GLENDALE, Ariz.—Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) made a surprise appearance at a rally held by Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake on Nov. 4.
Abe Hamadeh, the Republican candidate for Arizona attorney general, announced Hawley’s surprise appearance, prompting an enthusiastic response from the crowd.
“I’m standing up here really just for one reason,” Hawley said. “I know that on Nov. 8, Arizona is going to lead the way!
“This is the state that’s going to tip the balance. You’re going to send a message, I know, on Tuesday that we want our borders secure. That we want criminals behind bars. Not threatening our children, not in our homes. We’re going to send a message to the Washington liberals that change is coming, and we’re not putting up with it anymore!”
“I’ve got news for our Democrat friends. The American criminal justice system is not systemically anything. It’s not systemically racist. It’s not systemically unfair. Putting criminals behind bars is what we call justice!” Hawley said, drawing cheers from the attendees.
Gary and Amanda Briolo, both in their 20s, and recent Arizona transplants from Washington state, said that the open border motivated them to come out and support Lake.
“The border is open right now. Illegals are coming in, and crime is going up. … [Lake] was the first person we saw that sparked the fire,” Gary Briolo told The Epoch Times.
He added that they like that Lake didn’t compromise herself to appear mainstream and is an actual “America first” candidate.
The Briolos also said they were motivated to attend the rally, not just vote for Lake, but because they wanted to “be around like-minded people.”
Nancy and Dave, also rally attendants, echoed that sentiment.
“We’re very much MAGA patriots,” Nancy told The Epoch Times.
When asked what that means to her, Nancy replied that being a MAGA patriot means you support and defend the Constitution and Christian values.
Dave added, “It’s America first. … When [Lake] talks, everything comes back to America’s norms. She makes sense. She’s clear. She doesn’t waiver. It’s what America stood for hundreds of years ago, and we need to stop the craziness.”
Gary Briolo agreed.
“We moved from Washington to get away from the bad leftist policies that are going on. We want to support people like Kari Lake with an America first movement,” Briolo said. “I don’t want compromise. I want to stick to policy that’s going to help this country.”
There’s “a lot” happening, Nancy said when asked if she is experiencing a rise in crime. She said she couldn’t go to the grocery store without feeling like “you have to have your eyes in every direction.”
As a woman, Nancy added, “if you want to go to the grocery store on an evening alone, you have to be looking everywhere!”
She added that both she and Dave live in Northern Arizona in a gated community, but crime and drugs are showing up even in their area. For Northern Arizona, Dave stated, “We’ve seen a number of Walgreens close because of theft. … The whole culture is going down.”
Dave added that if that’s what’s happening in his “safe” community, he can’t imagine what it’s like closer to the Southern border. “No city can absorb that number of people.”
On stage, Hawley’s message of increasing crime due to a massive influx of illegal border crossings resonated with the crowd of Arizonans. Lake, has continued to hammer home the same missive.
Speaking of her trip to the Southern border earlier in the day, Lake told the crowd, “We just came from the border today, we were in Cochise County, and boy, they have it tough down there. The border is so complex here in Arizona.”
Lake said that different counties have different border issues, but illegal crossings lead to crime and drugs in every county.
“We’ve got 5 million people, or more, I believe, who’ve come across since [President] Joe Biden took office,” she stated. Lake added that during the first 10 minutes of Biden’s administration, he stripped away many of the border policies that past-President Donald Trump put in place.
“I mean, you‘d think he’d want to settle into the White House, but no, he said we’ve got to make that border wide open and let everybody come across,” Lake said.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Hobbs’ Border Stance
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs did not respond to a request for comment.“But let’s also recognize the very real and devastating humanitarian crisis that’s at our doorstep. And no comprehensive immigration reform plan is complete without legislation to give DREAMers the stability and certainty they deserve and a path to citizenship.”
DREAMers is a reference to an Obama-era program which granted legal status to immigrant brought to the country illegally as children.
The Hobbs website says that Lake’s solutions for the border aren’t viable and are instead empty rhetoric. Hobbs claims that Lake is using the border as a political attack.
Hobbs concludes, “For too long, our leaders haven’t been willing to tell the truth and haven’t offered real solutions, which has forced Arizona to continue to bear the brunt of our immigration crisis. As governor, I will use the tools at my disposal to bring resources to our border communities and provide meaningful relief for Arizonans suffering the consequences of decades of federal inaction.”
