AP (NEW)

Kari Lake aims to win GOP primary for closely watched Arizona Senate race

Jul 29, 2024, 9:14 PM | Updated: Jul 31, 2024, 2:56 am

In this combination photo, Kari Lake speaks in Dallas, Aug. 5, 2022, left, and Rep. Ruben Gallego, ...

In this combination photo, Kari Lake speaks in Dallas, Aug. 5, 2022, left, and Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., is seen in the Capitol, July 14, 2022, in Washington. Lake is looking to easily win Arizona's Republican nomination for Senate. The primary Tuesday, July 30, will likely set up a fierce battle against Gallego, who is running unopposed in the Democratic primary for a crucial Senate race. In Maricopa County, Republicans will choose between a slate of incumbents who have stood up to former President Donald Trump's lies about the 2020 election and challengers who claim it was stolen. (AP Photo)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(AP Photo)

PHOENIX (AP) — Kari Lake is looking to easily win the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Arizona on Tuesday, setting up a fierce battle against Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego for a seat that could be crucial to deciding Senate control.

In Maricopa County, which includes metro Phoenix and 60% of Arizona’s voters, Republicans will also choose between a slate of incumbents who have stood up to former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and challengers who claim it was stolen.

The primary will give insights about where the narrowly divided state is headed going into the final sprint of the 2024 election, when Arizona is central to the fight for control of the White House and Congress.

Gallego is running unopposed in the Democratic primary for Senate.

“Go vote,” Trump urged supporters in a telephone rally with Lake on Monday evening. “She’s fantastic. She will not let us down. Kari Lake, I just think she’s going to be as good as you can get. There’s nobody going to be better.”

The once-crowded field of Republicans looking at the Senate race thinned out when Lake, who built a national profile in Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement in an unsuccessful 2022 bid for Arizona governor, made clear she planned to run for the seat.

Her GOP primary opponent is Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, who says he’s more electable and the best candidate to secure the border. But he’s struggled to raise the money needed to make his case to voters. Through the end of June, Lake had raised $10.3 million compared with Lamb’s $2 million.

The winner will face Gallego in the race to replace Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who was elected as a Democrat in 2018 but left the party to become an independent after her standing among the Democratic base cratered. Sinema considered running as an independent but opted against it.

Lake entered politics after leaving the news anchor desk at the Phoenix Fox affiliate and quickly became a rising star on the right. Grassroots Republicans were drawn to her biting critiques of her former colleagues in the news media, her tough talk on border security and her unwavering support for Trump, who for a time considered her for his running mate.

“We’re looking forward to getting you back in Washington, DC,” Lake said to Trump during Monday’s telephone rally. “And I’m looking forward to helping back you up and make sure that we get this country gets turned back around.”

She defeated an establishment-backed Republican in the 2022 primary for Arizona governor but narrowly lost the general election. Convinced she had victory in hand after winning the primary, Lake did not move toward the center or work to unify Republicans behind her.

Since launching her Senate campaign late last year, Lake has made fitful efforts to moderate her most unpopular views but has not been consistent. She disavowed a near-total ban on abortion in Arizona, which she’d previously called “a great law,” but later spoke favorably for it.

She has at times steered clear of false claims of election fraud, but she continues trying to overturn her loss in the race for governor. Just this month she filed a longshot request for the Arizona Supreme Court to take up the issue, though the justices, all of whom were appointed by Republican governors, have already rejected her claims.

Meanwhile, Republican voters in Maricopa County will get their first chance to oust elected officials who did not embrace Trump’s and Lake’s false claims that the 2020 and 2022 elections were rigged. Recorder Stephen Richer, one of the elected officials responsible for administering elections, has become a pariah on the right for aggressively defending the integrity of elections. Several members of the county board of supervisors also face challengers aligned with Trump’s MAGA movement.

