Journalists’ Roundtable: Insights on the 2024 U.S. Senate race

Nov. 15

This week’s Journalists’ Roundtable topics included:

Lake kinda, almost concedes
Post-mortem on U.S. Senate race
Fake electors judge recuses himself
Attorney General vs. Project 2025
Legislative leadership
Residual thoughts on election results

Lake kinda, almost concedes

Camryn Sanchez: “We didn’t really hear much of anything from her this week, but she put out this video, and in the video, she didn’t say much. She just sort of made these statements like, ‘Arizona is great, Trump is great, running was great.’ She never said, ‘And I lost the race to Ruben Gallego; congratulations.’ So it’s not actually a concession, although the tone of it could be a concession, but knowing Kari Lake, we’re all kind of wanting her to be a little more clear about it.”

Jeremy Duda: “Yeah, it was not a concession, but it certainly seems like an acknowledgement she’s not going to be in the Senate, which is more than we heard two years ago when she lost the governor’s race. I guess important things are what we didn’t hear. We didn’t hear the concession, we didn’t hear the congratulations, but we also didn’t hear it was rigged.”

Fake electors judge recuses himself

Duda: “Cohen was set to retire in a couple of months. In the long run, it probably does not mean a lot. I don’t think he’s ruled on most of the major issues that are before him, from defendants who are trying to get things dismissed. But definitely for, if nothing else for rhetorical purpose, it gives another arrow to the defendants in the fake electors case.”

Wayne Schutsky: “He basically sent an email to all of his colleagues and all the judges and commissioners in the Maricopa County Court. And it’s like a send all type situation where he was talking about allegations from some Republicans that Vice President Harris was a DEI hire, that she got the nomination because of her race and her gender, not because of her qualifications.”