PHOENIX, AZ – Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake is blasting her Democratic opponent Rep. Ruben Gallego and labeling him as “radical as they come” after a resurfaced interview of him disparaging Trump voters. 

“Isn’t that terrible?” Lake said in response to Fox News Digital reporting of a comment made by Gallego in 2016 where he said that Trump voters were “dumb” and the “worst people in the world.”

“He’s been lying about who he is,” Lake added. “He’s trying to paint himself as a moderate, which is it’s laughable if it wasn’t so dangerous.”

Lake told Fox News Digital that Gallego “bullied” moderate Sen. Kyrsten Sinema out of the race “because she wasn’t liberal enough.”

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“Now he is doing all these ads trying to say he’s a moderate when, in fact, he’s voted to spend our federal dollars, our tax dollars, our money, supporting sanctuary cities and states. He’s voted against securing our border every step of the way. He’s for an open border America. He’s voted to defund the police. He actually co-sponsored the George Floyd legislation, which would have defunded the police nationwide.”

Lake went on to tell Fox News Digital that Gallego has “never batted an eyelash” when it comes to spending bills and has not been strong enough defending women’s sports.

“He wants biological men to participate in women’s athletics.,” Lake said. “That means it’s an end for girls sports. Anybody out there who played sports? I did for a little bit. It’s an end. I mean, if you have to compete with biological men, what’s the purpose of having girls sports?”

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 Rep. Ruben Gallego (Getty Images)

Lake added, “It’s absolutely crazy and he’s as radical as they come.”

Gallego and Lake will both be attempting to sway independent voters, especially in Maricopa County, the largest county in the state, where independents make up a third of the electorate. Lake told Fox News Digital she is optimistic she can win votes from Arizonans who aren’t Republicans.

“I do believe that independents are with me, I think we’re doing pretty well, our polling is showing that we’re building on the independent vote,” Lake said. “And I think a lot of Democrats, while he [Gallego] hates Trump voters and he hates Republicans. I don’t hate Democrats. I actually believe that disaffected Democrats are going to help us turn the corner.”

“They’re realizing, looking at Kamala Harris and Ruben Gallego, and they’re saying, wait a minute, this isn’t the Democrat Party that I signed up for years ago, the old Democrat Party used to care about the working class. The old Democrat Party wanted a strong economy for everybody. This Democrat Party is a bunch of globalists, and they are for, they want to spend more money helping people coming here illegally than they do people who are American citizens.”

US Senate candidate Kari Lake speaks during a campaign rally of former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, August 23, 2024. (Photo by Olivier TOURON / AFP) (Photo by OLIVIER TOURON/AFP via Getty Images)

While the Real Clear Politics average of polls shows Gallego leading Lake by about 7 points, Lake told Fox News Digital she is confident the race is much closer and says her internal polling shows that she is within the margin of error.

“We have to go into it acting like we’re ten down, but we’re not ten down,” Lake said. “This is a very tight race. I’m proud of that, considering, as I said, he spent 75 million. He’s been outspending us massively and the fact that this is such a tight race is incredible. Chuck Schumer is in a panic about Arizona. He’s dumping 5 million bucks a week into Arizona.”

Lake told Fox News Digital that Democrats are in a “tailspin” in Arizona because their efforts to make the election about abortion have not been fruitful because most voters are focused on other issues like the economy.

Lake also criticized Gallego over his record before he entered politics, including his involvement with a bank that worked with illegal immigrants, a harassment claim against him by a 20-year-old intern while he worked at city hall, and his time working for an ambulance company that was being investigated for fraud.

“The people of Arizona know me and they trust me and I love the people of the state, Lake said. “I want to represent all of them, including people who maybe don’t even vote for me. If you choose not to vote for me, I hope I can earn your vote, but I still want to represent you and I want to do a great job for you in Washington, D.C. We need decent, honest people back to D.C. and Ruben Gallego was not honest before he got into politics.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Gallego campaign for comment but did not receive a response.