In the one scheduled debate for Arizona’s open U.S. Senate race, Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego sought to forged Republican Kari Lake as having excessive views. Lake mentioned Gallego had undergone an “excessive makeover” to make his liberal views extra palatable to average and conservative voters.
Lake, a longtime information anchor in Phoenix, got here to nationwide consideration in 2022 because the Republican gubernatorial nominee who aligned herself with the debunked 2020 election claims of former President Donald Trump; she misplaced the gubernatorial race. Gallego, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, is ceding the Home seat he’s held since 2015 to run for Senate.
Lake targeted on immigration, repeating a number of false claims from her marketing campaign and Trump’s. Gallego attacked Lake over abortion, together with her previous help for a strict 1864 abortion ban that briefly grew to become state regulation after the U.S. Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade.
Right here’s a rundown of a number of claims the 2 candidates made in the course of the Oct. 9 debate, sponsored by the Arizona Residents Clear Elections Fee.
Lake’s false immigration claims
Lake: “The one piece of (immigration) laws that Mr. Gallego has put forth was not about border safety. It was about eradicating the phrase ‘unlawful alien’ from something within the federal authorities paperwork.”
False.
Gallego was one in all 13 Democratic co-sponsors of the Correcting Hurtful and Alienating Names in Authorities Expression (CHANGE) Act in October 2015. Nevertheless, he didn’t, as Lake mentioned, “put forth” the laws, which might be the job of the invoice’s chief sponsor. (The invoice didn’t move.)
This was not Gallego’s sole piece of border-related laws.
Gallego’s The Buck Stops Right here Act, which handed the Home in 2023, empowered the U.S. Treasury to focus on fentanyl cash laundering tied to illicit trafficking.
Past that measure, Gallego was one in all 37 Home Democrats to help the Republican-backed Laken Riley Act, which might require the Division of Homeland Safety to detain migrants who dedicated housebreaking or theft. The measure handed the Home.
Gallego additionally launched two different border-related payments: the Direct Rent Act, which might improve staffing of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Screening Effectivity Act, which might expedite asylum wait instances.
Gallego has additionally mentioned he helps the Biden-backed bipartisan border invoice that failed to move the Senate amid opposition from Trump.
Lake: Gallego “truly voted twice to have illegals vote.”
False.
Gallego joined most Democrats in voting in opposition to two Republican measures that included the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, which might require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. However the payments wouldn’t have allowed individuals within the nation illegally to vote. rFederal regulation already prohibits noncitizen voting.
Gallego mentioned the invoice would create important paperwork obstacles for U.S. residents in Arizona who’re eligible to vote.
Including complexity to Gallego’s place is that he has generally taken a more durable line on noncitizen voting than many Democrats.
On Might 23, 2024, Gallego voted for a GOP invoice that might prohibit noncitizens from voting in native elections in Washington, D.C. That vote got here after Gallego voted in opposition to an identical invoice on Feb. 9, 2023.
Individually, Gallego launched the Voting Readability Act of 2024, which might require Customs and Border Safety officers to tell migrants that they aren’t allowed to vote in federal elections in the event that they’re not U.S. residents.
Lake: “We have had 20 million individuals pour throughout our border. They’re taking jobs, they’re taking housing. That is why no one can afford housing anymore, as a result of we’re having to compete with individuals who have are available illegally.”
The 20 million determine is False, and the housing declare is Largely False.
Throughout Biden’s administration, immigration officers have encountered immigrants illegally crossing the U.S. border round 10 million instances. When accounting for “acquired aways” — individuals border officers don’t cease — the quantity rises to about 11.6 million.
Encounters characterize occasions, not admissions, so one one who tries to cross the border twice counts for 2 encounters. Not everybody encountered is let into the nation. The Division of Homeland Safety estimates about 4.2 million encounters have led to expulsions or removals.
About 3.9 million individuals have been launched into the U.S. to await immigration court docket hearings underneath Biden’s administration, Division of Homeland Safety knowledge reveals.
