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CV NEWS FEED // According to a new poll, U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake, R-AZ, is trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-AZ, by 13 points.
The result shocked many observers given that the same poll showed former President Donald Trump leading President Joe Biden among Arizona voters by five points.
Lake is running 18 points behind Trump among the same sample of respondents – showing a significant percentage of Arizonans are open to split-ticket voting this November.
Per the CBS / YouGov poll released over the weekend, Gallego is leading Lake with 49% of the vote to her 36%. At the same time, Trump is ahead in Arizona with 52% of the vote compared to Biden’s 47%.
The poll also found that 72% of Arizona’s registered voters believed Trump’s policies would put the interests of U.S. citizens over those of immigrants. Only 13% of registered voters in the state believed Biden’s policies would do so.
CBS News reported that the issue of immigration in particular “may be hurting Mr. Biden with key demographic groups, including Hispanic voters.”
“For example, Mr. Biden won a majority of Arizona’s Hispanic voters in 2020, but he is now running even with Trump among them,” CBS stated.
Furthermore, the poll found that 52% of all Arizona registered voters – including 40% of the state’s registered Hispanic voters – believe recent immigrants to Arizona have made life there worse.
Arizona is one of four states that share a border with Mexico. Polls have consistently shown the crisis to be a top concern among voters.
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CatholicVote reported that a recent poll “shows that Latino voters,” despite their strong trend in favor of Trump, “still heavily identify with, and may be slightly trending toward the Democratic Party.”
This finding might explain some of the 18-point differential between Trump and Lake.
While Lake is the frontrunner to win the Republican nomination, she still has to win the Republican primary on July 30.
Lake’s only well-known opponent for the nomination is Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb. He is a conservative Republican who is running on ending the nation’s ongoing border crisis.
Gallego meanwhile is running uncontested for the Democratic nomination.
Gallego was one of 37 House Democrats to vote in favor of the Laken Riley Act in March. The bipartisan bill would require federal immigration agencies to detain illegal migrants arrested for certain crimes.
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Lake made headlines last month after she announced her opposition to an Arizona Supreme Court ruling that upheld a pro-life law protecting nearly all unborn children in the state.
“I oppose today’s ruling, and I am calling on [Democratic Gov.] Katie Hobbs and the State Legislature to come up with an immediate common sense solution that Arizonans can support,” Lake said at the time.
Lake is a former television news hostess. Two years ago, she ran a high-profile campaign for governor of Arizona. Though she won the Republican nomination, she narrowly lost the general election to Hobbs.
