Sorry, Kari Lake, but a new Arizona poll says a majority of voters just don't like you

As Kari Lake travels the country, ranting about stolen elections and teasing a Senate run and such, she might want to pay a bit of attention to the home front.

A new poll shows that the majority of the state’s voters just plain don’t like her.

A whopping 51% Arizona voters surveyed had an unfavorable opinion of the self-proclaimed “mama bear,” according to the latest numbers from the nonpartisan Noble Predictive Insights.

Just 35% said they had a favorable view of Lake, who is still contesting her loss in last year’s governor’s race.

The online poll of 1,000 Arizona voters was conducted July 13-17. It has a margin of error of 3.10%.

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Lake didn’t do any better among the independents who are now the state’s largest bloc of voters. The poll shows only 30% of independents like Lake while 51% percent do not.

Heck, even 29% of Republicans held their nose when Lake’s name comes up.

“A lot of people have an opinion of her and overall, its negative instead of positive,” pollster Mike Noble told me. “It’s tough to move those folks.”

The really bad news for Republicans is this: If Lake runs, she’ll hands-down be the party’s pick to try to win back the Senate seat it owned for decades ... until Donald Trump came along.

What’s that definition of insanity again?

Gallego, a liberal, has most favorable ratings

The Noble poll shows Democrat Ruben Gallego starting out next year’s Senate race in the catbird seat.

That’s downright astonishing when you consider that he’s a dyed-in-the-wool liberal.

Contrary to those who will tell you that Arizona is turning blue, it isn’t. Not yet, at least.

The Democrats who win big statewide races here hail from the party’s moderate wing … or they come up against MAGA Republicans.

Which gets me back to Gallego, who had the lowest unfavorable numbers of anybody tested in this poll. He is viewed favorably by 36% of voters while 25% don’t like him, with the rest having no opinion.

“Ruben’s low unfavorable numbers are due to the fact that Republicans are spending more time in-fighting and not enough time going after the other side of the aisle,” Noble said. “A small factor is that the GOP really only has three MAGA-style Republicans announced or considering a U.S. Senate run right now (and) all essentially have similar numbers to Donald Trump.”

Sinema is struggling but has time

That’s not a good thing.

In all, 56% of Arizona voters polled had an unfavorable view of Trump, with 41% liking what they see.

Meanwhile, Democrat-turned-independent Kyrsten Sinema’s unfavorables approached Lake levels, though the bulk of the bad feelings came from Democrats. (Overall, she’s 39% favorable/46% unfavorable.)

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It’s anybody’s guess whether Sinema will run for reelection.

If she does, she has time to woo independents and Republicans who are turned off by Lake’s brand of politics.

Meanwhile, Gallego has time to tell his story to the four in 10 voters who don’t know much about him, and he's got a great story to tell — the son of an immigrant mother who grew up poor and fought for his country as a Marine.

Has anyone done more for Dems than Lake?

In fact, he’s got a great chance of winning this thing.

That is, if Lake is the Republican nominee.

As for Lake, her legacy seems clear.

First, Gov. Katie Hobbs and perhaps next year, Sen. Ruben Gallego.

Really, is there anybody who has done more for the Democratic Party than Kari Lake?

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake in trouble? A majority of Arizona voters don't like her