Consultants agree that elevated immigration leads to increased demand for restricted housing, however they add that it isn’t solely, and even predominantly, accountable for increased housing costs. The scarcity of out there housing is principally driving the upper housing prices.
Abortion
Gallego: Kari Lake “was keen to take a look at a mom and say, ‘I do know your daughter was raped, however she doesn’t have a proper to an abortion.’ She was keen to say that simply two years in the past.”
Gallego’s feedback depart the impression that Lake mentioned these phrases to the mom of a rape sufferer. She didn’t.
When operating for governor in 2022, Lake referred to as a far-reaching abortion Arizona ban relationship from 1864 — which had no exceptions for incest or rape — a “nice regulation.”
However in April, when the Arizona Supreme Courtroom revived the ban after the courts had put it on maintain, Lake modified her view, posting on X that the regulation “is out of line with the place the individuals of this state are.” (Arizona’s Democratic governor signed a regulation completely repealing the 1864 regulation the next month, after it narrowly handed the Republican-controlled Legislature.)
Lake additionally instructed NBC Information that she opposes a federal abortion ban.
Lake: “I agree with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She mentioned this must be a choice left to the states.”
False.
Some authorized consultants, together with the late liberal Supreme Courtroom Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, thought Roe ought to have been selected totally different constitutional grounds than those the justices utilized in 1973.
Ginsburg argued that Roe would have been higher supported constitutionally if it had been based mostly on the Structure’s equal safety clause, which might have justified it on gender equality reasonably than the privateness rights implied within the 14th Modification defending abortion as a elementary proper. However this doesn’t imply that she favored leaving abortion regulation to the states.
Jeffrey Rosen, who authored the e-book “Conversations with RBG,” instructed The Washington Submit in 2021 that Ginsburg was cautious of a checkered, state-by-state system of abortion regulation, saying it will harm poor ladies with out the sources to journey.
“How might you belief legislatures in view of the restrictions states are imposing?” Ginsburg mentioned. “Consider the Texas laws that might put most clinics out of enterprise.”
Little one care
Gallego: “Proper now, baby care is dearer than sending your child” to Arizona State College.
True.
The common annual per-child value of day care in Arizona was $16,675 in 2023, Self journal estimated, based mostly on knowledge from sources together with the Census Bureau and the Group for Financial Cooperation and Growth. That was increased than the nationwide determine of $11,582 the identical 12 months, in keeping with Little one Care Conscious of America, a nationwide community of kid care sources and referral businesses.
The Arizona baby care determine exceeds the price of Arizona State College’s in-state tuition, which for the 2024-25 educational 12 months is $12,223.
Social Safety
Lake: “Ruben Gallego, Kamala Harris and the Democrats will decimate (Social Safety). They need to make it in order that the age that you must be to qualify to get your Social Safety, they need to elevate that.”
False.
Gallego has vocally opposed chopping Social Safety. In Congress, he has launched a number of items of laws geared toward making the prices of Social Safety clear and elevating advantages. He’s additionally backed by teams, such because the Arizona Alliance for Retired Individuals and the Nationwide Committee To Protect Social Safety and Medicare, that advocate for increasing Social Safety.
Harris doesn’t help elevating the retirement age, both.
Elections
Gallego: Lake is “at present suing to be reinstated as governor.”
He has some extent, although she was by no means declared governor and thus can’t be “reinstated.”
Lake has pursued a long-running lawsuit to overturn the outcomes of the 2022 election, which she misplaced. A number of court docket choices dismissed her claims, which included the allegation that unlawful votes had been forged.
On June 11, 2024, the Arizona Courtroom of Appeals determined that the trial court docket was appropriate to dismiss Lake’s claims. On July 11, 2024, Lake filed a discover of attraction with the state Supreme Courtroom, so Gallego is appropriate to say the case continues.
PolitiFact Copy Chief Matthew Crowley, Senior Correspondent Amy Sherman and Workers Author Maria Ramirez Uribe contributed to this report.
