The survey, released January 11 by website Blueprint Polling, imagined a scenario in which Sinema, a former Democrat turned independent who’s held her Senate seat since 2019, runs for reelection against Lake and Gallego, a Democrat who represents the state’s 3rd Congressional District.
Lake, who rumors say is considering running for the seat but has not confirmed this, polled at 36 percent, according to Blueprint, well ahead of the two rivals. Gallego trailed closely with 32 percent, while Sinema ran a distant third with 14 percent.
Running for the state’s Senate seat would force Lake to admit she lost November’s gubernatorial race to Democrat Katie Hobbs. Despite her defeat to Hobbs by over 17,000 votes, Lake has not conceded and has legally challenged the results of the race, saying that problems with the ballot printers in Maricopa County prevented her from winning.
Newsweek reached out to Lake’s team for comment.
One in six voters polled by Blueprint was undecided about whom to vote for in a race involving the three candidates. This indecision could help Sinema hold on to her seat, according to the polling website.
The survey also found that the senator, who left the Democratic Party last month, currently gathers support from both Republicans and Democrats.
Her best chance to be reelected in 2024, according to Blueprint, “may be for the Republican party to nominate a candidate so flawed that moderate and conservative voters would abandon that person for the Independent Sinema.”
Could Lake be such a candidate? The Republican, who received Donald Trump’s endorsement in her bid for governor last year, has recently been focusing her political energies on trying to overturn the outcome of the gubernatorial election.
Even after her legal case was thrown out by a Maricopa County judge in December, Lake has insisted that election fraud was involved in Hobbs’ declared victory and that she’s the real governor. Lake has provided no evidence to support her claims of election fraud.
While Lake appears determined to overturn the gubernatorial election’s result, on Monday CNN reporter Kate Sullivan wrote on Twitter about being told that “Kari Lake is considering running for the US Senate seat held by Kyrsten Sinema in 2024.”
In a later tweet, fellow CNN reporter Kyung Lah said that sources told Sullivan Lake “will not make a final decision on whether to run for Senate until after her court case is completed.”