Coriano trails badly in Carova Senate race

VALLINGBURG, Car. -- Outspoken NAT Sen. Karen Coriano has a tough race on her hands in Carova.

As the unabashedly liberal senator fights for reelection, a new poll released by The Carova Statesman newspaper shows Coriano far behind her Conservative challenger, former Lt. Gov. Aaron Hallings.

Hallings entered the race late in the year, but he has wide name recognition. He's a mainstream Conservative, but the poll finds he receives strong support from the far right wing of the party as well.

Coriano was first elected in 2008, defeating Conservative Robert Myer in a close race. Then, in 2014, she narrowly lost to Conservative Assemblyman Sawyer Upton. 

In 2018, Coriano launched a successful comeback, beating then-Lt. Gov. Dave Emser (C) by three percentage points.

This time around, as Conservatives have rallied nationally to take back the majority in the Senate, Conservatives were able to recruit Hallings, who is young (46) and media savvy.

Hailing from Port Bay, Hallings has largely avoided controversial social issues, though Coriano, who is passionate about abortion rights, has sought to make abortion a top campaign issue.

"Aaron Hallings doesn't care about women," says a pro-Coriano TV commercial, airing statewide. "Aaron will let his old, white, rich men colleagues in the Senate tell him how to vote. He'll cave to religious extremists to take away a woman's basic right to control her own body. And he won't stand up for working mothers."

Hallings and his Conservative allies have sought to portray Coriano as too extreme for Carova.

It was an effective strategy back in 2014 for Sawyer Upton, a more moderate candidate who frequently pointed to Coriano's left-wing voter record as out of step with Carova's more conservative bent.

"Karen Coriano is by far the most liberal senator that Carova has ever had," said Conservative state party chairman Ken Edelman. "She is hardcore left wing on abortion, hardcore left wing on climate change, hardcore left wing on socialism and the economy, and she votes whatever way Debbie Madronas and Jim McCaren tell her to vote."

Coriano has, indeed, voted largely in step with the Nationalist party. She has only occasionally voted against her party, usually on issues that are of unique importance to Carova, such as oil drilling and timber.

By and large, though, the NAT incumbent has usually sided with her NAT colleagues. And even though Carova is a more conservative-leaning state, Coriano has refused to moderate her position on women's reproductive rights.

"I will never back down or stand down from fighting for a woman's basic right to own her own body and make her own decisions that pertain to her body," she told the NPF in a recent phone interview. "People may not like that, but I believe in every fiber of my being that a woman should be able to choose what to do with her own body, and when to have a child, and when it's not a good time or when she's not able to have a child."

In the final stretches of the campaign, Coriano is calling in big NAT star power.

She has multiple campaign rallies scheduled around the state with Carova's other liberal darling, Sen. Anna Maas.

And Gov. Dan Sallovich is slated to hit the campaign trail with Coriano too.

"We absolutely need Karen Coriano in the Senate," said Sallovich Thursday afternoon, as a he boarded a plane for Mavocke, where he had meetings with the McCaren administration.

"Karen is the hardest-working, the most passionate defender of Carovans in Mavocke today. She is truly one of the last people standing between radical, anti-working family Conservatives and the social safety nets that we have long enjoyed in this country."

Nationalists have been quick to paint Hallings as a rich, out-of-touch-with-the-working-class Conservative "good old boy," even though he's only 46 years old.

"Aaron Hallings only cares about Ivy Leaguers and wealthy businessmen. That's all he cares about," said Coriano in a recent campaign appearance in her hometown of Vallingburg. "You don't see Aaron Hallings going into inner-city Carlingford. You don't see him working at the soup kitchens in our cities. You don't see him driving out to rural eastern Carova, where Indigenous People are struggling to pay for food, water and basic necessities. You only see Aaron Hallings at country clubs and yacht clubs. And that's the difference between us."

The Hallings campaign responded, saying Coriano's voting record in the Senate is more in line with a liberal state like Damoign or Lial.

"Karen Coriano is representing the wrong state in the Senate," said Herm Wallinger, deputy campaign manager for Hallings. "She should be representing Lial or Veroche or Trinton or some other left-wing state. Her voting record is strong on socialism and partisanship. Carovans want a strong conservative voice who will work with both parties, not a far-left radical who will only vote for lunatic left-wing policies."

The recent Carova Statesman poll found Hallings leading with 54.3% and Coriano with 44.8%, respectively.

The poll has a margin of plus-or-minus four points.