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By Aaron Stigile
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Rep. Ruben Gallego and Kari Lake had a polite handshake to start their first and potentially last U.S. Senate debate, but that was the friendliest moment in a border-focused and interruption-prone event.

Gallego and Lake quickly launched broadsides about their opponent’s position on the border, with Lake firing off comments about open borders and Gallego countering with her position on the failed bipartisan immigration bill.

After around 25 minutes of debate about the border, the candidates turned to abortion, the economy, climate change and elections were discussed.

The debate, organized through a coalition of the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission, the Arizona Media Association, Riester and BitFire, was expected to be the only time the two candidates debate before Election Day.

Gallego has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2015, and he previously served in the Arizona House of Representatives from 2010 to 2014. Lake ran for Arizona governor in 2022, losing to now-Gov. Katie Hobbs, and before that was a newscaster for Fox 10 in Phoenix.

Each candidate was provided time for an opening statement, and Gallego was the first to speak after winning the straw draw before the debate.

He spoke about his family and military history and addressed his rival. He said that Lake has failed “the basic test of honesty,” and discussed Lake contesting the 2022 gubernatorial election.

Lake challenged her 2022 election loss, and she lost her appeal in June.

In her opening statement, Lake said that Arizona “has become unaffordable and unsafe.” She also said that Gallego had undergone “an extreme makeover” and that he has voted with the “most radical Democrats in Washington, D.C.”

Border security, immigration reform

Gallego said “a border wall is important to a security package.” He then pivoted to the failed bipartisan immigration bill, saying, “It was very, very sad that Kari Lake came out and was against that bill.”

The bill Gallego referenced was blocked this year by Republican senators after former President Donald Trump pressured them to block it. Lake had said she was against it.

Lake said that the “border wall keeps us safe” and that “where there are gaps in it, people are pouring through.” She also said Gallego previously did not support the border wall.

Gallego said in 2017 that the wall was “stupid” and “dumb.”

Lake later said that she still does not support the bipartisan immigration bill because she claimed that 5,000 people every day would be “pouring across our border illegally.” A similar claim made by Trump and other Republicans has been debunked by multiple news outlets, including NBC News, as migrants would not be able to cross the border illegally under the bill.

Lake also said that they attached the border measures to $115 billion that was “going overseas to kill people.”

The full cost of the bill was $118 billion, and around $75 billion of that amount was earmarked for Israel and Ukraine aid, while $20 billion was for border security, according to Reuters.

Gallego pointed to support he has from some border mayors. Those include Somerton Mayor Gerardo Anaya; Nogales, Arizona, Mayor Jorge Maldonado; and San Luis Mayor Nieves Riedel.

Children brought to the U.S. without documentation were also discussed by both candidates. Gallego pressed Lake if she would deport them, to which she said she would not.

Gallego later said that border town nonprofits are essential to make sure “their streets aren’t full of men just walking around.”

Lake said she would “shut down the border, build the border wall … and then, Ruben, we don’t have to pour billions of dollars into the NGOs.”

Abortion

Gallego said he would vote to codify abortion rights into the Constitution. Lake said she would never vote for a federal abortion ban and abortion policy should be left to the states.

Lake said in 2022 she supported an Arizona near-total abortion ban but has since toned down her stance, according to ABC News.

Lake accused Gallego of “harassing” and “disparaging” women. Gallego was accused of making an inappropriate remark by a female lawmaker in 2013. Gallego denied the allegation at the time and the matter was dropped, according to the Associated Press.

Economy

Lake said that bringing down costs, particularly housing, and not “printing money” are among her priorities. She said she supports Trump-era tax cuts and removing taxes on Social Security, overtime and tips.

Gallego said he supports the middle-class portion of the Trump tax cuts alongside a child tax credit. He also said that the taxes on corporations that made billions of dollars on “price gouging” should increase.

Some economists, such as Robert Reich, a former U.S. secretary of Labor, say that corporations are price gouging Americans, while other analyses, such as one from NPR, say that the issue is more complex.

Gallego continued on the topic of large corporations and their effects on the economy.
He said he is against the merger of grocery stores in Arizona, specifically Kroger and Albertsons.

Gallego also said big corporations are taking up one-third of the housing supply. A 2022 Stateline analysis found that investors bought 31% of Arizona family homes in 2021.

On the topic of Social Security, Lake said “we are not touching” social security and Democrats will “decimate” it.

Gallego said, “We need to raise the cap when it comes to security” to “increase the solvency and payout of Social Security 100% all the way to 2060.”

Solvency refers to the government’s ability to make full payments in a timely manner, according to the U.S. Social Security Administration.

Climate change and extreme weather

Lake said she wouldn’t do what the Democrats did and “take a great energy policy that President Trump had put in place and decimate it.” She said she wants to build the Keystone XL Pipeline and “drill, baby, drill.” She said she wants reliable energy and “everything should be on the table to use,” and that she would bring in new sources of water to the West.

“Climate change is happening,” Gallego said, adding that a “resilient grid” is needed to prepare for that, and he backed nuclear energy. He also said water investments to deal with climate change-caused drought are needed.

Elections

Before closing statements, the candidates had the opportunity to talk about elections. “We’ve got problems with our elections,” Lake said, emphasizing that we “can’t have people pouring across our country illegally voting.”

According to the Migration Policy Institute, an independent and nonpartisan think tank, there is no evidence that noncitizens are voting in large numbers.

Gallego accused Lake of advocating for the end of voting by mail. Lake at one point did support a ban, but then urged voters to send in their mail ballots during the 2022 elections, according to Newsweek.

During closing statements, Gallego said Lake is “disrespecting you by saying she still won the 2022 election.”

Lake did not say she won the 2022 election during the debate, but she did not answer Gallego when he questioned her directly about whether or not she won the 2022 gubernatorial election.

During her closing statement, Lake talked about securing the border and bringing back the “strong Trump economy.” She said she wants to fully fund the police and claimed that Gallego supported defunding the police. Gallego has not been on record as supporting defunding the police.

Lake also said crime has “poured in” because of the “open border.” A 2023 Stanford study found that “first-generation immigrants have not been more likely to be imprisoned than people born in the United States since 1880.”

Following the debate, Gallego spoke with the media briefly about Lake’s position on her 2022 election.

Lake did not attend the post-debate news conference. Instead, campaign surrogates attended: Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and campaign senior adviser Caroline Wren.

Early voting has started in Arizona, and the last day to request an early ballot is Oct. 25. Officials recommend mailing it back by Oct. 29.

For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.