Five takeaways from Arizona Senate debate between Lake and Gallego

Other areas discussed were abortion, the economy, and election integrity — policies at the center of Democrat and Republican campaigns in battleground states like Arizona that could decide the makeup of Congress and who takes the White House in November.

Gallego and Lake are running to fill the open seat left vacant by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), who opted not to run for reelection in a vital 2024 swing state. The Cook Political Report rates the seat as “lean Democrat.”

Throughout the debate, Lake utilized several attacks relating to Gallego’s former jobs and her own experiences as a longtime resident of Arizona, while Gallego spoke to his congressional record since 2014 and attacked Lake’s debunked claims of voter fraud in 2022.

Gallego softens on wall as Lake defends opposition to border bill

Gallego said he would support further construction of a border wall that is coupled with technology and manpower, a switch from 2017 when he said in a release that America should not build “Donald Trump’s wall” and that it was a “giant waste of money.”

The congressman blasted Lake for opposing the bipartisan Senate border bill that failed to pass earlier this year after former President Donald Trump urged GOP lawmakers to shut it down. 

“Kari Lake also, again, stood up and said, ‘Do not pass it,’ not because it wasn’t a good solution, because it would have brought a political solution to an end that she needs,” Gallego said. “She needs this talking point.”

When asked by a moderator if she supported any aspect of the bipartisan border bill, Lake said, “Actually not, because it was not done properly.”

“Listen, here’s what happens in Washington, D.C.,” Lake said. “These guys meet in back rooms, they have an idea, they say, ‘Let’s put a border deal together.’ Let’s call it the Safe Border — whatever they call it, because they always call it something and it’s really usually the opposite. Then they throw a bunch of other stuff in there, and they never get to it.”

Lake accused Gallego of flip-flopping on his border policies, jabbing the congressman for calling the barrier a “dumb, stupid border wall” back in 2017. She said her first piece of legislation, if she became senator, would be to “fully fund and expedite” construction of the border wall.

Gallego touched on the rumors and controversies surrounding FEMA funding — a flashpoint for campaigns over the last week after Hurricane Helene struck the East Coast and laid waste to Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia, among other states. Republicans have argued FEMA has limited funds to respond to the hurricane’s damage because the agency has been sending money overseas and using funds to address the influx of illegal immigrants.

The congressman also quipped that Lake has “been to Mar-a-Lago more than the border” while making his case on providing FEMA support for key border cities. Meanwhile, Lake accused Gallego of funneling “billions of dollars” into non-governmental organizations that she said are “taking part in transporting people further into our country, not just here in Arizona.”

The two also sparred over the status of Dreamers, with Lake accusing Gallego of ignoring a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) deal in the previous Trump administration. 

Lake said “no” when asked by Gallego if she would deport Dreamers, unauthorized migrants who arrived as minors to the U.S., as part of a mass deportation favored by Trump and other Republicans, adding that “President Trump wanted to make a deal when it came to Dreamers, you said no.” 

“Unfortunately, the radical Democrats like my opponent would rather use people as political pawns,” Lake added.

Lake later swiped at Gallego over the rise of fentanyl and other drugs pouring into the U.S. over the southern border, saying he should “know better” because he has a close relative who is a “convicted felon, drug trafficker.”

“For you to continue to vote to empower cartels to bring in fentanyl, which is a weapon of mass destruction, into our country, you talked about the sorrow — one minute he talked about the sorrow he felt from having a family member who trafficked drugs, and how hard it was for him, and what you’re doing to families right now, Ruben, is you’re making that be their reality,” Lake said.

Lake was referring to Gallego’s estranged father, who was convicted on drug possession charges, with the Arizona Democrat writing in a 2021 memoir that his father was arrested for possessing cocaine and marijuana with the intent to distribute. Since then, Gallego said he has had little to no contact with his father, who was from Mexico, not Columbia.

Gallego and Lake spar over federal involvement in abortion rights

Gallego said on Thursday he would vote to codify Roe v. Wade into the Constitution if elected, while Lake said she would “never pass” a federal abortion ban and that the decision should be left to the states.

“The reason we need to codify that is because people like Kari Lake are the ones that make this a dangerous situation,” Gallego said. “This is a person who only two years ago, actually less than two years ago, said the 1864 territorial law, a law that said if you were a abortion provider, it was a mandatory two-year sentence and had no exceptions for rape or incest, was a great law. She said it was a great law.”

Lake said she “agreed with Ruth Bader Ginsburg” that the decision should be left to the states. The late Supreme Court Justice believed that abortion should be a constitutional right. However, Ginsburg had argued that the decision of Roe v. Wade might have gone too far, too fast, and should have relied on a different part of the Constitution: the right to equal protection rather than the right to privacy, which is the basis of the court decision. 

