Republicans Blake Masters and Kari Lake are both in statistical ties with their Democrat opponents in Arizona’s U.S. Senate and governor’s races, per a poll.
The CBS/YouGov poll released Wednesday shows that 48 percent of likely voters in Arizona are backing Masters, while 51 percent support Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who is running for reelection. Another one percent of voters are undecided. Masters is within the polling margin of error, making the race a statistical tie.
In the governor’s race, Lake is in a dead heat with Democrat Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, with each candidate drawing 49 percent of the likely voter response. Just one percent of polling participants remain undecided. The poll is consistent with the FiveThirtyEight polling average, which had both candidates at 47 percent as of Wednesday morning. Four of the six latest polls shared on the site showed Lake or Hobbs up just a single point, while the other two had Lake up four points.
This current poll also asked respondents to rate the top issues in the race. The issues that drew the highest amount of “Very important” responses from participants included the “Economy” (81 percent), “Inflation” (78 percent), “Immigration” (65 percent), and “Crime” (63 percent). “Abortion” received the seventh highest “Very important” response rate at 54 percent.
Concerning immigration, 58 percent of respondents say the country should be “[t]ougher on immigrants trying to cross at the border,” as opposed to just 24 percent who think the U.S. should be “[e]asier on immigrants trying to cross at the border.”
Moreover, the majority of registered voter respondents (56 percent) say that their communities have changed either “a lot” or “some” with “the arrival of new immigrant groups.” Of respondents who said “a lot” or “some,” 70 percent said the changes have been for the “worse.”
Voters overwhelmingly trust Masters and Lake to secure the border over their Democrat opponents. Of participants, 59 percent believe Masters will support policies to secure the border as opposed to just 29 percent who believe Kelly will do so. As Breitbart News has reported, Kelly has repeatedly voted against border security measures. Similarly, only 28 percent believe Hobbs will support policies to halt the flow of migrants, while 57 say Lake will back them.
The poll surveyed 1,164 registered Arizona voters from September 30 – October 4, although data regarding which candidates were preferred in the U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races were among likely voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.