Republicans also have an eclectic group of candidates vying to replace retiring GOP Rep. Debbie Lesko in a safe Republican district. The field includes Blake Masters and Abraham Hamadeh, one-time allies who have turned bitterly on each other since both lost campaigns in 2022. A state lawmaker indicted for his involvement in Trump’s fake-elector scheme is also running, along with former Rep. Trent Franks, who resigned in 2017 when two aides said he sexually harassed them by asking them to carry a child through surrogacy.

On the Democratic side, voters will decide two hotly contested U.S. House primaries in the Phoenix area.

The winner in the 1st Congressional District will face Republican Rep. David Schweikert to represent an affluent district centered in Scottsdale that exemplifies the changing makeup of the political parties.

Two Democrats are also facing off in a bitter primary in the 3rd District, a safe Democratic district that includes the heart of the west Phoenix Latino community. The Democratic nominee is strongly favored in November to replace Gallego.

AP (New)

Associated Press

5 are killed when small jet crashes into vehicle after taking off in suburban Phoenix

MESA, Ariz. (AP) — A small jet crashed into a vehicle Tuesday after taking off from a suburban Phoenix airport, killing five people, police said. The plane crashed while taking off from Falcon Field Airport in Mesa, police there said in a statement. The Honda HA-420 light business jet struck the vehicle outside airport property […]

8 hours ago

Associated Press

Appeals court says Arizona should release list of voters with unverified citizenship

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Court of Appeals on Monday affirmed a decision by a lower court that required the Secretary of State’s office to release a list of tens of thousands of voters who were mistakenly classified as having access to Arizona’s full ballot because of a coding glitch. The court rejected an appeal […]

2 days ago

"It Goes Too Far," the official campaign opposing Arizona's abortion ballot measure, holds a press ...

Associated Press

Arizona voters to decide on expanding abortion access months after facing a potential near-total ban

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona voters are set to decide whether to guarantee the right to abortion in the state constitution — a vote that could cement access after the presidential battleground came close to a near-total ban earlier this year. Arizona is one of nine states with abortion on the ballot. Abortion-rights advocates are hoping […]

2 days ago

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks with Tucker Carlson during a T...

Associated Press

Trump says Liz Cheney might not be such a ‘war hawk’ if she had guns pointed at her

GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump launched another attack on former Rep. Liz Cheney late Thursday, calling the Republican former Wyoming congresswoman a “war hawk” and suggesting she might not be as willing to send troops to fight if she had guns pointed at her. During an event in Glendale, Arizona, with former […]

5 days ago

voter...

Associated Press

Court orders Arizona to release list of voters whose citizenship hasn’t been verified

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona’s secretary of state office must release a list of tens of thousands of voters who were mistakenly classified as having access to the full ballot because of a coding glitch, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday. Secretary of State Adrian Fontes’ office initially denied a public records requests for […]

5 days ago

A voter casts their ballot at a secure ballot drop box at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Electi...

Associated Press

Arizona enlists county employees to help tackle a surge of 2-page early ballots

PHOENIX (AP) — Employees for Arizona’s most populous county have been reassigned to help election workers with an around-the-clock operation to process early ballots that are an unusually long two pages. Election officials in Maricopa County must verify each voter’s signature on early ballot envelopes and then remove the ballot pages so they can be […]

5 days ago

Sponsored Articles

...

Morris Hall

West Hunsaker, through Morris Hall, supports Make-A-Wish Foundation in Arizona

KTAR’s Community Spotlight this month focuses on Morris Hall and its commitment to supporting the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Arizona.

...

DISC Desert Institute for Spine Care

The best methods to make your back pain disappear for good

Are you struggling with back pain that will not go away?

...

Dr. Shanyn Lancaster, Family & Sports Medicine physician, Midwestern University Comprehensive Care Clinic – Central Phoenix

Exercise is truly your best medicine

“You never slow down, you never grow old”. – Tom Petty

Kari Lake aims to win GOP primary for closely watched Arizona Senate race