tax breaks.
The other two issues on top of her mind are Arizona's border security — in the form of a wall and more patrolling — and homelessness.
“We don’t want to be some homogenized, unrecognizable state, a second California,” her website stated.