GLOBE SCOOP: Abe Hamadeh to Introduce Kari Lake Tonight

The Arizona Globe has exclusively learned that 2022 Attorney General candidate Abraham Hamadeh will introduce Kari Lake as she announces her candidacy for the United States Senate this evening. The Globe has confirmed that there will only be two speakers — Hamadeh and Lake.

Reached for comment earlier this afternoon, Hamadeh exclusively told the Globe, “Now is the time for us Republicans to unite behind strong leaders who are willing to fight for the American people. Kari Lake has continuously shown that’s what her message is about, and that’s what her spirit is about. We have to defeat these left-wing lunatics, Ruben Gallego and Kyrsten Sinema, who pretends to be a moderate but votes with Biden 95% of the time. We have to get behind a candidate who’ll fight like hell for us.”

Hamadeh already revealed his intention to endorse Lake last Thursday, on an appearance on the podcast “TGP Recap,” a production of the Gateway Pundit. He told hosts Jordan Conradson and Alicia Powe, “I will be endorsing Kari Lake for Senate. She has taken so much fire and she is relentless, so I am incredibly proud to see her. Take that fight to Washington.” (If Conradson or anyone at Gateway Pundit is reading this, please stop sitting with bright natural light behind you. You’re welcome!)

Lake, the well-spoken and provocative Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2022 – she is habitually referred to in the press as a “conservative firebrand” — will be making her announcement tonight at 6 PM at the headquarters of Darrin Austin’s Jetset magazine on 75^th St near the Scottsdale airport.

The Globe pressed Hamadeh for some political handicapping beyond his endorsement.

“I’m so loyal to Kari. She’s been so loyal to me in this fight,” referring to the ongoing struggle he is waging to ensure that the 9000 votes that have yet to be counted in his 2022 race somehow make it to the finish line. “There was a poll released today in the Washington Examiner that had Lake up in a 3-way race,” Hamadeh mentioned. Indeed, the poll, conducted by well-regarded National Research Inc., a Republican pollster who is not working for any candidate, shows Lake at 37% in a three-way race, with Gallego at 33% and Sinema at 19%. Head to head against Gallego, each polls at 44% with 12% undecided.

The dynamics of Arizona’s 2024 race have already proven among the most fascinating of any political contest in the country. Incumbent first-term senator Kyrsten Sinema was elected in 2018, as a Democrat. Her occasional inclination to buck the party line landed her on the wrong side of the most progressive elements of a Democratic Party that is quickly moving to its left. That opened a lane for Congressman Ruben Gallego (D-3) to announce his own candidacy.

Sinema has since left the Democratic Party and will run for reelection as an independent with Gallego, now the favorite to become the Democratic nominee.

At least two candidates, including Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb and businessman Brian Wright, have declared their intention to run for the Republican nomination, but Lake, who prevailed in a hotly contested primary for governor last year becomes the odds-on favorite to win the nomination this year. If all three heavyweight brawlers —Gallego, Lake and Sinema — compete in the general, there’s no clear precedent for where this will go. And, of course the state’s status as a closely fought national contest will surely impact the Senate race, as the presidential candidates battle for voters in a pivotal state.