Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington email
Failed Republican gubernatorial candidate and election denier Kari Lake is reportedly considering jumping into Arizona’s Senate race, Axios reported.
The former news anchor and darling of the MAGA Republican right rose to prominence thanks to her promoting lies about the 2020 presidential election and calling for the decertification of election results.
Last year she lost to Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs but has refused to concede and has taken her complaints to courts, which have summarily rejected her attempts to overturn the election.
In May, Maricopa Superior Court Judge Peter A Thompson said Ms Lake failed to prove that Maricopa, where Phoenix is located, did not verify signatures on mail-in ballots.
Since then, she’s become a fixture in right-wing media and at conservative gatherings such as the Conservative Political Action Conference, where she gave the Reagan Dinner speech.
Earlier this week, she campaigned for Bernie Moreno, who is running for Ohio’s Senate seat, and praised fellow MAGA Republican Sen JD Vance, who won his race.
“I’m really, really excited about [Mr Vance], I’m super excited that Bernie Moreno’s going to be in the Senate. And if they’re in the Senate, I just might have to join them,” she said.
Former president Donald Trump’s campaign praised Ms Lake and the idea of her running for Arizona’s Senate seat.
“When President Trump gets back in the White House he’s going to need fighters like Kari Lake in Washington, DC to help enact his Agenda 47,” senior Trump adviser Caroline Wren told Axios.
Arizona’s incumbent Sen Kyrsten Sinema has not indicated whether she will seek another term in the Senate. In 2018, she became the first Democrat to win a Senate race in Arizona in 30 years. But Ms Sinema left the Democratic Party to become an independent in December.
Rep Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) announced he would run for Arizona’s Senate seat as a Democrat and outraised Ms Sinema in the last fundraising quarter. But despite her consistent opposition to many parts of his agenda, Ms Sinema joined President Joe Biden when he designated the greater Grand Canyon as a national monument on Tuesday.
But a poll from Noble Predictive Insights showed that Ms Sinema would trail both Mr Gallego and Ms Lake in a hypothetical three-way matchup.
