Journalists’ Roundtable: Trump visits Arizona, Obama backs Hobbs and more
Oct. 16
More from this showIt’s Friday, which means it’s time for the Journalists’ Roundtable, where we discuss Arizona politics. This week, “Arizona Horizon” host Ted Simons was joined by Kiera Riley of Arizona Agenda and Capitol Media Services, Camryn Sanchez from KJZZ and Jeremy Duda of Axios Phoenix.
The topics discussed this week included:
- Bullhead City, Arizona, became President Donald Trump’s latest campaign stop ahead of midterm elections
- Former President Barack Obama endorsed Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs for reelection in a newly released campaign video
- A statewide HighGround, Inc., poll revealed shifting early-voting patterns and struggling Republican ticket
Kiera Riley: “Not just at the top of the ticket, it’s going down to the superintendent as well that Democrats are leading and incumbents have a particular edge, but the trend held true throughout the top statewide offices.”
Camryn Sanchez: “It’s reminiscent of the last mid-term election four years ago. Some of the response from the Republicans has been, ‘This poll is ridiculous. Those numbers are so outrageous. Those differences are crazy.’ In 2022, it’s not so dissimilar to what we saw with Hobbs vs. Kari Lake, and now we have another slate of those same Democrats going against Republicans who you could argue are somewhat similar.”
Jeremy Duda: “Everyone is penciling her [Governor Hobbs] in as the winner at this point. Do I believe Katie Hobbs is going to win that race by 17 points? I don’t think anyone here believes that. The fact that one poll, a credible poll by a credible pollster, shows that is pretty bad. The turnout model’s got an 8-point Republican advantage over Democrats, which is pretty consistent with what we usually see. A lot of this comes down to Republicans not necessarily supporting the Republican candidates. Republicans are pretty dispirited right now. I think the more they see of this, folks are going to stay home. The numbers in these are shocking, and I have a hard time believing that, but one credible pollster says this, and that’s pretty bad news for the GOP.”
