Arizona Republican Senate hopeful Kari Lake has received an official endorsement from the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm. This puts an end to the speculation that the Republican leadership in the upper chamber would support the Republican candidate.
“Kari Lake is one of the most talented candidates in the country. Kari is building out an effective campaign operation that has what it takes to flip Arizona’s Senate seat in November,” said Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), according to a Feb. 13 press release.
“I’m proud to endorse Kari Lake for United States Senate,” he said.
The endorsement likely offers Ms. Lake a boost as she works to consolidate Republican support in Washington and Arizona in her race for the U.S. Senate.
The committee had previously refrained from providing its full endorsement of the Arizona candidate, but now that the Senate Republican group has publicly declared its support for her, party members in Washington seem to be sending a message that they believe Ms. Lake would be a winning candidate.
Ms. Lake, a former local TV news reporter in Arizona, has long been in the public eye in her home state. She is a staunch admirer of former President Donald Trump and his claims that his defeat to President Biden in the 2020 election was due to major voting fraud.
Similarly, Ms. Lake has contested her own narrow loss in the 2022 governor’s race, in which Democrat candidate Katie Hobbs won by 17,000 votes, or less than 1 percent of the vote. Ms. Lake never accepted her defeat and has disputed the results of the election in court on multiple occasions.
Shortly after thanking the Republican Senate group on X, the Senate hopeful specifically offered gratitude for the support of two high profile Republicans, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).
“@RandPaul and @mattgaetz are two of the most stalwart America First legislators in DC,” Ms. Lake said. “They never back down from fighting for what’s best for the American people, and neither will I. It’s an honor to have their endorsements.”
Changing Landscapes
Formerly a reliably conservative state, Arizona has emerged as a crucial battleground in the southwest for the general election.Currently, the Democratic Party holds a 51–49 majority in the Senate, but Republicans anticipate a favorable Senate landscape following this year’s elections, as Democrats will be defending 23 of the 34 seats that are in play.
Three of these seats—in Ohio, West Virginia, and Montana—are in conservative states that President Trump won in 2020. Five additional Democrat-held seats are located in pivotal swing states—Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, and Wisconsin—which were all narrowly carried by President Biden in 2020.
In a pivotal Senate election in 2018, Arizona voted in favor of then-Democrat Rep. Kyrsten Sinema. In 2020, the state supported Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and President Biden.
The Arizona Senate election for this year continues to be complicated due to the fact that Ms. Sinema, who is now an independent, has not yet declared her candidacy for reelection.
Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) is the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination to the Senate, and some Republicans are anticipating a three-way contest between the incumbent Ms. Sinema, Mr. Gallego, and Ms. Lake.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee took aim at its GOP counterpart and at Ms. Lake following the news in its own Feb. 13 press release.
“Kari Lake is the poster child for Senate Republicans’ candidate quality problem and abysmal recruiting strategy,” DSCC spokesperson Tommy Garcia said in a statement. “An election loser despised by Arizona Republicans, Lake brings massive baggage and disqualifying flaws to the campaign. We’re thrilled with the NRSC’s choice. Lake is the perfect candidate—to lose the race.”
