Subtle as a sledgehammer: meet Trump 2.0
Kari Lake is one of many GOP election deniers using ‘Maga’ tactics to try to reach power before 2024 ballot
HOURS after she was crowned the Republican candidate in Arizona’s governor’s race, Kari Lake stormed on to the stage wielding a sledgehammer.
Lifting it high above her head, she vowed to take it to the state’s electronic voting machines, which she blames for Donald Trump’s 2020 election defeat.
The prop makes a regular appearance in Ms Lake’s campaigning, as she attacks Covid-19 restrictions, weak border policies, “sketchy elections” and the media.
“I’m taking a sledgehammer to all of it,” Ms Lake vows in slick adverts showing her smashing a TV screen playing CNN.
It is the sort of stunt, combined with her telegenic looks and on stage magnetism, that have propelled Ms Lake into the national spotlight as a leader for the next generation of Trumpism.
Her newfound Republican stardom has made her a favourite to be Mr Trump’s running mate should he run in 2024. Others have speculated she could even lead the ticket in a future White House run.
It is a remarkable rise for a woman who, just last year, was a local TV anchor and virtually unknown outside of her home state of Arizona.
She is now within striking distance of becoming its next governor, with fivethirtyeight’s weighted poll of polls giving her an edge over her Democratic opponent Katie Hobbs.
The powerful role would make Ms Lake one of the officials responsible for certifying election results in a state that will determine future presidents.
Ms Lake called for officials in charge of the 2020 election to be jailed and said that, had she been governor, she would not have certified Joe Biden’s win in Arizona.
Ms Lake has also refused to say she would accept the results in her own race should she lose on Tuesday. “I’m going to win the election, and I will accept that result,” she said.
The 53-year-old is the most prominent among a group of election deniers who could win office in this midterm cycle in battleground states that play a decisive role in the 2024 presidential election.
In Arizona, running alongside Ms Lake is Mark Finchem, a member of the far-Right extremist group the Oath Keepers, who wants to become the state’s chief election official.
Michigan features the duo of Tudor Dixon and Kristina Karamo, and in Pennsylvania, a critical battleground state, election denier Doug Mastriano will appoint the next secretary of state if he wins the governor’s mansion. The prospect of officials who do not recognise the legitimacy of the last election holding sway over the next one has prompted alarm among both Democrats and Republicans.
It is Ms Lake’s prospective victory that has rattled them most, prompting both Barack Obama and Liz Cheney to campaign in Arizona last week.
“Consider the fact that our democracy is on the ballot. And nowhere is that clearer than here in Arizona,” Mr Obama told a crowd in Phoenix.
He went on to call out Ms Lake by name. “She’s good in front of the camera,” he said, adding: “If we hadn’t just elected somebody whose main qualification was being on TV, you could see maybe giving it a shot.”
Ms Lake was quick to hit back, claiming she could command larger crowds than the former president.
Like her idol Mr Trump, the Republican candidate revels in bare-knuckle opponent-baiting and commands a similar level of adoration at her rallies.
Some see Ms Lake as an even more potent campaigner than Mr Trump because her good looks and polished delivery are a more palatable offering to voters not enamoured with the former president.
Ms Lake has leant into the comparisons, often saying: “You can call me Trump in a dress any day”.
But unlike the firebrand businessman, she is adept at altering her style and tone to appeal to a broader base.
At press conferences, she eviscerates journalists with attacks on their organisations to the delight of the crowd. But at small gatherings she offers a softer approach, framing her responses through her lens as a mother and Christian.
Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist whose group is spending millions opposing Ms Lake and Mr Finchem has described this potent mix as an ability to “talk normal to the normies and crazy to the crazies.”
The youngest of nine children, Ms Lake was raised in a poor Catholic home in rural Iowa by her teacher father and nurse mother.
She has made much of her biography and faith on the campaign trail, describing how she paid for her degree in communications by working as a janitor waxing floors.
She began her TV career as a weather forecaster before gaining a presenting role in Phoenix. She says she left her local Fox station because she came to see the media as “immoral”.
Gina Woodall, a political scientist at Arizona State University, said she would qualify Ms Lake “as the new face of Maga Republicanism”.
“She absolutely makes Trumpism look mainstream,” she told AFP.