Poll: Kari Lake Maintains Strong Double-Digit Lead in Arizona’s Gubernatorial Primary

Republican Kari Lake, a former Fox 10 Phoenix news anchor, maintains a comfortable double-digit lead over her closest opponent in Arizona’s Republican gubernatorial primary, according to a poll.

In the Data Orbital poll released Monday, 43.5 percent of respondents said they would vote for Lake – who is backed by former President Donald J. Trump – if the election were held when they were polled. The next closest candidate, Karrin Taylor Robson, took 32.4 percent of the response, placing her 11 points behind Lake. All remaining candidates failed to eclipse the five percent mark, as 4.7 percent of participants said they would support Matt Salmon,  2.2 percent would back Scott Neely, and 2.1 percent would vote for Paola “Z” Tulliani-Zen. Those who were undecided comprised 11.8 percent of respondents.

After the poll disclosed that Lake has Trump’s endorsement and again asked participants who they would vote for, she enjoyed a slight bump while all other candidates, except Neely, lost support. The portion of undecided voters grew to 13.9 percent.

Earlier this month, a Data Orbital poll showed a much closer race, with Lake and Robson at 39 percent and 35.3 percent, respectively. The latest poll indicates Lake is pulling away from her opponent in a convincing fashion.

“With nearly 250,000 Republican ballots returned, it is clear Kari Lake has maintained – and grown – her lead in the Gubernatorial race,” pollster George Khalaf said.

“With what we are seeing in our polling, and every other public poll released on the Governor’s race, one thing is clear: Kari Lake is on her way to securing the Republican nomination,” he added.

Data Orbital’s survey is consistent with more recent polls. A Cygnal poll, first obtained by the Gateway Pundit and published in a July 15 article, found Lake 11.7 percentage points ahead of Robson, at 45.4 percent and 33.7 percent, respectively. A CD Big Data poll from July 19 found an even larger gap between Lake and Robson, with the former anchor taking 43.1 percent of the response against Robson’s 28.8 percent.

While the former Fox 10 anchor touts the coveted Trump endorsement, former Vice President Mike Pence has placed his support behind Robson, initiating the most intense Republican Party proxy war that has taken hold throughout the 2022 primary cycle. On Friday, Trump held a rally for Lake and the leading Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Arizona, Blake Masters, while Pence stumped for Robson the same day.

In prepared remarks from the rally obtained by Breitbart News, Trump stated:

No one understands better than Kari how to fight back against the Fake News media and the Radical Left. The media is terrified of Kari because they know that as your Governor, she will be one of the fiercest voices in the country standing up against Joe Biden’s Open Borders catastrophe.

The poll sampled 550 likely GOP primary voters between July 18-20 through live surveys and text to web. Its margin of error is 4.26 percent.