Hobbs clings to lead over border hawk Lake in Arizona, despite record illegal entries, public ire

Despite illegal border encounters consistently rising each month since July 2022 and overwhelming opposition in Arizona to illegal immigration, Democrat Katie Hobbs, the state's elections chief, is projected to edge out border security hawk Kari Lake in their race for governor in the border state.

Monthly border encounters at the southwest border were 200,162 in July, 204,087 in August, 227,547 in September and 230,678 in October. A record 2.4 million migrants were encountered illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal 2022, which ended in September. The total encounters have surpassed 4 million under the Biden administration. Border encounters do not count "got aways," which are individuals that successfully evaded law enforcement and entered the U.S. illegally over the border.

In August, a whopping 87% of Arizonans said they were against illegal immigration, according to a poll conducted by Scott Rasmussen and RMG Research. A large majority of respondents (62%) backed building a border wall.

There are currently gaps in the existing border barriers along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.

Hobbs, Arizona's top elections official, said during the gubernatorial campaign that she opposed using shipping containers to fill those gaps in the absence of federal action. She vowed to remove them as governor.

While serving in the state Legislature, Hobbs also voted against funding GOP Gov. Doug Ducey's "border strike force."

Meanwhile, Hobbs' GOP opponent Lake, long a popular news anchor in the state, made border security a focus of her campaign for governor of Arizona, which borders Mexico for more than 370 miles.

"We're going to be invoking our inherent powers under Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution to defend ourselves from the invasion in lieu of the federal government reneging on their guarantees to protect us under the Guarantee Clause, Article IV, Section IV," Lake said. "So we will issue a declaration of invasion, and we will take on those powers that are granted to us in the U.S. Constitution, and we will take care of the problem at our border."