“I’m the only woman on this stage right now,” Lake said. “I don’t think I’m standing next to a woman, and so I understand how difficult these choices may be, and we have the choice as Arizona is to decide what our abortion law will be.”

As a senator, Lake said she would strive to pass the most “pro-life” legislation that would protect IVF. She also said she supported a large Child Tax Credit to grow families and supported state programs for child care and adoption.

Both Gallego and Lake spoke to Arizona’s 15-week abortion law, which was passed by both Democrats and Republicans to repeal a Civil-War abortion ban that banned abortion except in the instances of “immediate” life-threatening conditions for the mother. The congressman attacked Lake for calling the 1864 law “great.”

“She was willing to say that just two years ago, and now we’re going to trust her? We’re going to trust her now? This is the same person that’s still lying about winning the 2022 election, and yet we’re going to trust her? She’s failed a basic test of honesty. Why would we trust her with our daughters?”

Lake and Gallego take shots at each other’s character 

When asked by moderators if she would support a federal abortion ban, Lake said Gallego “doesn’t really care about women’s rights,” switching gears to talk about the controversial topic of transgender women in sports.

“I’m astounded that he actually knows the difference between a woman and a man, because I thought there were, what 147 different genders,” Lake said.

Lake also attacked Gallego over past employment scandals, accusing him of “harassing women” while working at the state level. While serving as a state legislator, a sexual harassment complaint was filed against Gallego for a comment he made in 2013 that a female lawmaker reported as having an inappropriate sexual connotation. He denied making the comment and the matter was eventually dropped, per the Associated Press.

“This is a man who is putting on his extreme makeover act, and what you see behind the scenes is not somebody who cares,” Lake said.

“This is a trend you’re going to see with Kari Lake,” Gallego rebutted. “Whenever she doesn’t have an answer, she just goes for a personal attack, because she has no good answer on abortion.”

Gallego mostly stayed away from personal attacks at the beginning of the debate but began to strike back at Lake when topics of election integrity came up. He called Lake “dangerous” for continuing to challenge her loss to now-Gov. Katie Hobbs in Arizona’s 2022 gubernatorial race through several court cases over the last two years. 

“She has caused harm to Arizona. She’s caused harm and has made a laughing stock, and that’s dangerous … She’s dangerous to Arizona,” Gallego said. “She will say anything, she will do anything to win, but Arizona is the one that is losing right now.”

Lake pins blame on Democrats for inflation

Lake blamed “skyrocketing” inflation on Gallego and Democrats who supported the American Rescue Plan, stating the government has pushed for more spending and therefore, she argued, more printing of money.

“That’s why your dollar is only worth 75 cents today,” Lake said. “It was worth $1 under President Trump, it’s only 75 cents under Kamala Harris.”

Lake also hit at Gallego for “Medicare for all,” a stance championed by progressive leaders and, at one point, Vice President Kamala Harris but is now no longer a staple of her agenda. 

“He’s voted with Kamala Harris and Joe Biden 100% of the time,” Lake said. “He wants to act like he’s bipartisan. He was the leader of the Progressive Caucus. That’s where all the ideas that we scratch our head and go, ‘Who came up with these crazy ideas,’ come from.”

Gallego advocated for some of Harris’s talking points on the economy, including ending price gouging and raising the minimum wage. He pushed back on Lake’s claims that he wanted to raise Social Security, pointing to a bill he co-sponsored called the Social Security 2100 Act to increase the solvency and payout of the program “100%” to 2060. 

“This is the difference between me and Kari Lake. Like I actually try to work on things, she just has talking points,” Gallego said.

Gallego targets Lake over past election claims

Gallego rebuffed claims from Lake that he supports having noncitizens vote in elections after Lake pointed to his vote against the House GOP’s SAVE Act. He then pointed to her refusal to concede the election, accusing her of “lying to voters.”

“We’re at a crossroads here. We have dangerous leaders like Kari Lake who will lie to you,” Gallego said. “She’s still lying to you right now. She is trying to take away your vote and disrespecting you by saying that she still won the 2022 election. How could you trust someone like that who’s willing to lie to you all the way to the end?”

Lake said she “never lied to the people of Arizona” and argued that the state’s citizens have “been burned.”

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“They’re tired of hearing about hiccups and loopholes and problems that happen on election day,” Lake said. “We just want to make sure that our legal vote counts.” 

“I don’t care if you are the most liberal Democrat or the most conservative Republican or where most of Arizona is: somewhere in between,” Lake added. “I want every legal vote to count.”