Democrats get leg up in battleground Arizona Senate race
By
Ramsey Touchberry
May 17, 2024 1:02 pm
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Democrats received welcome news on Friday that the odds in the hotly contested Arizona Senate race shifted in their favor as the party fights to keep the Senate majority.
The nonpartisan election forecaster CookPoliticalReport changed its prediction from “toss-up” to “lean Democrat” due to the candidate quality of Republican front-runner Kari Lake against Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ).
The two are running for a seat being vacated by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), who caucuses with Democrats.
“If Republicans have succeeded in recruiting more palatable nominees in most states, Arizona remains the proverbial elephant in the room,” CookPoliticalReport’s Jessica Taylor wrote in her analysis. “In many ways, Republicans were painted into a corner ever since 2022 gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake made clear she was running for the seat.”
Neither the Gallego campaign nor the Lake campaign responded to requests for comment.
Lake, who lost her bid for governor last cycle and is a staunch supporter of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, is backed by Senate Republicans but still has some in the GOP concerned about electability over past claims that elections with her and Trump were fraudulent. Questions have mounted over how many resources the party’s Senate campaign arm should divert to the race, given pick-up opportunities elsewhere on the election map.
more
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/3007937/democrats-get-leg-up-battleground-arizona-senate-race/
