OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who is leading her Democratic opponent, has made a pitch to Elon Musk after the billionaire entrepreneur took over control of Twitter this week.
Lake, who has a roughly 3-point lead over Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, appealed to the SpaceX and Tesla founder to move Twitter’s headquarters to her state.
“Hey @elonmusk — you have an open invitation to move @Twitter HQ to Arizona. DM me and we’ll work it out!” the former Phoenix-area newscaster tweeted on Friday.
Hey @elonmusk — you have an open invitation to move @Twitter HQ to Arizona
DM me and we’ll work it out!
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) October 28, 2022
After Musk’s deal went through on Thursday, he immediately made changes at the top echelons of the company, The Wall Street Journal reported:
Mr. Musk fired Chief Executive Parag Agrawal and Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal after the deal closed, the people said. Spokespeople for Twitter didn’t comment.
It wasn’t immediately clear who would step into those top positions. CNBC previously reported the firings.
Mr. Musk also fired Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s top legal and policy executive, and Sean Edgett, general counsel.
Earlier this week, Musk signaled the deal was done when he posted a video clip of himself walking into Twitter headquarters in San Francisco carrying a sink, adding: “Entering Twitter HQ – Let that sink in!”
Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022
In addition, Musk changed his Twitter bio to read “Chief Twit.” Later, he tweeted, “Meeting a lot of cool people at Twitter today.”
Musk faced a 5 p.m. deadline on Friday to complete the deal, or litigation to force him to proceed with it would have relaunched in Delaware.
He plans to cut the workforce by “nearly 75 percent of Twitter’s 7,500 workers, whittling the company down to a skeleton staff of just over 2,000, the Washington Post reported.
Earlier this week, Lake warned that if Hobbs wins, she will turn Arizona into “California 2.0.”
During an interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity, Lake discussed the record number of migrants crossing the southern border, issues voters in the state care about the most, and promised to do everything she could to win in November’s midterms.
“She’s an open border globalist, let’s face it,” Lake told Hannity. “She wants to take what Newsom has done for California, which has destroyed that state, and do the same thing in Arizona. And that is why I think we have a movement because people know if we elect someone like Katie Hobbs we’re going into California 2.0. And nobody wants that. I will say the Californians are the ones who grab me at these events, who go, ‘Don’t let Arizona go. We uprooted our children, we uprooted our business, we moved our home. We moved here. We don’t want Arizona to turn into California.’ So some of our California friends that moved here, somebody’s waving in the crowd, they don’t want this to turn into [California], they fled California.”
Hobbs has refused to debate, so Lake has not missed an opportunity to call her out for it and remind voters of the radical policies she actually supports. Hannity called Hobbs and her refusal to debate Lake “cowardly.”
Lake also spoke to rumors that she could be considered former President Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate.
“My question is, if you’re elected, will you commit to serving all four years as governor?” ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl asked earlier in the week.
“I’m going to serve eight years as governor of Arizona,” she said:
KARL: But I’m asking, is that a commitment that you will finish your team?
LAKE: Yeah, I’m going to serve eight years. Listen —
KARL: Even if Donald Trump comes to you and says, I want you to be my running mate, you will say no because I made a commitment for me to serve —
LAKE: I just have to laugh at this question. First of all —
KARL: Well, I mean, I’m not asking because I think you should be his running mate, it’s just that this was something written in “The National Review”. And one of our top supporters, I won’t say who, told me just a couple of days ago, she’s the running mate if Trump runs.
LAKE: OK.
KARL: But my question was just a simple one, you’re committed?
LAKE: Okay. I just — I’m hearing this a lot on the campaign trail and what I think is happening, Jonathan, is the media is trying to scare the public I’m going to leave. I am devoted and dedicated to saving Arizona —
KARL: All four years.
LAKE: — to turning it around. And I like to say I’m the fake news’ worst nightmare. I’m going to be their worst nightmare in Arizona for eight years. I’m going to have two terms as governor.
