Kari Lake Faces Crucial Debate Moment Amid Poll Struggles

Arizona Senate hopeful Kari Lake and Representative Ruben Gallego are due to go head-to-head on Tuesday evening in what is expected to be their only debate of the campaign.
Lake, a Republican firebrand and Donald Trump ally, will be under pressure to make a mark following a string of polls showing her trailing her Democratic opponent.
The rivals are competing for the Arizona Senate seat currently occupied by Kyrsten Sinema, who was elected as a Democrat, but now sits as an independent though she remains aligned with her old party for committee purposes. There are currently 51 Democratic aligned senators versus 49 Republicans, though the GOP is hoping to take control of the upper chamber in November following disappointing results in the 2022 midterm elections.
The debate between Lake and Gallego is due to take place at 6 p.m. local time and it will be hosted by the nonpartisan Arizona Clean Elections Commission. It will be broadcast live in English and Spanish by a number of TV stations and online by news website azcentral.com. The event coincides with the first day of early voting in the Grand Canyon State.
Recent polling has given Gallego a substantial lead in the Senate race, while showing Donald Trump and Kamala Harris much closer in the presidential race.
An RMG Research poll of 783 likely Arizona voters for the Napolitan Institute put Lake on 42 percent, 10 points behind Gallego on 52 percent. The same survey, which was conducted between September 30 and October 2, gave Trump a 4 point lead over Harris in the state with 50 percent of the vote against 46 percent.
Separately a Redfield & Wilton Strategies survey conducted for The Telegraph gave Gallego a 6 point lead, with 48 percent of the vote to Lake’s 42 percent. For the presidential race this poll put Trump ahead with 48 percent of the vote to Harris’s 47 percent. This survey of 555 likely Arizona voters took place between September 27 and October 2.
Lake promoted the debate on her official X account on Monday, commenting: “This will be the ONLY debate with Ruben Gallego. For over a year, the media has allowed him to lie about me with impunity & hide from his radical record.
“On Wednesday, I’m going to tell you what I REALLY stand for, & I’m going to hold Ruben accountable. I urge you all to tune in.”
Newsweek contacted the Lake and Gallego campaigns for comment by email on Tuesday outside of regular office hours.
Speaking to azcentral.com, Professor Mitchell McKinney, an expert in political communications at the University of Akron, said Tuesday’s debate is unlikely to have a significant impact on the Senate race.
“We typically find very slight change in polling following presidential debates, usually in the range of 1-2 points max; and the presidential debates have wide viewership…with intense media coverage before and after the debate,” he said. “Statewide debates receive limited media attention with slight viewership.”
Lake, formerly a TV news anchor, lost the 2022 gubernatorial election to Democrat Katie Hobbs who took 50.3 percent of the vote. Lake refused to concede defeat, claiming the contest had been rigged against her, though this allegation has been rejected repeatedly by the courts.