Kari Lake refuses to debate Republican Mark Lamb. What an insult for GOP voters

Arizona’s Republican candidates for U.S. Senate are scheduled to debate on June 26, just a week before early voting begins.

Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb plans to be there, according to the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission, which hosts televised debates in all the major races.

As for Kari Lake, who just two years ago called her gubernatorial opponent Katie Hobbs a “coward” for refusing to meet her on a debate stage?

Lake, who said “debates between candidates are a critical part of ‘our democracy’”?

Apparently, she doesn’t plan to be at that June 26 debate.

Kari Lake now refuses to debate

She hasn’t responded to Cleans Elections’ invitation. Meanwhile, in March, she declined Lamb’s separate challenge to debate.

“Frankly, I’m not running against Mark Lamb,” Lake told a Yuma TV station at the time. “I’m running against Ruben Gallego.”

This from the woman who is down 13 points to Gallego, according to a new poll.

Fortunately, Clean Elections isn’t about to abandon its mandate to inform voters of their choices.

Gina Roberts, the agency’s voter education director, told me the 60-minute debate will become a 30-minute televised question-and-answer session with Lamb, if Lake declines the invitation to debate.

Lamb is the other Republican running for the U.S. Senate.

Mark Lamb is like her, but without baggage

He’s basically Lake but without the baggage, having not spent the last three years throwing stink bombs at anyone who fails to worship at the altar of Donald Trump. (He, too, goes there. He just doesn't treat it like a religious experience.)

While Lake was laser focused on stolen elections and driving a stake through the hearts of McCain Republicans, Lamb was a law-and-order sheriff laser focused on the border and on winning elections.

He’s won two, in fact.

The only thing Lamb lacks in GOP circles is Trump’s endorsement. That, and much of anyone paying attention to the fact that he’s running for the Senate.

Yet Republicans should be paying attention. That is, if they really want to win back the U.S. Senate seat they once owned before MAGA took over the Arizona Republican Party.

A CBS/YouGov poll released on Monday suggests Lake is in a deep hole with no ladder in sight.

Just 36% of voters polled this month by CBS News/YouGov would vote for Lake if the election were held today, compared with 49% for Democrat Ruben Gallego.

Trump, meanwhile, polled at 52% — or 16 points higher than Lake.

Poll shows Lake could lose in November

Among Republican voters, Trump registers 93% support, yet only 73% said they supported Lake.

Among moderates, she’s a disaster area. Just 22% said they would vote for her while 58% support Gallego.

Really, it comes down to this: Arizona voters just don’t like Lake. And it’s difficult to see how, after three years on the campaign trail, she’s going to change their minds.

Want an abortion debate? How about Lake ('22) vs. Lake ('24)?

Since Monday’s release of the CBS/YouGov poll, Lake’s campaign has gone into damage-control mode, claiming her internal polling shows the race is tied and that she’s “well positioned to win in November.”

“There is no Senate candidate in the country that is more closely aligned with President Trump than Kari Lake,” her campaign advisors wrote in a memo issued on Tuesday.

Lake hasn't won yet. GOP voters will decide

Meanwhile, Lamb’s campaign has been inundated with calls.

“Since the poll came out, we’ve received hundreds of calls from Republicans who are concerned that if she is the nominee, that not only could we lose the U.S. Senate but that President Trump could lose Arizona possibly,” Ed Morabito, a senior adviser to Lamb’s campaign, told me.

“We believe a lot of people in Washington, D.C., are having buyer’s remorse in terms of Kari Lake.”

A lot of people, presumably meaning the National Republican Senatorial Committee?

The GOP’s Senate campaign arm endorsed Lake in February, apparently under the delusional belief that she’s a “unifier.” Also, because she pitches herself — and we in the media pitch her — as the party’s presumptive nominee.

In reality, it’s Republican primary voters who will decide that, coming in 70 days.

Which brings me back to debates.

The goal isn't to nominate Lake. It's to win

Lake’s refusal to debate strikes me as an exercise in arrogance and a slap in the face to voters.

The Republicans’ No. 1 goal isn’t — or shouldn’t be — to nominate Kari Lake.

It should be to nominate the Republican with the best chance of winning back the Senate seat they lost in 2018. (As opposed to the Senate seat they lost in 2020. And again in 2022.)

Two short years ago, Lake believed that voters had a right to see their choices side-by-side. Day in and day out, she taunted Katie Hobbs over her refusal to debate.

“Facing criticism and taking responsibility for your record in front of the voters is one of the most basic qualifications of leadership,” Lake wrote in 2022.

Two years later, what’s changed?

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake refuses to debate Mark Lamb. What an insult for GOP voters