Kari Lake asked for a show of hands.
Who’s been canceled? Who’s lost friends? Has strained relations with family? Been indicted? Sued for defamation?
“If your hand did not go up in any of that, then I do think you need to work a little harder. I really do,” Lake told an adoring crowd of Michigan Republicans gathering last month on Mackinac Island.
Lake will launch a U.S. Senate campaign for an Arizona seat in a splashy Scottsdale rally on Tuesday, having never conceded that she lost last year’s race for Arizona governor. She is trying out new messages and courting the support of national Republicans she’s insulted in the past. But the former television news host isn’t backing down on the things that made her a star on the far right — her combativeness with perceived enemies, her fealty to Donald Trump and her willingness to defend his election lies.
That worries some Republicans who fear she will cost them a race that could decide control of the Senate.
After once calling Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell an “old bat” and saying he needed to be replaced as Republican leader, Lake now says she would support him if she’s elected. Last year, she called abortion “the ultimate sin” and supported a near-total ban on abortion in Arizona. Now, she says she wouldn’t endorse a federal abortion ban.
National Republican leaders think a GOP candidate could take advantage of what could be a three-way race if Sen. Kyrsten Sinema seeks reelection. Sinema, a former Democrat who became an independent last year, is preparing for a campaign but has not said whether she will seek a second term. U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego is likely to have the Democratic nomination locked up.
Lake met recently with Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, who leads the GOP’s Senate campaign work as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and saw several other GOP senators during a trip to Washington. Daines has publicly urged Lake to focus on the future instead of relitigating past elections.
She still insists that she and Trump were cheated out of victory.
“People are coming around to the fact that President Trump was right about everything,” Lake told The Associated Press in September while attending the recent GOP presidential debate in California. “And as America comes around to that, we’re going to come together as a country.”
A former television news anchor for nearly three decades in the Phoenix market, Lake was already known locally but had no national profile when she walked away from her career in 2021, declared “journalism is dead,” and took a sledgehammer to televisions showing cable newscasts.
National Republican leaders think a GOP candidate could take advantage of what could be a three-way race if Sen. Kyrsten Sinema seeks reelection. Sinema, a former Democrat who became an independent last year, is preparing for a campaign but has not said whether she will seek a second term. U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego is likely to have the Democratic nomination locked up.
Lake met recently with Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, who leads the GOP’s Senate campaign work as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and saw several other GOP senators during a trip to Washington. Daines has publicly urged Lake to focus on the future instead of relitigating past elections.
She still insists that she and Trump were cheated out of victory.
“People are coming around to the fact that President Trump was right about everything,” Lake told The Associated Press in September while attending the recent GOP presidential debate in California. “And as America comes around to that, we’re going to come together as a country.”
A former television news anchor for nearly three decades in the Phoenix market, Lake was already known locally but had no national profile when she walked away from her career in 2021, declared “journalism is dead,” and took a sledgehammer to televisions showing cable newscasts.
National Republican leaders think a GOP candidate could take advantage of what could be a three-way race if Sen. Kyrsten Sinema seeks reelection. Sinema, a former Democrat who became an independent last year, is preparing for a campaign but has not said whether she will seek a second term. U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego is likely to have the Democratic nomination locked up.
Lake met recently with Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, who leads the GOP’s Senate campaign work as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and saw several other GOP senators during a trip to Washington. Daines has publicly urged Lake to focus on the future instead of relitigating past elections.
She still insists that she and Trump were cheated out of victory.
“People are coming around to the fact that President Trump was right about everything,” Lake told The Associated Press in September while attending the recent GOP presidential debate in California. “And as America comes around to that, we’re going to come together as a country.”
A former television news anchor for nearly three decades in the Phoenix market, Lake was already known locally but had no national profile when she walked away from her career in 2021, declared “journalism is dead,” and took a sledgehammer to televisions showing cable newscasts.
Stung by unexpected Senate losses last year, Republicans in Washington have vowed to take an active role in primaries to help more electable candidates earn the GOP nomination. Lake so far has received a warm, if tentative, reception in the nation’s capital, where influential officials who control the party’s money and priorities are signaling that they’re open to embracing her if she’s willing to broaden her base of support.
“We have had productive conversations with Kari Lake and her team,” Daines said in a statement. “She is a talented campaigner with an impressive ability to fire up the grassroots. We have a clear path to victory with two Democrats on the ballot in Arizona.”
The NRSC has not ruled out endorsing Lake in the primary, according to a person familiar with the organization’s strategy who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. Support from the NRSC would potentially open up a lucrative funding stream and signal to donors that Lake has the support of key GOP senators.
After harshly criticizing McConnell during her gubernatorial campaign, she now says she would support the Republican leader in Congress because he would be preferable to Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
“If the choice is between McConnell and Schumer, who are you going to vote for? It’s not going to be Schumer,” Lake told the AP.
That’s a change of tone from a year ago, when she called McConnell an “old bat” at a campaign rally and said it was time to replace him as the GOP leader with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Even as recently as August, she appeared to poke fun at McConnell freezing up during a press conference.
“I don’t even think he can control what comes out of his mouth anymore,” Lake said on Bannon’s podcast. “I mean there’s something going on right now with him.”
Despite what some wish, Lake insists in her speeches that she isn’t changing what’s central to her identity.
“I will never stop fighting. I will never sit down. I will never shut up when it comes to elections,” Lake told the crowd in Michigan in late September, days before she confirmed her plans to run for Senate. “I will never take terrible advice from Republicans who say, ‘Don’t talk about the elections.’”
___
Associated Press writers Steve Peoples in New York and Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
