Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake skipped the debate ahead of Arizona ’s July primary election.
Mark Lamb, the other candidate in the running for the Republican nomination, was the only one present during Wednesday night's debate and tried to treat it like a job interview. Lamb is the sheriff of Pinal County.
“My presence here should tell the people of Arizona I want this job, that it’s important enough for me to come here and show you the respect that you deserve here in Arizona,” Lamb said . “When you’re interviewing for a job, if you don’t show up, I don’t know any company that’s going to hire you.”
Lamb did not mention Lake by name during the debate, but he did call out Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who is the presumptive Democratic nominee as he has no primary challengers, for his policy goals. Gallego, Lamb, and Lake are vying for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s (I-AZ) seat as she is retiring from Congress after one term.
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During the debate, Lamb highlighted his conservative track record, notably on crime as sheriff. He said the fentanyl crisis can be traced down to President Joe Biden’s border policies.
On abortion, he said he supported the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision and said life begins at conception, while also acknowledging that his opinion may not be popular with everyone but hoped people would not be “single-issue voters.”
“I am focusing on the general election,” Lake said when asked earlier this year about her choice to skip the debate.
“This is an expensive race, guys,” Lake continued. 'There is going to be $200 [million], $250 million poured into this race. We need to have somebody who has the ability to compete in that, and so I’m focusing squarely on the competition. And that is a guy named Ruben."
Lake ran for governor of Arizona in 2022 but lost to then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat. In that race, Hobbs refused to debate Lake because of her continuous denial of the 2020 election results.
"Look, Kari Lake has made it clear time and time again that she's not interested in having substantive, in-depth conversations about the issues that matter to Arizonans,” Hobbs said on her decision not to debate at the time.
“She only wants a scenario where she can control the dialogue, and she's refused to sit down in a one-on-one, lengthy conversation to really clarify with Arizonans where she is on the issues," Hobbs said. "She's the one who's afraid of talking to voters where she's at."
Lake repeatedly called Hobbs a “ coward ” at the time for refusing to debate.
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“I think it’s kind of interesting with the debate, is that with Lake not participating in it, a big political pivot from two years ago when she ran for governor, where she made hay about Hobbs not debating her and now she is not doing the debate,” Mike Noble, CEO and founder of Noble Predictive Insights, told KOLD .
Lake has continued to deny she lost the gubernatorial race in 2022. When asked about the election results in his county in Arizona, Lamb said that while fraud does happen, there was no evidence of fraud in Pinal County in 2020 or 2022.
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