President Biden’s announcement yesterday that he would end his re-election campaign has led to a number of Democratic officials coalescing around Vice President Kamala Harris to be the party’s presidential nominee. It’s also led to a lot of conversation about the possibility of Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly being a potential candidate to be the Democrats’ new vice presidential nominee.
With The Show now to talk about this — as well as what new campaign finance numbers say about the state of a few key races — is KJZZ’s Camryn Sanchez from the Politics Desk.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: Good morning, Camryn.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Good morning.
BRODIE: So what are, let's start with what Democrats in Arizona are saying about the President Biden deciding to step down for the race and presumably, and his endorsement anyway of Vice President Kamala Harris.
SANCHEZ: Well, from the Democrats, I've heard that he's doing a great thing, that this is the responsible step and he's been such a great leader and this is such a great idea for him to do this and, you know, pave the way for someone who can succeed. I've not heard that from Republicans. So, and then when it comes to Kelly, that is sort of a popular rumor that's been swirling around, not just for the past few days, but really for a few weeks now, and I think that he would be a popular choice among Democrats in Arizona. But the question is, would he be popular nationwide?
BRODIE: Right. I mean, there was some polling a week or two ago that looked at a few non-Biden Democrats in, in various states and he was one of them that showed that he was basically out polling President Biden in terms of, if they were to be at the top of the ticket.
Obviously, there's a number of, of candidates who could be the running mates for Vice President Harris, if she's, in fact, the nominee, Kelly being from a swing state though, that potentially helps, right?
SANCHEZ: Sure. But it's also a risky to give up that Senate seat and make him go somewhere else. And then Hobbs, I believe would have to appoint someone to fill that Senate seat and those are sort of hard fought in the swing state. Plus, you know, Kelly doesn't have maybe that much national name recognition. In Arizona. He's, he's pretty well known and pretty popular and maybe it would help get Arizona on board, but in other states, would people support that? Not clear.
BRODIE: So I know you also had a chance to speak with some high, high ranking Republicans over the weekend after President Biden made his announcement. What did they have to say?
SANCHEZ: They didn't say they think he's a great leader. They said they said he should have stepped down but they think that he should have done it sooner. And I think that if he is not quote “competent,” then he should resign altogether from being the president of the United States in the meantime. And they said that they feel bad for the Democrat voters who have and betrayed by their leadership and don't have options.
BRODIE: Safe to say they still think that President Trump, former President Trump will win come November.
SANCHEZ: Oh, yes, definitely. They all said all of the Republicans I spoke to said across the board that they think that Trump's going to win Arizona, whether it's Biden or Harris at the top of the ticket.
BRODIE: So I know you also went out yesterday and talked to just some regular voters at Tempe marketplace. What kinds of things did you hear from them?
SANCHEZ: It was fun to do that. And I, I spoke to mostly Democrats because it was Tempe but also one Republican, and they all either were surprised, but I mean, if they were finding out from the first time for me, they were like, oh, well, that's crazy but also it makes sense. Everyone sort of said they thought it was a good idea.
The Democrat voters I talked to said they're more excited to vote for Harris than they would have been to vote for Biden. And one person actually said he wasn't thinking of voting at all, but now he will, and he will come out and vote for Harris.
BRODIE: Were there actually people who heard about this for the first time from you?
SANCHEZ: Yes, just shouting at them on the street politely.
BRODIE: Wow. Yeah, that is interesting. All right. So let's talk about some campaign finance numbers because there are obviously other races on the ballot, specifically the U.S. Senate race where Kari Lake is facing a primary in on the Republican side, but she's widely expected to be the nominee, and Congressman Ruben Gallego will be the Democratic nominee.
There's a lot of money in this race, but right now anyway, it seems not to be super competitive in the money on the money side, not the polling side, on the money side.
SANCHEZ: On the money side in this most recent quarter, which all the campaign finance information just came out about Gallego pulled in a lot of money. I believe more than $14 million added to an already quite large stash and he's left with, I believe, nine point something cash on hand, nine point something million cash on hand. So he's been spending quite a lot of money on this race even for a Senate race. That's, that's pretty impressive. And Lake's not doing poorly, but she is not coming close to that.
BRODIE: Is it a matter of her not raising as much or her spending more or more quickly.
SANCHEZ: Well, I don't, I'm, first of all, it's not over yet, you know, I mean, we're a few weeks off from the primary election but of course, she does have more time before the general election and she doesn't really have a competitive primary in a lot of people's eyes. She is widely thought to be the Republican candidate.
She's expected to get that, you know, vote, but she does have time to fundraise more and she is maybe not spending as much as she could be yet, but that could change.
BRODIE: And is it safe to say that there will be a lot of outside money coming into this race as well that, like the amount of the candidates raise is important but maybe not all important.
SANCHEZ: Yeah, absolutely. It's just sort of a snapshot. Campaign finance has a lot of elements to it. And for a U.S. Senate race, there's a lot of outside money from PACs, for example, that goes into it.
BRODIE: Have you heard anything from sort of pundits or observers about what they make of, of where this race is financially at the moment?
SANCHEZ: Financially, It's a good sign for the Democrats. Democrats have been doing well in terms of getting national money in the last few elections. I even looked at that for legislative races for the state Senate and state House and yeah, Democrats have been doing very well at that. It's a good sign but it's not a sure thing. You can't necessarily buy your way into the state Senate. It's just, just a feather in the cap.
