Talk about a tough act to follow. Democrat gubernatorial nominee Katie Hobbs followed her Republican opponent in the Arizona race, Kari Lake, who blasted Hobbs for ducking any debate before the election. Lake told CNN’s Dana Bash on State of the Union that Hobbs was a “coward” for refusing even a single debate.

“The people of Arizona will never support and vote for a coward like Katie Hobbs who won’t show up on a debate stage,” Lake declared. “She’s single-handedly destroying a 20-year tradition of gubernatorial debates because of her cowardice.”

Immediately afterward, Hobbs appeared and Bash pressed her on both the debate question and on what limits she would support on abortion. And on both points, Hobbs proved Lake correct on cowardice:

"A lot of Democrats are questioning your decision."@DanaBashCNN asks Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Arizona Katie Hobbs why she refuses to debate her Republican opponent Kari Lake. @CNNSotu #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/VAR47wwXMa

— CNN (@CNN) October 16, 2022

BASH: You declined to participate in a PBS debate against Kari Lake. Here’s what one columnist from “The Arizona Republican” wrote. Laurie Roberts and from “The Arizona Republic,” this is what she wrote. She wrote: “If Katie Hobbs loses, remember October 12, the day she ran away from confronting Kari Lake. Democrats in Arizona are known for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, but Hobbs’ refusal to debate her opponent on Wednesday represents a new level of political malpractice.”

Why won’t you debate her?

HOBBS: Look, Kari Lake has made it clear time and time again that she’s not interested in having substantive, in-depth conversations about the issues that matter to Arizonans. She only wants a scenario where she can control the dialogue. And she’s refused to sit down in a one-on-one, lengthy conversation to really clarify with Arizonans where she is on the issues. She’s the one who’s afraid of talking to voters where she’s at. And we are doing everything we can to take — to make our case directly to the voters of Arizona.

And I guarantee you, I guarantee you that, when Arizonans who are struggling, when they go to open their ballot, when they’re thinking about the fact that they’re not sure how they’re going to put food on the table, they’re rationing their insulin, or they’re thinking about having to drive their niece or their sister or their daughter to California to get the health care that they need, they’re not going to look at their ballot and say, damn it, Katie Hobbs didn’t debate her opponent.

BASH: She just came and sat down with me and answered my questions for a lot of minutes.

HOBBS: Yet…

BASH: A lot of Democrats are questioning your decision. And they’re saying it’s the wrong decision.

President Biden’s former 2020 co-chair said: “I would debate, and I would want the people of Arizona to know what my platform is.”

If you think she’s as dangerous as you’re saying to democracy, is it your responsibility as a candidate who wants to run Arizona to show and explain who their alternative is?

HOBBS: That is exactly what I’m doing right now.

And not doing particularly well at it. Hobbs ducked on abortion, too:

HOBBS: Look, when you’re talking about late-term abortion, that is incredibly, extremely rare. And it’s happening if there is — if that conversation is happening, it’s because there’s something that’s gone incredibly wrong in the pregnancy. And politicians do not belong in that decision. There’s no one-size…

BASH: But what do you support? What should the limits be?

HOBBS: The decision about abortion should be between a patient and their doctor.

BASH: So there should be no limits in the law? It should only be decided in the medical office?

HOBBS: Government making these kinds of mandates interferes with the care that doctors need to provide to their patients. They don’t belong in these decisions.

BASH: OK. So, just to be clear, if you become governor, you will push for a law that has absolutely no limits in any point of the pregnancy on abortion? That’s your position? That’s what you would want to be the law of the land in Arizona?

HOBBS: The fact is right now that we have very limited options, and that we need to get politicians out of the way and let doctors provide the care that they are trained to provide, the health care that their patients need. Politicians don’t belong in those decisions.

So not only is Hobbs a coward, she’s an extremist coward on abortion. Once again, the entire Democrat Party is responsible for this failure after deciding to run on abortion in the first place. Not only is that low on voter priorities in the middle of an inflationary wage meltdown, but it’s Democrats who are extreme on this issue. As soon as they began making it their central message, they opened up every one of their candidates to the questioning that Bash employs here — and none of them have a good answer for it. They can’t endorse a limit on abortion and hold onto their base, but they can’t avoid a limit on it and keep anyone outside of that progressive base, either.

Perhaps they hoped that media outlets simply wouldn’t press those questions. If so, they miscalculated spectacularly.

Hobbs’ cowardice on all points comes across in every answer here, painfully so on the issue of the debate. Hobbs’ complaint comes down to calling Lake a meanie and crying for a note to be excused from PE. That is not going to impress many voters, in or out of Arizona.