SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—Former President Donald Trump endorsed Arizona Republican Kari Lake in her campaign for the U.S. Senate during the launch event on Oct. 10.
President Trump, who is running for the White House, appeared on a large screen in front of hundreds of Ms. Lake’s supporters at a hangar rally at Jet Set Magazine in Scottsdale.
“When I’m back in the White House, I'll need strong fighters like Kari for the Senate. She’s a fighter, she’s strong, and she’s got a great heart,” President Trump said.
“Republicans must win—and we must win very big. It’s much harder for them to cheat if we do as we should. You get enough votes, and they can’t cheat that badly.”
After her contested defeat in the 2022 race for Arizona governor, Ms. Lake is now refocusing on capturing the U.S. Senate seat from incumbent Democrat-turned-Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) in the Nov. 5, 2024 election.
“This mama bear’s got a whole lot of fight left in her,” Ms. Lake told hundreds of supporters chanting “Kari!” during a hangar rally at Jet Set Magazine in Scottsdale, Arizona. “I’m not surrendering this hill. I’m not going to retreat.”
Ms. Sinema has not announced whether she will seek a second term. Ruben Gallego is running for the Democratic nomination. Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb is seeking the GOP nomination.
“We’re in tenuous times—we’re in dangerous times,” Ms. Lake said as she alluded to world events and the recent attack in Israel by the terrorist Palestinian group Hamas.
Ms. Lake blamed President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama for helping to set the political stage for the bloody attack that left hundreds of Israelis dead or captured.
She said the same could happen in the United States as thousands of illegals pour into the country thanks to the Biden administration’s open-border policy.
“Thousands of fighting-age men have crossed our southern border, and we know we have terrorists,” she said.
Through an unsecured southern border, heavily armed Mexican drug cartels move “back and forth” across the Arizona border “like they own the place,” Lake said.
“Guess what? They do own the place,” Ms. Lake said. “The cartels own Arizona, and until we kick Joe Biden to the curb, Ruben Gallego and Kyrsten Sinema—we’re not going to have a state.”
Ms. Lake said President Biden’s recent visit to Arizona failed to mention a full-blown border crisis.
“You know what he did? He came to Arizona, and he demonized Trump supporters. He called us MAGA extremists. And he called us a threat to democracy,” she said. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to let a guy trying to imprison his political opponent call me—or you—a threat to democracy.”
“You, Joe, are a threat to America. And crooked Joe—you are a threat to the world.”
Fighters Needed
Ms. Lake, a former veteran Fox10 news anchor, ran a hotly contested race for Arizona governor in 2022 that saw a razor-thin victory by her Democratic opponent Katie Hobbs.Ms. Hobbs was declared the winner with 50.3 percent of the vote against Ms. Lake’s 49.7 percent.
Ms. Lake immediately contested the results as illegitimate following numerous mail-in ballot voting discrepancies and widespread election equipment malfunctions on election day.
Even so, despite numerous legal challenges in Arizona courts, she could not overturn the results. Still, Ms. Lake promised to continue fighting against a corrupt Democratic Party and a “woke” leftist political agenda that she believes is destroying America.
“Americans love its fighters, don’t they? We are here tonight because we understand where our country is and what this moment means for our future,” said Abe Hamadeh, a former Republican candidate for Arizona attorney general who endorsed Ms. Lake for U.S. Senate.
Mr. Hamadeh, a Republican, lost to Democrat Kris Mayes by 280 votes in the 2022 general election.
Ms. Lake said that securing the southern border would be her “numero uno” priority as a senator.
“This isn’t partisan. This crisis affects all of us,” Ms. Lake said.
“The solution is to return to President Trump’s border policy and finish the wall. And let’s start treating these cartels like the terrorists that they are.”
Ms. Lakes’s rhetoric resonated with the hundreds of supporters who heard the candidate speak.
John Cain, an Arizona Republican precinct committeeman, told The Epoch Times that he’s confident Lake will win in 2024, provided there is sufficient oversight of the election.
“I don’t see how she could lose. [But] you know that they will be in for the steal. The problem for them is everybody and their brother will be watching every ballot box.”
Quillyn Baldwin of North Phoenix said she’s “excited” about a Lake candidacy for U.S. Senate.
“We need somebody good in there—somebody to take over and do the job,” she told The Epoch Times.
“I think she’s got a good chance. We count the votes [correctly] this time, and I think she’s got it. She’s a strong lady. That’s what we need—that’s what America needs.”
Nikki Owen of Arizona told The Epoch Times she would have preferred Ms. Lake as governor “because Arizona needs her.”
Now, as a candidate for Congress, “the Senate needs her,” she said.
Monte, a Scottsdale resident who did not want his last name used, said there’s no doubt that Ms. Lake won the 2022 election for governor.
“I know she did,” he told The Epoch Times. “When it takes 12 days to count votes, they’re up to no good. She'll win in a landslide [in 2024] unless it gets stolen.”
