And they're off: Kari Lake and Katie Hobbs start their campaigns for governor and signal what's to come

Kari Lake walked onto a stage at a conservative megaconference in Texas on Friday morning, just over 12 hours after securing the Republican nomination for Arizona governor.

Former President Donald Trump received top billing at the event, but if the audience was any indication, Lake was a fan favorite. "Kari! Kari! Kari!" people cheered, as they have at rallies back home.

At the same time, her Democratic opponent, Katie Hobbs, toured a community health center serving Arizona's Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community, the first stop on a three-day tour of central and Southern Arizona.

"I'm focused on what we need to do to win in November," Hobbs said after the tour. "And that means continuing talking to voters across Arizona about how we bring people together to solve our biggest challenges. I'm not sure how that happens in Texas."

The race to become Arizona's next governor is set after Lake and Hobbs won their party's nominations in the Aug. 2 primary election. The GOP battle to replace Republican Gov. Doug Ducey was especially hard fought; during a Friday radio interview Lake called it a "grueling fight."

But with the primary out of the way, the candidates begin a three-month sprint toward November's general election that will be marked with attacks, national attention and the lingering presence of the 2020 election.

On paper, Lake and Hobbs have similarities. They are both 52, both Phoenix residents, and both mothers of two. But their many differences will take centerstage as Arizonans choose the state's 24th governor.

Lake, a former television anchor, has no experience in elected office. Hobbs, the secretary of state, is a proven winner, having served in public office since Arizonans first sent her to the state Legislature in 2010.

Lake oozes charisma and picks fights, whether its with journalists she has called the "enemy of the people," as Trump did, or establishment Republicans who have come out against her populist movement.

Hobbs effuses policy wonk vibes, painting herself as a steady hand and often speaking about bipartisan accomplishments in the Legislature.

"I have a track record of working across the aisle to address problems and deliver results for Arizonans," she said Friday. "I'm going to continue doing that."

Stan Barnes, a Republican consultant and former state lawmaker, said "the personalities, style and energy of these two candidates for governor is about as polar opposite as I've seen in 30 years of being involved in Arizona campaigns."

Until November: 5 things to watch for in Arizona governor's race between Katie Hobbs and Kari Lake

Lots of issues for AZ's next governor

The issues the Grand Canyon State's next governor must tackle are many.

Arizona's next governor will confront a surge of people trying to cross the state's southern border and drug trafficking there, too, and lead a state stricken by drought while facing a cut to the share of the Colorado River water supply next year.

She will make decisions on education policy with two looming financial cliffs as the state's income tax rate drops and the increased pull from the land trust expires in 2025.

She will helm the state as conflicting abortion laws are sorted out, and oversee a healthy state budget even as Arizonans are paying more for gas, for skyrocketing rents and for food, or are struggling to find housing altogether.

"I think voters are craving actual policy concepts," said Stacy Pearson, a Democrat and co-founder of the firm Lumen Strategies. "They want to know what the state is going to do about the water shortage, or what they’re going to do about the cost of college. They want to know what they’re going to do about housing shortages and the cost of rent. We see this in focus groups right now. It's not just who has the best 30-second commercial.”

While Arizona's next governor will be a woman, either Hobbs or Lake, two men will likely dominate the political discourse ahead of November.

Lake, who won Trump's endorsement last year, has pledged to reform elections, claiming "stealing" in this election cycle, without evidence, and calling for single-day voting instead of the state's longstanding early voting process. She has tied her campaign to the former president, and the November election offers another referendum of his popularity in the state.

Meanwhile Joe Biden, whose 2020 victory in the state Hobbs has defended, could prove a liability for Hobbs — or certainly, Republicans will try to make it one. Democrats will likely try to tether Lake to Trump, who they view as unpopular, and Republicans will do the same with Hobbs and Biden, whose approval ratings have sagged.

“They’re practically on the ballot," Barnes said. "By the time we’re voting on Nov. 8, you might think it’s Donald Trump and Joe Biden running for governor of Arizona.”

The race for the Republican nomination was a litmus test of Trump's power, in which Lake sailed to victory with Trump's backing over the more traditional candidate, Karrin Taylor Robson, a real estate developer and former member of the Board of Regents who was endorsed by former Vice President Mike Pence.

Likewise the general election offers a second-round test the strength of the America First movement coined by Trump. In Lake's world, it is Arizona First.

Both will try to appeal to the one in three Arizona voters who are registered independents and who can decide elections in the state. Also potentially in play are moderate Republicans who Lake may have alienated with her attacks. Lake won 47% of GOP primary voters, meaning 53% supported someone else and may need recruiting to join Lake's camp.

The role that Ducey, who endorsed Lake's opponent and attacked Lake on national television, will serve is "TBD," or to be determined, Ducey's spokesman C.J. Karamargin said Friday.

Ducey helps lead the Republican Governors Association, which has made a commitment to spend over $10 million in advertising over the next three months and said Thursday "we look forward to working to get (Lake) elected governor this November.”

Trump impact: Kari Lake wins Republican nomination for governor, completing sweep for Trump-backed candidates in Arizona

Candidates roll out their messages

On Friday, as both candidates officially began the rush to November's election, the themes of the campaigns to come began to emerge.

Lake attended the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, where she was slated to speak multiple times. The conference opened with controversy in the form of a speech from Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orbán, an authoritarian leader who came under fire for saying in July that immigrants were changing European culture and "we do not want to become peoples of mixed race."

Lake's first appearance was part of a four-person panel to discuss border security. She sat alongside Republican Congresswoman Mayra Flores of Texas, a Mexican immigrant and another rising star in the party, whose name was also chanted by the crowd.

Lake took a hardline stance on the border, also offering criticism of Ducey's program busing migrants from southern Arizona to Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.

“It makes for a good photo op," Lake said, adding that the buses should drive migrants "to the border and send them back the other way.”

In a signal of what's to come, Lake attacked Biden's perceived failures on the border.

“Our plan is to call it what it is," she said. "We have an invasion at the border and Day One we’re going to call it that.

"We're not going to sit here with Joe Biden rolling out the welcome mat to the whole world. We can't accept people illegally like this."

Hobbs, meanwhile, was back home in Arizona and fielded a reporter's question about border security after an about hour-long tour of a 200,000 square foot health facility east of Phoenix.

The border is a federal issue, Hobbs said, calling on Lake to "be honest" about what a governor can do in terms of border enforcement.

Because immigration policy and enforcement falls to the federal government, governors are often confined to peripheral measures, like sending in the National Guard to support local law enforcement. Lake's pledge to declare an "invasion" is an untested legal theory promoted by Trump allies that would assuredly meet a legal battle.

"Quite frankly, the Republicans are offering nothing but empty rhetoric, and lies about what they actually can do as governor," Hobbs said.

"That being said, the Biden administration needs to do better on border security. And as governor, I'll be 100% focused on what we need to do to keep our Arizona community safe, and providing the resources that those communities need because of decades of inaction in Washington."

Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at stacey.barchenger@arizonarepublic.com or 480-416-5669. Follow her on Twitter @sbarchenger.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona governor's race: How Kari Lake, Katie Hobbs spent Day One