Can someone explain how the f*ck someone could vote for Kelly and not Hobbs?

It's mind boggling.

I get he's not MAGA. But there have been election cycle in which he wins by the same margin as Bernie. Both of them have gotten about 2/3 of the vote. So a third people in Vermont say I want a Republican to run my state house but I want a socialist to go to the Senate.

In this election cycle we've seen people vote for Tony Evers but also Ron Johnson.

People are just weird.

Kelly is very easy to like. Lake is using her fame to woo low information voters of whom there are thousands.

Lake should have walked to this election. But she staked out crazy and it's likely to cost her.

She's an able administrator and not a telegenic prima donna. I don't fault her for that.

Previously identified as a Democratic and supported Obama. Very polished before the camera

Hobbes had some problems within the party and was not strong before the camera.

Her decision to not debate her probably saved her campaign.

A good move even. But, I felt she could have been more aggressive in other ways off camera.

Just exploiting a political opportunity to win office? Or did she go crazy? Or...?

One of the strangest episodes was her coming out against drag queens reading to children at libraries and then a friend (former) came out and explained how he was very ose to her for years and had been hired to entertain at Lake's 10 year old daughter's birthday party.

She reminded me of Sen McCarthy who had a list of a dozen issues that he thought might get him national attention and the first 7 fell flat but people went nuts for number 8: Communist spies in the State Dept.

Apparently she grew bored with her position and was never considered for national anchor and saw what Trump did to transition from The Apprentice.

They didn't call them the seven deadly sins for nothing. Giving in to those human weaknesses leads to grief, eventually.

then why did the other republicans get fewer votes?

to debate Lake. That would have shown just what a nutcase Lake was.

She should have followed the example of Fetterman.

I still think Hobbs will pull this out, but it was an unnecessary risk, and should be a warning to future Democrats, to participate in all debates

I think if she was more aggressive, not debating wouldn’t have been an issue.

I think we will, it will be sheer luck. You have to earn the election. Remember Coakly in Massachusetts? She lost to Scott Browm, because she didn’t get out their and knock on doors

Kelly was an incumbent for the position he was running for, whereas Hobbs isn't. Incumbents have an advantage.
Lake was on TV a lot as a news anchor or something
Lake's attack ads made a bigger impact than Masters'

splitting is a thing ......

The small "middle," a lot are tethered to "both sides are the same" and feel the need to prove to themselves that they are above partisan politics.

It's honestly just another avenue that Rs nibble on the edges to pick up people to enable their lunacy.

I'll add, and maybe repeat...

1. Kelly was an incumbent senator and generally well-liked. I think that helped him significantly.

2. Lake is polished former news anchor. She's charismatic and attractive. She had very high name-recognition, especially in the Phoenix area.

3. We gotta remember that a lot of Americans do not follow politics like we do - it's not a day-to-day event. I think there's a good amount who are aware of the election denialism that persists but there's still a significant number who is blissfully unaware. To them, they just see Lake as a Republican firebrand. Now, absolutely her association with Trump and election denialism hurt her, and if she loses, will likely be the reason, but even if only 70% of the voting population is aware of it, that's still 30% who are not - and that's a big enough number to make things tight, especially in a state like Arizona where there is still a significant amount of Republicans.

4. Hobbs was not a good candidate. She refused to debate Lake. She ran a very tepid campaign, barely doing any events. It was not a great campaign and when you're being swamped with Lake at every turn, it's not hard to see how that might have an impact, especially, again, with those 30% of folks who might not be aware of Lake's total extremism. And really, that's up to Hobbs to mention and reinforce. I don't know if she did a good job doing it.

And yet, through this all, she's still likely to win. Go figure.

She's not attractive. Hobbs is much better looking.
I've heard Trump and Lake repeatedly described as "charismatic," which in part means "charming." Cruelty and pathological lying aren't charming.

You kinda have to be charismatic to a degree if you're a successful TV personality.

Trump's charisma I can't explain. It's almost a surreal kind. But he can be an interesting and entertaining watch.

A guy who lacks any level of charisma is DeSantis.

I don't have a strong opinion about it yet, but so far, I don't see DeSantis as a replacement Trump in terms of popularity. That doesn't mean he can't win. I think the Republicans are going to find there's nobody quite like Trump, though. He won't be easy to replace.

...It's gonna be tight, but my sense is she'll be able to hold on. The outstanding votes in AZ appear to be breaking more Democrat than Republican, even when it's a split-ticket scenario. But yea, I don't really get it either other than to say I think most voters are lazy and go with their gut instinct and don't take the time to look at each candidate's platform. And since Lake was on TV a lot, she's a known commodity.

She's going to be on a lonely island. Her fellow election denying nutjob Mark Finchem lost his bid for Secretary Of State.
Outside of the ultra MAGA/cyber ninja loving state legislature Arizona is leaning more and more Democrat. So she may have to govern like a sane person.

You can have a bad Governor and a good Senator and vice versa. Just because they are the party of your affiliation doesn't mean they are doing a good job, which leaves an opening for the opposite party to show how they could do better.

On top of that, State races are a different animal than Federal. At the state level, you do not have to tow the line of your party in DC, you have a lot of leeway to disagree...even more so, if you have no Federal ambitions....or if you do, can point out how you are not a "yes" person.

I know I do!

A number of years ago, and you will know from the context of the story, I had a friend who was more or less a progressive: pro-choice, anti-gun, food and health services for poor people, affordable housing, you get it…

When McCain picked Sarah Palin, I think he had like a permanent erection for her. There are some people who are just drawn to a certain look and Palin for him had that look. All he could talk about was how sexy and seductive she was and told me that when she was on the tube he could not take his eyes off her.

Now here’s the funny part: in all the years I knew him he was never that way with movie stars or models or even people we knew in common who were quite frankly loaded with sex appeal. He was a steady guy, very loyal to his girlfriend then wife, and rarely was a participant in any salacious conversation about anything so it wasn’t as though he was swinging his dick around or anything like that. I think that there are a fair number of people who found Kari Lake to be attractive in the fashion and voted for her irrespective of anything else. (I am deliberately not describing the interesting aspects of her appearance in order not to upset anyone’s propriety around here.)