TUCSON, Ariz. — In the frenzied closing days of the midterm campaign, Republican and Democratic candidates in Arizona are offering voters drastically different visions for the state and the country, with conservative contenders pushing a return to Trumpism and their opponents calling for “sanity.”
“We know that democracy is at stake,” said Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, who is running against Trump-endorsed Kari Lake for governor.
Arizona is among the most closely watched battleground states going into Election Day. Hobbs, who was a social worker before she sought public office, was the target of death threats and protests outside her home after then-President Donald Trump lost the state in 2020. She says she expects to be targeted again this year if any of Arizona’s Republican candidates lose or if the races are too close to call.
Speaking to supporters Sunday at a campaign rally in Tucson, in historically blue Pima County, Hobbs repeated a familiar refrain about the midterms: It is a choice between “sanity and chaos.”
“Democracy is going to send Kari Lake back to whatever dark corner of the internet she came from,” Hobbs said to thunderous applause.
Lake, a former local TV anchor, has said that if she is elected, she will finish building Trump’s border wall, prioritize police funding and get “groomers” out of classrooms, referring to anti-gay rhetoric that has proliferated in recent months targeting teachers.
Speaking to supporters outside Phoenix on Friday night, Lake said she would reclaim land along the U.S.-Mexico border for the federal government and complete Trump’s dream of a border wall. The crowd, many wearing red Trump hats, roared with approval.
“We need Arizona to stay red,” said Joel Gleason, a Lake supporter. “In order to have faith [and] family values as the rubric of the state constitution and the rule of law, we need to have those kinds of leaders.”
A recent Marist College poll found Lake and Hobbs deadlocked in the final stretch of the nationally watched race. Among voters who said they were definitely voting, 49% said they favored Hobbs, compared with 48% for Lake. The poll has a 4-percentage-point margin of error. In a September poll by Marist, Lake had a 3-point edge.
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