Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs made a last-ditch effort to reach voters across the aisle, writing an op-ed piece for Fox News that denounces her Republican opponent Kari Lake as an “extremist firebrand who isn’t qualified” for office.
In the op-ed published on Saturday, Hobbs praised the Grand Canyon State for its history of bipartisan politics, pointing to figures such as the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and former Gov. Janet Napolitano (D-AZ). She then turned on ”today’s polarized environment,” which Hobbs said has turned the idea of bipartisanship into something negative.
“Let’s be clear here — the Republican Party of the past is gone. It’s been replaced by MAGA, which puts allegiance to the former president over anything else: policy, values, or our country,” Hobbs wrote. “The new GOP is led by extremist, radical stone throwers like Kari Lake who disparage great Americans like McCain, and are more interested in garnering headlines and booking cable news hits than actually delivering on the issues facing Arizonans.”
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The op-ed comes just days before Election Day when Hobbs will face off against Kari Lake, a candidate backed by Donald Trump who has campaigned on a platform that elevates the former president’s claims of a stolen election. In response, Hobbs has based much of her campaign defending how the state administered the 2020 election, which she helped lead in her current position as secretary of state.
Hobbs went on to attack Lake’s policy stances on a number of topics, including her economic proposals that the Democrat argues would exacerbate rising inflation costs in the state.
“This is about a simple choice — between sanity and chaos, and whether we want to continue to live in a democracy where our Constitution and country come first,” Hobbs wrote. “Kari Lake is an extremist firebrand who isn’t qualified, or even interested, in tackling the challenges facing our state. We can’t risk our state’s future on another TV personality. We can’t risk Kari Lake.”
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The Arizona governor’s race has garnered national attention as it could have huge implications for how the swing state administers the presidential election in 2024, particularly after the state saw repeated challenges and audits after President Joe Biden defeated Trump in 2020.
Average national polling shows Lake leading Hobbs 48.9% to 46.4%, according to election forecaster FiveThirtyEight. The race is deemed a toss-up.
