Opposition is still building to this year’s U.S. Senate campaign in Arizona from the state’s well-known Republican Kari Lake, who lost in 2022 in the state’s race for governor, subsequently launching a lengthy legal fight over her defeat — which no real-world evidence ever indicated was the result of systematic fraud or a similar problem. But as that alone might suggest, Lake is known as closely aligned with former President Donald Trump, now Republicans’ 2024 nominee for president.
At a campaign event, a group of former Republican officials in Arizona threw their support this week behind Lake’s Democratic rival, Ruben Gallego, who is currently a Congressman in Arizona. Those include former Scottsdale Mayor Sam Campana, former Phoenix Vice Mayor Peggy Neely, and former state legislator Robin Shaw, as reported by NBC News.
“Ruben has consistently championed the right of Arizona women to make their own health care decisions,” Neely said, according to the same news outlet. “Kari Lake is far too extreme, and she must be stopped.” Shaw and Campana also cited an interest in protecting access to reproductive health care.
Recent polling suggests the odds are in these figures’ — and Gallego’s — favor. From the organization HighGround, the data showed a lead for Gallego over Lake of a whopping 11 percentage points — much larger than the margin by which Lake lost the 2022 race for governor against Democrat Katie Hobbs. Gallego and Lake are squaring off for the Senate seat currently held by Democrat-turned-independent Kyrsten Sinema, who opted not to run for another term.
Arizona Democrats are fresh off a wave of electoral success, from Joe Biden’s narrow victory there in the 2020 presidential election to the victory in 2022 of Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, who nabbed a full term in the Senate seat formerly held by John McCain, the late Republican.
