Kari Lake, a former news anchor who walked away from her journalism career and was embraced by Donald Trump and his staunch supporters, won the Republican primary for Arizona governor on Thursday.
Lake’s win was a blow to the GOP establishment that lined up behind lawyer and businesswoman Karrin Taylor Robson in an attempt to push their party past the chaotic Trump era. Lake said she would not have certified President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory and put false claims of election fraud at the center of her campaign.
“The MAGA movement rose up like their lives depended on it,” Lake said as she declared victory prematurely on Wednesday afternoon. “And it proved that you can’t buy an election, at least not in Arizona. We the people rose up and spoke.”
Robson, who is married to one of Arizona’s richest men, largely self-funded her campaign. She called the 2020 election unfair but stopped short of calling it fraudulent and pushed for the GOP to look toward the future.
Republicans now enter the general election sprint with a list of nominees closely allied with Trump who firmly believe that Joe Biden wasn’t legitimately elected president. Lake will face Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs in the November election.
Early election results showing only mail ballots received before Election Day gave Robson a firm lead, but that was shaved down as votes from polling places were added to the tally. Lake’s victory became clear Thursday when Maricopa County released results from thousands of mail ballots dropped off at the polls on Tuesday.
In a midterm primary season with mixed results for Trump’s favored candidates, the former president came out on top in Arizona, a state that has been central to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and cast doubt on Biden’s victory. In addition to Lake, Trump’s picks for U.S. Senate, secretary of state, attorney general, U.S. House and the state Legislature all won their GOP primaries.
If they win in November, Trump allies will hold authority over the administration of elections in a imperative battleground state as he considers another bid for the White House in 2024. The results also show that Trump remains a dominant figure in the GOP as longtime party supporters get increasingly bold in their efforts to reassert control ahead of the next presidential campaign.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie all campaigned for Robson in the days before the election.
Lake now faces the browbeating task of uniting the Republican Party after a bruising primary. She attempted to reach out to Robson and others she severely criticized as RINOs, or Republicans in Name Only, who don’t align with Trump on key issues.
“Frankly, this party needs her to come together, and I welcome her,” Lake said of Robson. “And I hope that she will come over for this.”
Like Trump, Lake courts controversy and confrontation. She berates journalists and dodges questions. She burned masks during the COVID-19 surge in the summer of 2021 and attacked Republicans like Ducey who allowed restrictions on businesses, though as a news anchor she encouraged people to follow public health guidance.
“We outvoted the fraud,” Lake said. She pointed to problems in one county, which ran out of ballots in some precincts and had to print more, but she and her attorney, Tim La Sota, refused to provide evidence backing up her claims of fraud.
She said she has no plans to stop talking about election fraud even as she needs to broaden her appeal beyond the loyalists her powered her primary victory.
