PHOENIX — Republican Kari Lake and Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego faced off Wednesday night in Arizona's first and only Senate debate, over border trade, abortion, tax policy and more.
The barbs started before the moderators even asked a question.
“We are at a crossroads, Arizona,” Gallego said in his opening statement, highlighting Lake’s repeated electoral disapproval. “Let’s see and talk to someone who actually failed the basic integrity test.”
Lake responded: “Tonight we’re going to see someone try to reinvent themselves. Someone who was a member of the progressive caucus, someone who destroyed the congressional district he’s been in for the last 10 years.”
As the candidates bounced from topic to topic on the hour-long stage, responses came back to a core segment of voters: old-school Republicans and independents who aren't necessarily comfortable with Lake. Gallego has consistently cited support from prominent Arizona Republicans, while Lake has repeatedly mentioned former President Donald Trump as he tries to block Trump voters from running into the Senate race.
“The border mayors who campaigned with him are now campaigning with me because they don’t think he takes this seriously,” Gallego said at one point. He added: “Donald Trump doesn’t seem to want to campaign with her anymore. He won't let her appear on any of his billboards. So that’s what we’re seeing now, a candidate who can only talk but not really deliver.”
Lake, who withheld Trump's name during the debate, responded quickly.
“President Trump, my good friend, called me 'Border Curry,'” Lake said. “I love the nickname and I will go to Washington, D.C. and help him build the wall and secure the border.”
A large campaign bus parked outside the debate featured a large image of Trump and Lake and a large print touting their support. Campaign signs in Phoenix also featured photos of Lake and Trump, reading: “Trump endorsed!”
Gallego, on the other hand, did not mention Vice President Kamala Harris by name during the debate. In an interview with NBC News earlier this week, he said he was voting “independently” of Harris. He did not attend most campaign events and state visits.
The big issues throughout the race are immigration and border security, a central issue in Arizona, which shares its southern border with Mexico. On Wednesday night, these issues returned to the spotlight, as the moderators spent nearly half of the 60-minute debate on the topic.
“A community that does not have border controls is not a country,” said Gallego when asked if he supports open borders. “Absolutely not.”
Lake's rebuttal focuses on Laken's relay, A 22-year-old college student was allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant in GeorgiaThe importance of borders in returning home. “We want to be able to run in the morning like Laken Riley and not have to worry about being murdered, raped and murdered,” he said.
Lake A reiterated his position in an interview this week with NBC News, saying he does not support any element of the bipartisan border security bill — and falsely claiming the law “sent $115 billion abroad to kill people.”
“The senators were not bipartisan,” Lake said wryly of the trio behind the bill. The bipartisan legislation was negotiated by Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, along with retiring independent Sen. Kirsten Cinema — whose vacant seat Lake is running for.
Lake has long made the border a pillar of his campaign, castigating Gallego for supporting the Biden-Harris administration's immigration policies. Gallego, in turn, created the bipartisan border bill, which Trump and Lake opposed, as a major part of his campaign.
“The compromise bill that was supported by the Border Patrol and by Curry Lake, he still can’t explain, he can’t explain, why he was against the bill,” he countered.
Halfway through, the moderators turned the discussion to abortion. With primary voting already underway in the state, Arizonans will vote on Proposition 139, a proposed state constitutional amendment that would guarantee the right to abortion through fetal viability.
I created Gallego Lake Slippers about Arizona's 1864 abortion ban being repealed, which would ban all abortions, with no exceptions for rape or incest. “He said it was a great law,” he said, referring to Lake's comments on the Act. Drought 1864 during his run for governor in 2022. During his run for Senate, Lake spoke out against it.
“I want to make sure the UVF is protected,” Lake said, perhaps referring to in vitro fertilization, or IVF, a fertility treatment that has become the latest front in the political battle over reproductive rights.
“He acts like he cares about us,” Lake said of Gallego, “talking directly to the women” watching the debate.
Both candidates have been reminding their election ministers of each other's past for months. For Lake, it's grounding Gallego in his progressive past. For Gallego, it's highlighting Lake's strong electoral disapproval after a 2020 presidential run and a 2022 gubernatorial race, which he lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs.
Asked to say “once and for all” that he lost the race, which he unsuccessfully sued for, Lake referred to an earlier question about Arizona’s water crisis and said, “Can I talk about water?”
After the debate, Lake's campaign sent several surrogates to tell reporters that he “won” the debate and looked strong, while Gallego looked “weak.”
Speaking to the media shortly after the debate, Gallego said: “He needs to speak loudly, he needs to lie because he is vulnerable. And that. The weaker you are, the stronger you are.”
