To:                Interested Parties
From:           Josselyn Berry, JBerry@AZDem.org
Re:               What You Need to Know Less than a Week Out From The GOP #AZGov Primary
Date:            Wednesday, July 27th, 2022

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TOPLINE: What to know about the “Contentious”,  “Cringe-worthy” and  “Raucous” #AZGov Primary

Less than a week until Arizona’s primary election and the GOP primary race for Governor has turned into an unhinged and embarrassing MAGA death match. On August 2nd, voters are left to choose between a “anti-abortion, election-denying conspiracy theorist” and another “anti-abortion, election-denying conspiracy theorist.” As election day looms, this bitter primary race has fractured the Republican Party with opposing endorsements, name calling and once unified GOP power players now taking separate sides.

With less than a week until the primary, Kari Lake and Karrin Taylor Robson have been battling it out to prove who’s the most far-right candidate. Taylor Robson is desperately blitzing the airwaves, spending millions of her own money in an attempt to differentiate herself from Kari Lake. But Taylor Robson stills aligns with Kari Lake on nearly every issue from abortion, to guns, to pushing conspiracy theories about elections. Once the dust settles on this hostile primary, it’ll be clear that neither Lake nor Taylor Robson can unify their own party, let alone Arizona.

Key Takeaways on the GOP Primary: 

• Kari Lake is Still in the Lead-Kari Lake is still leading the Republican primary as wealthy lobbyist Karrin Taylor Robson struggles to close the gap before August 2nd. Taylor Robson has already blown through $18.4 million and spent nearly $2 million in the first two weeks of July alone. However, undecided Republican primary voters make up over 30% of the field, leading Lake and Taylor Robson to fire off more increasingly desperate and incendiary attacks in this race to the far right.
• This Race has Fractured the Republican Party on a National Scale-The explosive “MAGA death match” and race to the bottom gained new ammo after former vice president Mike Pence endorsed Karrin Taylor Robson and came to Arizona on the same day his former running mate, Donald Trump rallied for Taylor Robson’s opponent, Kari Lake. Ducey also jumped into the fray, slamming “Fake Lake” on national television and refusing to say if the RGA, which he co-chairs, will endorse Lake if she’s the nominee. As election day looms, this bitter primary race has fractured the Republican Party with opposing endorsements, name calling and once unified GOP power players now taking separate sides.
• Off the Rails Debate Shows No One is Ready for Prime Time-Incompetence and immaturity were on full display during the first and only GOP gubernatorial debate as Kari Lake and Karrin Taylor Robson spent the time shouting over each other and the rest of the GOP field, trading insults and focusing on anything but how they would solve real issues facing Arizona voters.  The Arizona Republic called it “an hourlong throw down” of “back-and-forth, near-constant interruptions and din of candidates speaking over one another.”
• Fealty to Trump-Agenda, not Arizonans- It’s clear Kari Lake has always been out to win the approval of Donald Trump–Arizona voters not so much. She’s spewed out a consistent stream of 2020 election conspiracy theories and is now sowing the idea that if she loses it’s due to fraud. For her part,  Karrin Taylor Robson has also been pushing her own brand of Trump’s Big Lie. Karrin Taylor Robson continues to refuse to answer if she would’ve certified the 2020 election and claims that the 2020 election “wasn’t fair.” She also has regurgitated disproven conspiracy theories about the media and big tech companies “suppressing conservative voices.”