Retired astronaut Mark Kelly holds a 10-percentage-point lead over appointed U.S. Sen. Martha McSally, according to a new survey by one of the state's most respected political consulting firms, Highground Public Affairs Consultants.

More than half the voters surveyed, 51.3 percent, supported Kelly in the poll, while McSally had the support of just 41.3 percent.

Kelly, who is married to former Southern Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords, is leading McSally 54-36 percent in Pima County and is doing even better in Maricopa County, where his lead is 57-36. But McSally is outdoing Kelly in the rural counties, leading 60-31 percent.

Given that a Highground poll released yesterday showed that Trump was trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden by just 2 percentage point, Highground CEO Charles "Chuck" Coughlin said that McSally is not being dragged down by Trump but is failing on her own reputation.

“Clearly, for the Arizona voter, Kelly is presenting himself as a better option than Biden, adopting the similar strategy which won Krysten Sinema her United States Senate seat in 2018 of avoiding the progressive partisan label that the Democratic Party’s nominee must shoulder,” said  Coughlin, a onetime advisor to former Arizona governors Fife Symington and Jan Brewer.

Coughlin said McSally was running out of time to change the narrative of the race.

“The social and economic tumult of the past three months would lead one to believe that anything is possible, but the road ahead is narrowing for McSally’s campaign," Coughlin said. "Mark Kelly is a formidable candidate for the Arizona electorate, one could reasonably describe him as the best candidate the Democrats have running in this cycle."

But Coughlin added that there would be big twists ahead.

“With a 20-point lead in Maricopa County and more than 17 point lead in Pima County, many might consider this race all but over," Coughlin said. 'But, that would be a mistake. Our survey released yesterday indicated that 20% of the electorate is blaming China for COVID-19 and 25% still doesn’t know or is blaming no one. Given the recent attacks on Kelly’s business dealings, you can expect the Republican narrative to focus sharply on this issue in an attempt to link Kelly to China and undermine his performance in the dominant media markets of Maricopa and Pima County. McSally will clearly have to up her game with Republican and swing voters in Maricopa and greater Arizona in order to be successful, but as long as Trump is running a competitive race, you cannot count Senator McSally out.”

Highground's methodology:

The N=400 survey was conducted among likely voters 5/18 through 5/22. The poll surveyed likely Arizona 2020 General Election voters who have a history of electoral participation and was balanced to model the likely turnout of voters across party, age, region, and gender. The live interview survey of voters was conducted by HighGround Public Affairs to both landline and cell phone users. The partisan advantage was set at +4% GOP based on previous election trends and expected Presidential Election turnout. The margin of error is ±4.9%.

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Welcome to the end of Tuesday! We hope you had a good but safe long weekend. Now let's take a look at the stories that we covered today.

• The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona reached 16,783 as of Tuesday, May 26, according to the morning report from the Arizona Department of Health Services.
• John Henry's Bar in downtown Tucson played tribute to Gordo's famed commercials by recreating one to announce the limited-capacity reopening over Memorial Day weekend.
• Pima County Public Library has some great news to share!
• Last week, Governor Doug Ducey announced that $500,000 from Arizona's Coronavirus Relief Fund had been allocated to 10 organizations providing out-of-school child care in the state.
• If you’re one of those people who never get a flu shot, make sure you do this year. If you normally do, make sure you don’t miss it.
• Banner Health announced a move to begin purchasing masks for the next for its facilities from domestic manufacturer Prestige Ameritech, the healthcare system announced in a Tuesday press release.
• Just because venues are closed doesn’t mean live shows aren’t taking place, and The Gaslight Music Hall in Oro Valley is on a tear this summer, hosting several concerts a week in its parking lot.
• The Pima County Department Environmental Quality has issued a warning for an elevated potential for ground-level ozone air pollution in the Tucson metro area for today, May 26.
• Reopening states after the COVID-19 lockdown raises unnerving questions for working parents who depend on some form of child care, from nannies to day camp.
• The University of Arizona-led spacecraft OSIRIS-REx is planned to collect a sample of the surface of an asteroid on October 20. And if successful, it will be the first U.S. spacecraft to return samples from an asteroid.

The University of Arizona-led spacecraft OSIRIS-REx is planned to collect a sample of the surface of an asteroid on October 20. And if successful, it will be the first U.S. spacecraft to return samples from an asteroid.

OSIRIS-REx launched from the Earth in September 2016, and is planned to return with its cargo in 2023. The spacecraft, part of a NASA program, will collect rocks and dust from the surface of the asteroid Bennu in order to better understand "the initial stages of planet formation and the source of organic compounds available for the origin of life."
The announcement of a sample retrieval date comes after a successful sample-collection rehearsal last month, where OSIRIS-REx also captured pictures of the asteroid's rocky surface. A second rehearsal date is slated for Aug. 11. 

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Click here to read their biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

Reopening states after the COVID-19 lockdown raises unnerving questions for working parents who depend on some form of child care, from nannies to day camp.

Instead of coming home with a snotty nose, is your child going to bring back the coronavirus? And how do you know your in-home babysitter or nanny, even your child’s teacher, isn’t a symptom-free spreader?

The short answer is that there are no easy answers. Every family’s budget and needs and risk tolerance are going to be different. ProPublica scoured the latest research and talked to seven infectious disease and public health experts to help think through the issues facing parents.

We were surprised to find the experts were reassuring. In fact, with the proper precautions and monitoring in place, most of them thought parents could safely rely on caregivers, day care centers and perhaps even counselors at sleep-away camp.

The Pima County Department Environmental Quality has issued a warning for an elevated potential for ground-level ozone air pollution in the Tucson metro area for today, May 26.

“People who are sensitive to air pollution may experience shortness of breath, coughing, throat irritation, wheezing, and breathing discomfort,” said a department press release.

Individuals who are sensitive to ozone should limit time outside doing extraneous activities particularly in the afternoon when elevated ozone levels are likely to occur. Exercising outdoors during this time and breathing deeply can cause ozone to penetrate the lungs more rapidly.

Ozone pollution is caused by vehicle exhaust, industrial and power plant emissions, gasoline vapors, paint, gasoline-powered landscaping equipment, and chemical solvents, as well as natural sources like wildfires. The department said some vegetation “emit oxides of nitrogen and/or volatile organic compounds that form ozone after a photochemical reaction occurs with intense sunlight and heat.”