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Former Phoenix newscaster and 2022 Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is teasing what’s in store for her in the near future in a series of social media posts and interviews as speculation increases that she is eying a U.S. Senate run next year.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Lake wrote, “Are you ready for the next chapter?” — in a post that included a photo of her silhouetted on a stage with a state flag as her backdrop.
“While Lake’s name has been floated as a vice presidential contender, there are also rumors she could be eyeing a Senate run and is leaning in on raising her national profile,” the Washington Examiner reported on Wednesday. “Much of her popularity comes from her cozy relationship with [former President Donald] Trump, whom she has wholeheartedly supported and unabashedly defended.”
And while Lake’s name has been floated as a possible 2024 running mate of Trump’s, she downplayed that Lake on Kimberly Guilfoyle’s Rumble show recently, explaining that she’s still focused on challenging the outcome of the gubernatorial election which saw her narrowly lose to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. Lake is alleging that multiple election day glitches and snafus as scores of polling places disenfranchised her voters and cost her the election.
“Once it runs through the courts, then I’ll make my next move, and hopefully, my next move is moving into the governor’s office,” she told Guilfoyle, a former Fox News personality. “But if for some reason it’s so far gone, then I certainly will look at the Senate race.”
Courts so far have disagreed.
Should Lake decide on a Senate run, however, she already appears to have an advantage. Last month, one survey had Lake ahead of all other possible candidates in a hypothetical 2024 GOP Senate primary by 28 points, as reported by Just the News.
A recent poll conducted by JL Partners from April 10-12 showed that despite not announcing her plans to run for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s (I-Ariz.) seat, 38% of registered Arizona Republicans and undeclared voters would vote for Kari Lake. Karrin Taylor Robson, who lost the GOP gubernatorial primary to Lake last year, came in second place with 10% support.
“Following Robson, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb has 8%, 2022 Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters has 7% and 2022 Arizona Attorney General candidate Abraham Hamadeh has 4%,” the outlet reported. “No Arizona Republicans have entered the 2024 Senate primary, but Lake, Masters and Hamadeh were all endorsed by former President Donald Trump last year in their respective primaries.”
The same survey found that in a hypothetical contest for the GOP presidential nomination next year, Trump is preferred over Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) by 23 points, with 47% supporting Trump and 24% supporting DeSantis, while 11% of voters were undecided.
Among the remaining declared and potential candidates, including former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA), former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramayana all received single-digit support.
Additionally, 2% of voters endorsed another option. Pompeo and Youngkin have since confirmed that they will not be seeking the GOP nomination.
Maricopa County investigators released a report late last month regarding the irregularities observed during the 2022 midterm elections after the county faced severe ballot-printing problems that drew criticism from Republicans.
The largest county in Arizona, Maricopa has recently been under scrutiny for alleged election irregularities and voter fraud in recent elections, particularly in the 2020 presidential election and the 2022 gubernatorial race. The county’s ballot printers and tabulators faced significant problems on Election Day, leading to criticism from Republicans, Just the News reported.
Former Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor led the team of investigators who authored the report. According to their analysis, changes in the ballot length combined with the paperweight put a strain on some of the older printers’ abilities, the outlet said.
In order to include all the mandatory information, the county increased the length of the ballots from 19 inches to 20 inches between the August primaries and the November general contest. As per the report, the combination of the larger ballot size and the use of 100-pound ballot paper proved to be a significant burden on the printers, resulting in the observed irregularities.
“Based on our tests, and for the reasons described in this report, we concluded that the combined effect of using 100-pound ballot paper and a 20- inch ballot during the 2022 general election was to require that the Oki B432 printers perform at the extreme edge of their capability, a level that could not be reliably sustained by a substantial number of printers,” says the report.
However, the investigators emphasized that there was no significant reason for election officials to have been able to predict such a complication.
