Liberal political commentators slammed Arizona’s Kari Lake’s debate performance after the Senate candidate refused to answer a question about whether she lost the state’s 2022 gubernatorial election.
“Utter disaster for Kari Lake in tonight’s debate,” commentator Brian Tyler Cohen wrote on X of the moment.
The progressive New Republic magazine, meanwhile, added that the debate was a “complete disaster” for Lake.
The criticisms stem from a key exchange in the 2024 battleground state on Wednesday night, where the candidates are vying to fill the seat being vacated by the outgoing independent Kyrsten Sinema.
“She’s in denial about climate change, but we should not be surprised, because she’s still in denial about the 2022 election,” her Democratic opponent, U.S. Representative Ruben Gallego, said onstage, adding, “Will you finally tell the people of Arizona: Did you win or lose that election?”
“Can I talk about water really quickly?” Lake replied as the exchange came during a discussion of environmental issues.
Lake has filed multiple, thus far unsuccessful challenges to the state’s 2022 gubernatorial election results.
The debate, which Lake’s campaign has said was a “clear victory” for the former broadcast journalist, featured other contentious moments.
Gallego hammered Lake for her past positions on the state’s (now repealed) highly restrictive 1864 abortion law, which state officials sought to resurrect after the overturning of Roe v Wade.
“She was disappointed to find out the 1864 law, again the one that had no exceptions for rape or incest, was not going to get enforced, she said I hope the sheriffs will do their jobs,” Gallego said, which Lake denied.
In April, Lake reportedly told an Idaho newspaper of the law: “The Arizona Supreme Court said this is the law of Arizona, but unfortunately, the people running our state have said we’re not going to enforce it. So it’s really political theater.”
“We don’t have that law as much as many of us wish we did,” she added.
The Republican supported the abortion law during her run for governor but later called on legislators to create a new, “common sense solution” on abortion once the 19th-century provision appeared set to go into effect.
Political observers in the state bemoaned the overall tenor of the debate.
Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz compared Lake’s comments to those of the controversial far-right former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, saying the candidate took “the Steve Bannon approach of flooding the zone with junk.”
J. Charles Coughlin, of the Arizona public affairs firm HighGround, argued in an interview with KTAR News that Lake probably fired up members of her base, but by adopting views on immigration and other issues not widely shared among the majority of the state’s electorate.
“There’s probably a lot of Lake folks that were pretty enthused last night,” he said. “That’s what they were expected from her, she delivered for that. It’s just off-kilter where most of the electorate is at.”
