Kari Lake Formally Announces Run for Kyrsten Sinema’s Senate Seat
Cites God and Country as driving force for her continued fight
By Steve Kirwan, October 11, 2023 9:54 am
On Tuesday night in Scottsdale, Kari Lake, the Republican firebrand who narrowly lost the Arizona governorship to Democrat Katie Hobbs in 2022, officially announced that she is running against Ruben Gallego (D) and Kyrsten Sinema (I) for Sinema’s Senate seat. Citing a deep belief in God and country, she told supporters that she is ready to fight against what she characterized as Joe Biden’s policy failures that are hurting Arizonans.
Wearing a dynamite off white jacket over a simple blue dress and seriously dangling earrings, Lake shouted, “Hello, Arizona!” to a large receptive crowd that greeted her enthusiastically.
Lake alluded to the varied crises the US finds itself in, including a second war that has broken out over the weekend. “The world is on fire and it seems like every day, Joe Biden wakes up and pours a little more gasoline on it.” She asked the crowd, “Who else misses President Trump? I do. I do. I miss the mean tweets and the cheap gas. The mean tweet were making us safe.”
Lake was introduced by fellow Republican Abe Hamadeh, who is still battling against the 2022 election results in his razor-thin loss to Kris Mayes for the state’s Attorney General position. Hamadeh took the stage to chants of “USA! USA!” For too long, our system has “benefited the few at the expense of the many” he told the crowd. He cited Ronald Reagan’s warning from 1964 — 30-ish years before he was born — and notes that the most dire predictions seem to have come true.
“Left wing lunatics have overtaken every single institution. They took over corporate media, corporate board rooms, big tech, education, our legal system to crush dissent. They brought chaos to our streets, chaos to our borders and chaos to our elections.” It’s a dark vision, reminiscent of Trump’s Jan 2017 inauguration speech. But it’d be hard to find anyone with a tv set and an internet connection who could disagree with Hamadeh’s description of the current state of affairs.
Then he turned the stage over to Lake, who rattled off a litany of issues facing Arizona residents, including an open border, rising gasoline prices, and out of control inflation.
Lake made her points forcefully and clearly — “I walked away from tv because the news was full of crap” and someone yelled “drain the swamp” and she responded “Amen!” — but several observers agreed with the Globe’s take that Lake seemed more measured and polished than she did throughout most of her gubernatorial campaign last year.
“I am never going to walk away from the fight to restore honest elections. I don’t care what the fake news says about it. Fighting for honest elections is not a Republican issue, not a Democrat issue, it’s an American issue.”
Lake continued by extolling the virtues of Donald Trump, discussing how she and he share a common view for America, and vowing to fight against Democrat threats. She also reiterated her concerns about free and fair elections, alluding to her ongoing legal fight for election transparency.
Senator Sinema was elected as a Democrat but switched to Independent after losing support from her party’s leadership for voting against several key Biden initiatives, including to overturn the Senate filibuster. As a result, Sinema faces a strong challenge from Democrat Ruben Gallego and now, from Kari Lake.
Lake was reportedly on the shortlist to run as Vice-President with Donald Trump in 2024.
The entire program can be viewed on Kari Lake’s campaign website.
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