Grand Canyon Times

Arizona Secretary of State and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs announced Sept. 11 that she would not debate Republican opponent Kari Lake, refusing to do so until changes were made to the debate process.

According to U.S. News & World Report, Hobbs had sought for weeks to change the debate structure into two 30-minute interviews with the moderator. The Citizens Clean Elections Commission, which organizes debates among candidates for statewide and legislative offices, refused to change the format, however.

"Katie Hobbs joins the long list of Democrats too scared to face Republicans in a debate. If their ideas are so much better, then why are they hiding from voters?" GOP cochair Tommy Hicks tweeted on Sept. 12.

Secretary of State Katie Hobbs | Facebook/Katie Hobbs

Hobbs’ campaign issued a statement Sept. 2 saying that it hoped a change in the debate format “would lead to a robust discussion of the most pressing issues facing Arizonans.”

U.S. News & World Report said that the commission urged Hobbs’ campaign to work on minor changes to the debate before its scheduled Oct. 12 date.

However, Hobbs said in the statement that "she has too much respect for the people of Arizona" to debate Lake, also being critical of the conditions of the GOP primary debate.

Hobbs also skipped the Clean Elections debate with Democratic primary challenger, Marco Lopez, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Lake, a former TV journalist endorsed by former President Donald Trump, claims that Hobbs’ "strategy is to hide from me, the press and the voters throughout the entirety of this campaign” by refusing to debate and hoping to “run out the clock on the people of Arizona."