Kari Lake is set to announce a Senate run, taking on Arizona’s Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema following the former broadcaster’s failed run for governor of the state in 2022.
Ms Lake told The Wall Street Journal that she will officially announce her candidacy on 10 October. The race is set to be a three-way battle between a Republican, likely to be Ms Lake; incumbent and former Democrat turned Independent Ms Sinema; and US House Representative Ruben Gallego who’s set to campaign for the Democratic nomination.
Ms Lake is still falsely claiming that fraud cost her the 2022 gubernatorial election.
But, despite repeated efforts, she has been unable to prove her claims – much like former president Donald Trump and his false claims over the 2020 presidential election.
Ms Lake told The Journal that she plans to continue her so-far failed attempts to litigate the 2022 gubernatorial election even as she runs for the US Senate in a race that may well decide which party controls the chamber.
“I’m a mom, I can multitask,” she told the paper.
Arizona is one of the most closely-watched states in US politics.
Recently, several tight races including for president, senators, and governor have resulted in Democratic wins, as more moderate GOP voters and independents move towards the party and away from Mr Trump and his supporters – such as Ms Lake, who is one of his most effusive backers.
During her 2022 run for governor, Ms Lake garnered widespread media attention, as well as the attention of Mr Trump, for her attacks on the media and Republicans who went against the former president, including the late Arizona senator and 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain.
Kari Lake takes photos with her supporters after speaking during a rally she hosted at the Hilton Palm Beach Airport on June 12, 2023 in West Palm Beach, Florida— (Getty Images)
Ms Sinema hasn’t announced a re-election campaign, but her staff has reportedly been preparing an independent bid based in the centre ground while Mr Gallego, a progressive House Democrat, announced that he’s running for the seat earlier this year.
While Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb is also running for the GOP nomination, Ms Lake is expected to represent the party in the general election because of her strong support with the party base.
Blake Masters, a Republican nominee who lost to Democratic Senator and former astronaut Mark Kelly in 2022, was poised to run for the Senate again against Ms Sinema but has halted those plans following a phone call from Mr Trump laying out Ms Lake’s strengths as a candidate, according to The Journal.
Ms Lake has been tipped as a possible running mate for Mr Trump in 2024, but would be less likely to be offered the nomination if she’s representing the GOP in a senate race they need to win to take back control of the chamber.
Ruben Gallego is running for the Democratic senate nomination in Arizona— (Getty Images)
When asked by The Journal what she would do if she was offered the vice president slot by Mr Trump, she refused to say.
National Republicans are concerned that a Lake candidacy would make it harder to win back the seat even as they acknowledge that she’s likely to end up being the nominee.
Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader from Kentucky, hasn’t agreed to spend any campaign funds in Arizona, and his allies say that Ms Lake would need to show that she will be competitive, The Journal noted.
In 2022, some Republicans lamented that nominees supported by Mr Trump were too extreme and not competitive in their general election matchups with Democrats who were often seen as more amiable to voters.
Ms Lake told the paper that she hopes to meet with Mr McConnell and that she would back him as leader if he remains the top candidate.
Kyrsten Sinema, an Independent and a former Democrat, is expected to launch a third-party re-election run— (Getty Images)
“I’d like to meet them to show them that I’m a very reasonable person who loves my state,” Ms Lake told The Journal.
She will travel to Washington, DC next week to meet with a variety of Republicans. She’s also set to meet Republican strategist Josh Holmes, a Mr McConnell ally who often meets candidates running in close races.
The chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), Republican Montana Senator Steve Daines, told The Journal that Ms Lake is a “talented campaigner with an impressive ability to fire up the grassroots”.
There are concerns about her willingness to tie her fortunes to that of Mr Trump and that her campaign strategy of trying to turn out base voters instead of appealing to the middle may be a losing one.
“I don’t believe that the Republicans in Arizona want to hand over our Senate vote to a New York liberal like Chuck Schumer,” Ms Lake told the paper.
A Gallego spokesperson said: “Her extremism should disqualify her from public office – and it will. Again.”
Chris Baker, a GOP strategist and advisor to a US House representative from the state, said: “Until candidates realise that we can’t win statewide here without suburban Republican and independent voters, we’re going to continue to lose.”
