Over the last few months, Arizona’s gubernatorial race has firmly moved into my “want to win the most” column right alongside John Fetterman being defeated in Pennsylvania. Republican Kari Lake is an excellent candidate running against Democrat Katie Hobbs, whose quintessential Karen-ness has just become unbearable.
Hobbs has refused to debate Lake and has laughably gone to great lengths to never even be in the same room as her opponent. That led Lake to call Hobbs “unhinged” during a press gaggle on Tuesday after the Democrat demanded the two candidates enter from opposite sides of the building for an event. Fact-check: True.
The silliness continued on Saturday at another town hall event. Naturally, Hobbs refused to appear on stage with Lake as is customary. Then this bit of hilarity happened.
Under the agreed-upon rules for the pre-recorded event, which was taped Monday and airs at 7 p.m. Saturday Arizona time, the candidates were not supposed to be onstage at the same time and Hobbs was supposed to go first.
But a problem arose before Hobbs even took the stage: Lake was sitting in the front row, in a direct line of sight at where her opponent would sit.
As a crowd of more than 200 watched, organizers said Lake was supposed to be in a hold room under the rules, a copy of which they refused to provide to NBC News. Lake protested, saying she was unaware of that rule and said Hobbs should come out and debate her. Hobbs didn’t.
Lake, ever the cunning operator, noted that the rules said they couldn’t be on stage together. In response, she went and sat in the audience right in front of where Hobbs would be speaking to hear what the Democrat had to say. Instead of being an adult, Hobbs apparently freaked out in the green room and refused to come out like a frightened child.
I can only assume the organizers of the event are Democrats as they then forced Lake to leave the premises. More telling is that they allowed Hobbs to dictate such ridiculous rules in the first place. Who has a candidate town hall where the candidates aren’t allowed to be in the same room? It’s just stupid, and the lengths to which Hobbs has gone to avoid being challenged disqualifying, never mind her actual record.
If a candidate can’t even face their opponent, they have no business trying to run a state, much less a relatively large state dealing with a major crisis. Is Hobbs going to hide in her room every time the going gets tough as Governor of Arizona? It would seem so, as that’s become her go-to move.
Arizonans shouldn’t reward that kind of cowardice. It is a state that needs a strong, fearless leader that is willing to face problems head-on. Hobbs is not that person, and she should be sent back to her liberal wine-mom parties instead of being allowed anywhere near power.