For Immediate Release
June 10th, 2022
Contact: Josselyn Berry| jberry@azdem.org
Welcome to The Meltdown, a weekly rundown of every laugh and gaffe in the chaotic and crazy GOP gubernatorial primary. The three Republicans in the race, Kari Lake, Karrin Taylor Robson and Matt Salmon, are battling it out to prove who’s the most unhinged and on the fringe. It can be hard to keep track of every tweet, ad and interview, so we’ve done that for you. Enjoy!
Tweet of the Week
Anyone’s Race to Lose. Lake Has Slim Lead in Chaotic GOP Primary
With two months left to go until Arizona’s primary election, Kari Lake is grasping onto a narrow lead in a new poll released this week by OH Predictive Insights. The poll of likely Republican voters put Lake at 23% to Taylor Robson’s 21%. Even Matt Salmon made gains at 14%, up from 11% in the previous poll. Naturally, Lake is living in denial, telling KTAR her internal polling has her comfortably leading.
Brewer Takes a Swipe
Karrin Taylor Robson has an old friend on her side-former Republican Governor Jan Brewer. Brewer appeared in the latest ad from Robson, taking hits at Kari Lake for donating to Obama and supporting amnesty. Robson tweeted out the ad thanking Brewer for joining her in “exposing Fake Kari Lake’s dangerous open-border policies.” Watch the ad here.
As January 6th Hearings Get Underway, Where Do GOP Gubernatorial Candidates Stand Now?
This Thursday began the House select committee hearings on the January 6th insurrection, making it an ideal moment to recall what Kari Lake and Karrin Taylor Robson have said–and haven’t said, on the insurrection and 2020 election. There’s no misunderstanding Kari Lake’s position on the 2020 election. In a bungled March 13, 2022 interview with 60 Minutes Australia, Lake falsely claimed, “people are being held in prison without being charged. That’s un-American.” Lake also says she’s “the ONLY candidate for AZ Governor calling for and demanding decertification, if audit shows Trump won.” Spoiler alert: It showed Biden won.
For her part, Karrin Taylor Robson has been trying to have it both ways when it comes to 2020 election conspiracies. At the launch of her campaign in May 2021, Robson refused to answer questions from the Arizona Mirror about the conspiracy theories around the 2020 presidential election, or if she believes Joe Biden was legitimately elected. But she finally caved. In a May 5th, 2022 article from the New York Times, Robson is quoted saying, “Joe Biden may be the president, but the election wasn’t fair.”
We Don’t Trust Teachers to Teach But we Trust Them with Guns
During a radio interview Lake says teachers need to be armed after the host asked her if she would sign a bill allowing teachers to arm themselves at school. She goes on to say, “And if we need to get teachers who are willing to carry and take, you know, a few classes and how to protect, I think that’s great. I think we should explore that.”
Real Classy Kari
During an interview on the Mike Broomhead Show on June 8th, Lake continued her attacks on John McCain and his family, saying, “The McCain family should get a little thicker skin because he’s been in politics. He was in politics for almost forty years.” She then got into an argument with Broomhead for saying that he wasn’t allowed to say the “truth” about the election.