Kari Lake has yawning lead in hypothetical Arizona Republican Senate primary: Poll
Naomi Lim
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Former Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake may have been defeated last year, but she is heavily favored to become her state and party’s Senate pick next year, according to a new poll.
Lake leads lawyer and former gubernatorial primary rival Karrin Taylor Robson by 28 percentage points, 38% to 10%, in a hypothetical race to become Arizona’s next Republican Senate nominee, a poll published by J.L. Partners found. While 29% of likely Arizona Republican primary voters were undecided, Mark Lamb had 8% support, Blake Masters 7%, Abe Hamadeh 4%, and Jim Lamon 3%. Another 2% said they would back another potential candidate.
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Lake, a conservative media firebrand who did not concede to Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ) in 2023, had a 70% favorability-25% unfavorability rating, Taylor Robson 32%-29% favorability-unfavorability, and Lamb 40%-8% favorability-unfavorability, per the poll, released Sunday.
Likely Arizona Republican primary voters also prefer former President Donald Trump to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) by 23 points, 47% to 24%, in their hypothetical contest for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024. While 11% were undecided, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA), former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramayana all notched single-digit support. Another 2% would endorse another option. Pompeo and Youngkin have since indicated they will not seek to become their party’s standard-bearer.
Trump’s advantage over DeSantis decreased slightly to 17 points, 52% to 35%, when respondents were asked to choose between the pair. Another 13% were undecided.
Lake, too, has an edge among likely Arizona Republican primary voters should she want the GOP’s vice presidential nod. Haley was her closest opponent, 22% to 15%, and the only one with double-digit support, although 9% of respondents would select someone else and 15% were undecided.
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For almost a quarter of respondents, the economy and inflation are the most important issues facing the country (25%), followed by election integrity and holding fair elections (22%), border security and immigration (18%), in addition to national security (11%).
The poll’s findings are based on responses from 550 likely Arizona Republican primary voters, fielded from April 10-12, for a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 points.