Lake appears poised to join US Senate race

Former TV news personality Kari Lake burst onto the political scene in Arizona two years ago, embodying the essence of Donald Trump but losing to the most liberal governor in modern state history.

Can she really win a U.S. Senate seat next year in an increasingly purple state by appealing to the hard right wing?

Former Yuma County GOP Chair Phil Townsend, who endorsed Lake in the 2022 election, doesn’t believe she can — nor that she deserves to. He counts among the Arizona Republicans who hold a more traditional view of how party members should act, and feels that Lake has taken the party “in a direction that I’m not comfortable with.”

He’s particularly concerned with her incessant complaints about the 2022 election and how she’s used the issue to raise money.

“I think she’s proven herself to be a grifter and a sore loser and I’m not going to be able to support her in the primary,” Townsend said.

Polls have shown that Lake, who is reportedly set to officially launch her campaign on Oct. 10, is likely to win next year’s Republican primary election.

But strategists believe Lake may struggle to find voters outside of her base. She needs to slice off a section of Arizona’s biggest voting bloc, unaffiliated and independent voters, to win November’s

general election in a likely three-way race with incumbent Kyrsten Sinema, now an independent, and U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz. That’s going to be tougher if she can’t sway Republicans like Townsend.

In a phone call Thursday, Townsend referenced Lake’s repeated attacks on the legacy of the late Sen. John McCain as indicative of the sort of divisive politics that Townsend believes will risk the chance for Arizona to “get back to being a red state with a Republican senator.”

Lake is “incredibly strong” as a GOP primary candidate, said Arizona pollster Mike Noble.

“The problem is the same one Trump has — a massive image disconnect between Trump support and the overall electorate in Arizona,” Noble said.

Lake’s a “very well-defined candidate,” meaning most voters have a sense of where she stands politically, and most don’t like her, polls in January and July have shown, he said. About 35% of Arizona voters view her favorably, he said, while more than 50% few her unfavorably.

Polls also show that if a MAGA candidate like Lake enters the race, Sinema’s chances of winning reelection look positive, Noble said, because she can attract far more Republican and rightleaning independent voters than Gallego, a progressive, can.

Sinema has not yet announced that she’ll run for reelection. Gallego launched his campaign for Senate in January.