Like many other Republican candidates and conservative talk show hosts, Kari Lake is using the racially tinged issue of immigration to fuel turnout in her gubernatorial campaign in Arizona. The former television anchor has boldly proclaimed that on her first day as governor, she would declare the state under “invasion.”
Lake is not the only conservative politician to speak in hyperbolic terms about immigration during the midterm campaign season. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, outgoing Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have sent migrants on buses or planes to mostly cities in the Northeast, most notably New York and Washington D.C., to draw attention to what they perceive as a crisis – and to appeal to their political base.
