Democ­rats get leg up in bat­tle­ground Ari­zona Sen­ate race

Democ­rats received wel­come news on Fri­day that the odds in the hot­ly con­test­ed Ari­zona Sen­ate race shift­ed in their favor as the par­ty fights to keep the Sen­ate major­i­ty.
The non­par­ti­san elec­tion fore­cast­er CookPo­lit­i­cal­Re­port changed its pre­dic­tion from “toss-up” to “lean Demo­c­rat” due to the can­di­date qual­i­ty of Repub­li­can front-run­ner Kari Lake against Rep. Ruben Gal­lego (D‑AZ).
The two are run­ning for a seat being vacat­ed by Sen. Kyrsten Sine­ma (I‑AZ), who cau­cus­es with Democ­rats.
“If Repub­li­cans have suc­ceed­ed in recruit­ing more palat­able nom­i­nees in most states, Ari­zona remains the prover­bial ele­phant in the room,” CookPoliticalReport’s Jes­si­ca Tay­lor wrote in her analy­sis. “In many ways, Repub­li­cans were paint­ed into a cor­ner ever since 2022 guber­na­to­r­i­al nom­i­nee Kari Lake made clear she was run­ning for the seat.”
Nei­ther the Gal­lego cam­paign nor the Lake cam­paign respond­ed to requests for com­ment.
Lake, who lost her bid for gov …