The Republican running for Arizona governor who was not endorsed by former President Donald Trump is gaining ground, according to a mid-January poll.
Former Rep. Matt Salmon, who does have the backing of the Club for Growth, trailed the Trump-endorsed former Phoenix news anchor Kari Lake by just 4 percentage points in the survey from OH Predictive Insights. That amounted to a 6-point gain for Salmon since the firm’s previous poll in November and a 7-point drop for Lake. She led Salmon 21% to 17% in the Jan. 11-13 survey, with 46% of registered voters undecided.
“We’re finally starting to see some movement in Arizona’s GOP Governor Primary; Lake’s support is lolling while Salmon is swimming upstream,” Mike Noble, chief of research for OH Predictive Insights, an Arizona firm, said in a statement.
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Republican Gov. Doug Ducey is retiring in 2022 because of term limits, and a spirited GOP primary to replace him has ensued. Trump, who insists despite a lack of evidence that the 2020 election was stolen and that Arizona’s 11 Electoral College votes were fraudulently awarded to President Joe Biden, is backing Republicans in the battleground states that support his claim. Lake, whom the former president endorsed last year, fits that category.
But Republican insiders in Arizona monitoring the campaign have cautioned that the nomination is still up for grabs. Salmon is a well-known conservative mounting his second bid for governor, and the endorsement he received from the Club for Growth, a free-market advocacy organization, is expected to help him raise precious resources. Meanwhile, Karrin Taylor Robson is a wealthy self-funder who cannot be counted out, party strategists say.
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A spokesman for Trump’s political operation recently expressed confidence that Lake would prevail in the primary, despite a mediocre year-end fundraising report. She raised more than Salmon did in 2021 but finished with less money in the bank than he did to spend on the primary.
