Kari Lake, who polls show has been beating her Republican primary opponents in the Arizona gubernatorial race by more than all of them combined throughout much of the race, substantially outraised Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the Democrats’ leading contender in the race, in the first quarter of 2022. Lake raised just under a million, $969,789.93, while Hobbs raised $748,126.94. This is significant considering Democrats have coalesced around Hobbs as their likely candidate, whereas Lake is facing a very divided primary which makes it more difficult to fundraise.
Democrats are mostly resigned to supporting Hobbs as their candidate for Arizona governor, despite the fact she admitted to participating in furthering systemic racism, by firing a black staffer which resulted in a $2.5 million dollar jury verdict. A Democratic insider told The Arizona Sun Times in January that the party was going to have to just deal with it, efforts to find a better candidate had failed.
Hobbs issued a press release after compiling her total fundraising numbers for 2021, nearly $3 million. But she hasn’t gained any momentum despite the party starting to coalesce around her; her first quarter fundraising is in line with the same rate she raised money last year. Lake has raised almost $2.5 million so far in the race, and has surprised the pundits with how well she’s done fundraising.
Her primary opponents are sucking up a lot of the cash, with former Congressman Matt Salmon raising just over $1.5 million total, and former Arizona State University Regent Karrin Taylor Robson raising almost $6.5 million, much of it self-funded. But they aren’t gaining momentum; Salmon pulled in less than half a million during the first quarter, and Robson only brought in $717,223 from donations — although she also gave herself $2 million.
Read the rest of the article at The Arizona Sun Times
