GOP rockstar Kari Lake has announced that she is launching a campaign to challenge left-wing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), a former Democrat, for her seat in the U.S. Senate.
The race is sure to be one of the most hotly anticipated elections in 2024.
Lake announced her campaign in an exclusive statement to the Wall Street Journal.
Her campaign will officially launch at a rally she’s holding on October 10.
She had previously hinted at a run, despite rumors that she may be in line as President Donald Trump’s VP pick.
“We need to get a senator in there who is going to fight back and put America first,” Lake told the WSJ.
The WSJ reported:
Arizona is a top battleground in next year’s presidential and Senate elections, and combined campaign spending in the state will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Voters here have narrowly elected Democrats for president, governor and Senate over the past several cycles, after moderate Republicans and independents moved away from former President Donald Trump and his GOP allies, including Lake.
Lake captured the nation’s attention during her gubernatorial campaign last year, when she aligned herself closely with Trump and relished attacking the media and her critics, including Republicans who clashed with Trump and his brand of politics like the late-Sen. John McCain.
Meanwhile, Sinema has not officially announced her re-election bid.
However, the WSJ notes that her team has been laying the groundwork for a third-party bid.
The Democrat candidate in the race, Ruben Gallego, is running to Sinema’s left.
Sinema has been a thorn in the side of progressives since Joe Biden took over as president.
She was previously a Democrat before leaving the party earlier this year to register as an independent.
The senator has routinely bucked the far-left in favor of slightly more politically neutral positions.
Sinema, along with Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), have been excoriated by their own side for not adopting extreme Left positions in their votes.
Lake, meanwhile, has been traveling the country, selling books, and fundraising for her legal battles against the state of Arizona.
She maintains that the 2022 election should have gone to her.
Lake is often smeared by the Left for raising concerns about election integrity.
Even in reports about her Senate run, supposedly neutral corporate media outlets labeled Lake an “election denier.”
While a quick search on Reuters brings up multiple results that smear Lake as an “election denier,” the “unbiased” outlet has zero articles referring to Democrats such as Hillary Clinton with the same label.
Of course, someone can only be an “election denier” when they question Democrat wins.
Lake has frequently raised concerns about the potential for fraud during the 2020 presidential election and her own 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race.
She argues that fraud and deception gave the Arizona gubernatorial election to her opponent, now-Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat.
Nevertheless, she is already expected to get the full backing of President Trump for her Senate run.
Lake has been a vocal supporter of Trump since the start of his campaign.
Her close ties with Trump have led to speculation that she may also be angling for a vice presidential nod from the 2024 frontrunner.
Trump is also reported to have called Blake Masters, who lost a bid for the U.S. Senate in Arizona in 2022.
The 45th POTUS is believed to have asked Masters to sit out in favor of Lake.
Masters is reportedly still mulling the idea for a run but put his plans on hold at Trump’s request.
Sen. Steve Daines (R0MT), who took over the National Republican Senatorial Committee after a disastrous run by Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), said Lake is “a talented campaigner with an impressive ability to fire up the grassroots.”
The NRSC has not made an endorsement in the race but is apparently not ruling one out.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has a network of donors and political action committees, has remained silent on the race.
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