Republican Kari Lake is closing in on Democrat Ruben Gallego in Arizona’s U.S. Senate race, according to the results of a poll released just days before Election Day.

The poll released on Friday by YouGov/The Times of London/SAY24 finds Lake trailing Gallego by 5 percentage points. A 49 percent plurality of registered Arizona voters said that they were backing Gallego, while 44 percent chose Lake. The poll was conducted from October 25 to October 31 and has a 4.4 percent margin of error.

Lake was performing considerably worse in a poll released by YouGov/CBS News on October 18, with the Republican candidate trailing the Democrat by 9 points among likely voters—54 percent of respondents said they would vote for Gallego and 45 percent preferred Lake. The poll was conducted from October 11 to October 16 and has a 3.3 percent margin of error.

Gallego, who represents Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, still has a lead over Lake in the vast majority of polls. However, the congressman has seen his advantage shrink in the closing weeks of the contest, with some recent surveys suggesting that the race is effectively tied.

An AtlasIntel poll conducted on October 30 and October 31 and released on Friday showed Lake with a tiny 1 point advantage among likely voters. However, the survey was one of only three public polls showing the Republican with an advantage during the entire election cycle, all by just 1 point.

In comparison, Gallego has had 15 different polls showing him with a double-digit lead over Lake. A RABA Research survey released on Monday and conducted from October 25 to October 27 showed the Democratic congressman with a massive 15 point edge among registered Arizona voters.

Newsweek reached out for comment to the Lake and Gallego campaigns via email on Friday night.

A spokesperson for the Lake campaign previously told Newsweek that “the momentum is with” Lake and former President Donald Trump heading into the November 5 election, with the campaign expressing confidence “that Arizonans will deliver both Trump and Lake a victory.”

Lake has polled significantly behind Trump in polls despite frequently touting her devotion to the ex-president. Trump was leading Vice President Kamala Harris in Arizona by just 1 point, 48 percent to 47 percent, in Friday’s YouGov/The Times of London/SAY24 poll.

After narrowly losing Arizona’s gubernatorial election to Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs in 2022, Lake echoed Trump’s post-2020 election denialism by claiming without evidence that the contest had been “stolen” while launching a series of failed lawsuits to overturn the outcome.

Lake continued to refuse to admit that she lost to Hobbs during an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Monday, lashing out at Collins for “looking backward” after being asked at least seven times whether she would accept the reality of her defeat.

As temperatures in Phoenix finally drop closer to normal — or even below average — for this time of year, the desert heat has likely cooled until next spring. But this year was one for the record books.

America’s hottest city broke record after record this summer — the hottest summer on record — and well into autumn, some set only a year ago and others just the day before. 

Meteorologists attribute Arizona’s hot summer to weather patterns, a dry monsoon, climate change and Phoenix’s urban heat island — a phenomenon where roads, buildings and infrastructure absorb and re-emit the sun’s heat, making cities hotter. 

“This year, while we may not have had quite extremes in terms of daily high temperatures, we’ve seen the temperatures persist,” said Sean Benedict, the lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Phoenix. “This year we had a record-hot June, so it started early and it persisted.” 

A high–pressure system, sometimes referred to as a heat dome, settled over the Southwest for most of the summer and into the fall, trapping hot air below and reducing cloud cover. The monsoon was also sporadic, providing little rainfall to alleviate temperatures. 

Phoenix wasn’t alone in breaking records. Arizona cities like Flagstaff, Yuma, Kingman and Winslow had their hottest summers on record and Tucson and Douglas tied with previous records.

Above-normal temperatures have been observed across the U.S. from summer through the fall, with the Southwest observing temperatures from 10 to 20 degrees higher than normal in some cases. 

Climatologists are concerned by the frequency of new records and believe the trend is further evidence of the role climate change plays in above-average temperatures and extreme weather. 

“The things that were rare are becoming less rare,” said Michael Crimmins, climatologist for the University of Arizona. “Everybody knows it’s hot here in the summer, and you think ‘Well, it can’t be that hot again next summer,’ and then it is.”

Hayleigh Evans writes about extreme weather and related topics for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Email her with story tips at hayleigh.evans@arizonarepublic.com.

Arizona may have its full compliment of scholarship players available for Monday’s season opener against Canisius, something that wasn’t the case for either of its exhibition games or even the Red-Blue Showcase in early October.

Whether the Wildcats want to use all 11, though, is still to be determined.

UA coach Tommy Lloyd said sophomore center Motiejus Krivas, who missed both preseason games due to an ankle injury, has practiced this week and could be available for the opener. The 7-foot-2 Estonian was projected to be in Arizona’s starting lineup this season, and in his absence 6-foot-8 Tennessee transfer Tobe Awaka has started at the 5.

“I’m not gonna rush that thing,” Lloyd said Thursday about Krivas, who averaged 5.4 points and 4.2 rebounds in 12.1 minutes per game last season. “When he’s ready, we’re ready for him. If (trainer) Justin (Kokoskie) tells me he could play 25 minutes on Monday, I’d love to have him for 25 minutes. I want him back as soon as we can get him, as long Justin and the doctors feel like he’s built for the long haul, that’s the main thing I’m interested in.”

With Krivas out, Awaka has started with redshirt sophomore Henri Veesaar being first off the bench at center. Veesaar averaged 15.5 points in the two exhibition games, while Awaka averaged 13 points and 12 rebounds albeit against massively undersized competition.

Also seeing time in the exhibitions was freshman center Emmanuel Stephen, who in a combined 21 minutes showed both his upside and his rawness. It’s that latter trait that has made him a candidate to redshirt the 2024-25 season, a decision that Lloyd said has yet to be made.

“Like anything here, the player is going to have input,” Lloyd said. “We’ll let him make the choice.”

Using redshirts is something Lloyd has made no secret he’s in favor of, sitting out both Veesaar and Dylan Anderson last season though Veesaar’s redshirt was mostly due to a preseason elbow injury. Anderson has since transferred to Boise State, where he’s expected to start.

“I’m happy Dylan Anderson redshirted last year, I really am,” Lloyd said. “I’m so happy for him. He’s got three good years at Boise to make a huge impact. I would have felt horrible if he would have played and only played limited minutes and then burned a year and now he has only two years to play.

“I wish we would have redshirted Filip (Borovicanin) for him, I wish we would have redshirted Adama (bal) and those guys would have had another year. Anything you can do to lengthen those guys’ careers is a good thing.”

In order for Stephen to redshirt he cannot play in any regular season or postseason games, unlike in football where players can appear in up to four regular season games and still retain a year of eligibility.

“I think it would be great if they could come up with something in basketball,” Lloyd said. “I think eventually they’re going to have to. I mean, obviously football has done and it’s made sense. I just think for health and safety, for personal development. We’re coming out of an era where guys got five years of eligibility. What’s wrong with giving guys whatever, whatever you want to call it, four years plus nine games, whatever the ratio is?”