Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake announced her Senate bid in the Grand Canyon State on Tuesday.
“I am not going to retreat. I am going to stand on top of this hill with every single one of you, and I know you’re by my side as I formally announce my candidacy for the United States Senate,” Lake said to roaring applause from her supporters in Scottsdale, Arizona.
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The move came as no surprise, as Lake teased her plans late last month. She enters a race expected to be one of the most competitive in the 2024 cycle, with Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and incumbent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) likely to be her top challengers.
Lake attacked both in her speech on Tuesday, even while Sinema has yet to announce her plans for next year. The Republican challenger fashioned herself as “the only mom in the race” and evoked the “Reagan Revolution” that “showed us that truly outsiders and citizens can shake up the status quo and deliver real tangible results for the American people.”
The Reagan Revolution showed us that truly outsiders and citizens can shake up the status quo and deliver real tangible results for the American people.
We saw it with Reagan, and there’s no greater citizen politician, in my opinion, no greater outsider at enacting change than… pic.twitter.com/54Ac01dnnf
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) October 11, 2023
It was fitting then that Lake displayed a large video of former President Donald Trump endorsing her, whom she compared to Reagan in a clear strategy of populism that Trump used to get elected in 2016.
“When I’m back in the White House, I need strong fighters like Kari in the Senate,” Trump said in the pre-recorded video, saying his busyness on the campaign trail kept him from being there in person. “She is a fighter, she is strong, and she’s good. She’s got a great heart, by the way.”
Lake was also endorsed by Trump in 2022 before she lost the Arizona gubernatorial election to now-Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ). Lake denied the results of the 2020 election and disputed her own loss two years later, claiming misconduct by election officials, of which no evidence was found.
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In a race that includes Lake, Gallego, and Sinema, Lake leads the field with 37% support compared to 33% who said they would back Gallego, according to independent polling conducted by National Research Inc. first obtained by the Washington Examiner. Another 19% said they’d reelect Sinema, while another 10% of voters remain undecided.
Lake could be bolstered by Democratic support being split between Gallego and Sinema, the latter of which was a Democrat until she became an independent in December 2022, a move that frustrated Senate Democrats clinging on to a narrow majority.
