Kari Lake Could Win in Arizona Senate Race, New Poll Shows

Kari Lake may have recently lost her bid for Arizona governor, but the Republican could potentially fare better in a future race for the U.S. Senate.

A new poll from Public Policy Polling (PPP) asked voters who they'd choose between three Arizona candidates. Apart from Lake, the options included Democratic Representative Ruben Gallego and Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who recently announced that she would be registering as an independent.

Out of these three possibilities, the poll suggests that voters would pick Lake.

"Fresh new Arizona numbers!" PPP, a Democratic Party-affiliated firm, tweeted on Thursday. "In a three way race Kyrsten Sinema would get just 13% to 41% for Kari Lake and 40% for Ruben Gallego."

The poll also indicates that Lake barely lags behind Gallego in a would-be head-to-head election: 47 percent to the congressman's 48 percent. Meanwhile, Lake is 3 points ahead of Sinema in a hypothetical one-on-one matchup, although 19 percent of respondents answered they weren't sure who they would go for between those two candidates.

More than 650 Arizona voters participated in the survey, with PPP noting that it shows Gallego to be "considerably more popular" than Sinema.

"You don't need a poll to understand why voters aren't happy with Senator Sinema: she's consistently voted with Wall Street bankers and big drug companies, and against the interests of Arizonans," Gallego said in a statement. "Sinema's values are not Arizona's values. Writing a different letter after her name isn't going to change that."

Sinema's recently announced mutiny from the Democratic Party has prompted some liberals to brand her a "traitor."

For her part, Lake has insisted that the Arizona governor's race was stolen from her, despite coming up short by around 17,000 votes. The Republican firebrand and former TV anchor filed a lawsuit shortly after losing out.

Newsweek previously reported that Lake's legal team has encountered some turbulence in her ongoing election trial, with one former federal prosecutor describing the suit as "frivolous on its face."

When asked for comment, a representative for Lake wrote to Newsweek: "We are waiting for a ruling in what could be the most impactful election lawsuit ever decided."

Regardless, Lake is adamant that this year's midterm election was pockmarked by fraud, at least when it comes to her race. She blasted those supposedly responsible for her defeat in a recent speech at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.

"To watch these, these evil b******—can I say that here, is that all right?" Lake said during the speech. "To watch them steal this in broad daylight, and if they think they are going to get away with it, they messed with the wrong b****. OK?"

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Updated 12/23/2022, 11:22 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with comment from a Lake representative.