The debate over Arizona’s Senate debate

PHOENIX — As former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris squabble over the terms of their coming presidential debate, a similar dispute is taking place in the Arizona Senate race.

The state’s GOP Senate candidate, Kari Lake, has long challenged her Democratic competitor, Rep. Ruben Gallego, to take the debate stage. Now that Gallego says he’s game, Lake is insisting the debate deviate from its traditional format.

“I am ready to debate Ruben Gallego right now, right here,” a defiant Lake said at a news conference in Phoenix on March 15.

“I’ll debate him at that table right now,” she added, pointing to the distance, summoning chuckles from the crowd. “I’ll debate him any time.”

More than four months on, after the Gallego-Lake electoral matchup was formalized once both candidates won their respective primaries, Gallego confirmed to NBC News that he is ready for a debate — but Lake has appeared more selective about who should organize one.

On Tuesday, just hours before she clinched the GOP nomination, NBC News asked Lake whether she would participate in a debate against Gallego organized by the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission, the state’s traditional administrator for political debates.

“I think we should talk about which debate we do,” Lake said after having cast her vote in the GOP primary at a polling location in Paradise Valley.

“I think our two teams can discuss a fair place, a fair platform to do that,” she added after she expressed skepticism about the Arizona Clean Elections Commission.

In 2022, the Democratic nominee for governor, Katie Hobbs, then the state secretary of state, refused to participate in an Arizona Clean Elections debate against Lake, the Republican nominee for