Arizona’s Kari Lake, the self-described “Donald Trump with softer edges,” may have been defeated in November, but she has been working hard ever since, leveraging her loss into a multimillion-dollar windfall.
Between Nov. 9 and Dec. 31, 2022, Lake raised $2.5 million in her quest to overturn the election results. That’s not counting the money she made after forming a nonprofit group in December so that supporters could contribute to the cause.
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“There are big bucks to be made by undermining Arizona and its elections,” Laurie Roberts, an opinion writer for the Arizona Republic, wrote. “Facts don’t matter. Just continue to invent new and ever more hair-raising ways in which the election was supposedly stolen then stand back and watch the money roll in.”
Lake, who lost her gubernatorial race to Democrat Katie Hobbs by 17,000 votes, was among the most vocal allies of former President Trump. Like her mentor, she has captivated audiences with suspect allegations of coordinated attacks against democracy itself and has instilled fear that Arizona’s election system is rigged.
Lake filed a civil suit in December against Hobbs and election officials in Maricopa County, alleging their actions had denied her a rightful victory.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson, who was appointed by then-Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, ruled Lake’s lawyers had failed to provide any convincing evidence that widespread misconduct had affected the 2022 general election in favor of Hobbs.
The Arizona Mirror reported that Lake spent $228,000 on the lawsuit, less than 10% of her post-election fundraising haul. The news outlet reported that Lake claimed in financial filings that she still had $462,000 in her campaign coffers at the end of 2022.
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Most recently, Lake tore a page out of Trump’s playbook, offering to put in 10 times every donation she received in her legal climb to overturn the election results.
Trump made a similar push for cash, something the Department of Justice described as fraudulent in 2021.
But Lake isn’t the only Arizona politico raking in cash by pushing conspiracy theories.
Mark Finchem, the state’s failed secretary of state candidate, sent supporters an email this month pleading for donations, pressing them to “fight the propaganda,” and claiming all the money raised would go to help pay off his campaign debt.
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Yet Finchem apparently has no campaign debt and, in fact, is running in the black. According to a campaign report filed less than 24 hours before his email plea for money, Finchem said he had $97,000 left in the bank after spending $2.4 million on his campaign. He also claimed he has “not conceded this election” and is calling for a new one.
Finchem lost by 120,000 votes to Adrian Fontes.
