Arizona Republican Kari Lake, a far-right ally of Donald Trump, has finally stopped claiming the 2020 election was stolen and instead focused on her own Senate candidacy.
On Tuesday, she announced her candidacy for her party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate at a spectacular rally in Scottsdale, near Phoenix.
During a 50-minute speech announcing her candidacy, she appeared to deviate from the central theme of her disastrous gubernatorial campaign last year.
Lake, a former television news anchor at a Fox network station in Phoenix, ran for governor in 2022 and lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs.
The Republican has still not officially conceded his defeat in that race after former President Trump falsely claimed that his loss in the 2020 presidential election was the result of widespread fraud.
Republican candidate Kari Lake announced her plans to run for the Arizona Senate seat during a rally Tuesday in Scottsdale, Arizona
Kari Lake points to her supporters as she announces her plans to run for the Arizona Senate seat
At her rally, Lake did not admit that she lost the last election but also did not say that the election was stolen, mentioning it only briefly in a nearly 50-minute speech.
She said she will “never give up the fight to restore honest elections. “I will never stop until every voter is assured that their one legal vote counts.”
“We did everything right and saw the Election Day disaster in Arizona,” Lake said. “Sometimes when things don’t go the way we expect, we wonder why… I think God has bigger plans for us.”
During her speech earlier this week, Lake tried to cut across party lines and shift the focus from voter fraud to more relatable issues: gas prices and the current crisis at the border.
“There’s not a gas pump out there for Republicans and one for Democrats, right?” Lake said. “There is no inflation rate for Republicans and a separate one for Democrats.” “All Arizonans are feeling the stress of Biden’s reckless spending.”
“When I’m back in the White House, I need strong fighters like Kari in the Senate,” Trump said during a recorded address
Lake announced her candidacy for her party’s Senate nomination at a spectacular rally in Scottsdale, near Phoenix
Speaking to the crowd, Lake said she missed Trump’s mean tweets as she lambasted the press, calling them “fake news idiots” and promising to “stop the push toward communism.”
Lake is closely linked to Trump, who is currently leading the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. In the past, she has affectionately called him “Superman.”
Speaking to the crowd, Lake said she missed Trump’s mean tweets as she lambasted the press, calling them “fake news idiots” and promising to “stop the push toward communism.”
She played a recorded video in support of Trump.
“When I’m back in the White House, I need strong fighters like Kari in the Senate,” Trump said.
Lake also offered conciliatory words to voters who disagreed with her, a sharp contrast to her last campaign, when she didn’t want support from establishment Republicans even after defeating them in the GOP primary.
“I may disagree with the Arizonans who voted for Joe Biden,” Lake said. “But I don’t think you pose a threat to democracy. “You’re a citizen, just like me.”
A former television news anchor in the Phoenix market for nearly three decades, Lake was already known locally but lacked a national profile when she quit her career in 2021, declaring “journalism is dead” and taking a sledgehammer to televisions, the cable news shows showed.
Former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake greets her supporters after announcing her bid for U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s seat
Lake is closely linked to Trump, who is currently leading the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. In the past, she has affectionately called him “Superman.”
By Election Day, she embraced Trump, appeared with right-wing figures like Steve Bannon and denigrated establishment Republicans, including the late Sen. John McCain. She lost the governor’s race by less than one point.
About four in 10 Arizona voters in the 2022 election said they were “very concerned” that Lake’s views were too extreme. But Lake became a national figure on the far right with her television appearances and defense of Trump’s election lies.
In the months since, Lake has traveled extensively to speak to Republican groups across the country, with her comments largely focused on her fraudulent election claims. Her frequent trips to Iowa, the state where she was born but also the site of the presidential election, caused a stir in political circles.
Some have suggested her as a candidate for Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
The Arizona race could prove to be a closely contested three-way general election race in November 2024.
During her speech earlier this week, Lake tried to cut across party lines and shift the focus from voter fraud to more relatable issues: gas prices and the current crisis at the border
Arizona is already one of the most politically competitive states in the United States, but the Senate race became even tougher after Sen. Kyrsten Sinema dropped her Democratic affiliation and declared herself an independent in December.
Sinema has not yet said whether she will seek re-election, but Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, a liberal and former Marine with war experience in Iraq, is seeking the Democratic nomination for the seat.
Arizona is one of eight contested seats Democrats will defend in 2024 to protect their narrow 51-49 Senate majority.
The state shares about 370 miles of its border with Mexico, and immigration is sure to be a major issue in the Senate race.
Some establishment Republicans fear that if the nomination wins, Lake’s hot-headed, far-right and vote-denying stance might not sit well with some of the state’s voters.
“NOW there is an invasion on the Arizona border.” Kyrsten Sinema and Ruben Gallego repeatedly voted AGAINST border wall funding. They agreed to this open borders agenda. “Arizonans are fed up,” Lake said on X Monday.
Lake joins a handful of up-and-coming Republican candidates, including Mark Lamb, a sheriff in Pinal County, which lies between Phoenix and Tucson, and businessman Brian Wright