In Tight Arizona Governor’s Race, a Democrat Looks to Abortion to Win

Katie Hobbs has struggled to compete against Republican Kari Lake, who is running on border security and election fraud conspiracy theories.

Here was a debate that Katie Hobbs wanted to have.

For weeks, critics heckled Ms. Hobbs as a “coward” and “chicken” for refusing to share a debate stage with her combative, election-denying Republican rival in the race to become Arizona’s next governor. Some fellow Democrats fretted it was a dodge that risked alienating undecided voters who could tip the race’s razor-thin margin.

Then last Friday, a judge upended the campaign by resurrecting an 1864 law that bans nearly all abortions across Arizona, a ruling made possible by the overturning of Roe v. Wade. And Ms. Hobbs, Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, seized what Democrats in this battleground state hoped would become a galvanizing moment.

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