Among Donald Trump’s Endorsements, One Holds A Special Place In His Heart: Kari Lake

The Arizona GOP contender holds a particular place in Trump’s heart due to her obsessive insistence on alleged election fraud.

All of the candidates that Donald Trump supports are beloved as long as they succeed.

However, one benefactor of his political generosity is more likely to be mentioned than others at Mar-a-Lago fundraisers and rallies for Republican candidates – Kari Lake.

According to aides, Trump has enjoyed watching Lake’s rise and seen similarities to his own. She, like him, is a former TV news anchor who is now running for governor of Arizona on the right wing ticket. Her campaign has made a point of repeatedly lying about the 2020 race. Even Trump has blushed at her monomaniacal fixation on one subject.

“No matter what you inquire about Kari Lake, such as, “How is your family?,” According to a person familiar with Trump’s political operation, the former president routinely related this story to contributors. “And she’s like, “The family’s alright but they’re never going to be great until we have free and fair elections,”” the source said. You may ask her how the weather is, he said. She’ll make it into an election, too. Oh, the weather in Phoenix is lovely, but fantastic weather is impossible without fair elections.

Lake has been sighted at Mar-a-lago events and has appeared with Trump at rallies throughout the past year. Despite making only one primetime appearance on Fox News, she is a favorite guest on conservative programs. In her social circles and among her right-wing supporters, there has been so much talk about Lake that it has sparked rumors that she might be on Trump’s short list for a prospective running mate, should she end up being governor and he run again for president. Those who are familiar with Trump’s thought process said they are unaware of any such talk, and speculation is tragically untimely.

According to Ross Trumble, the campaign spokesperson for Lake, “Kari Lake is thrilled to receive the support of President Trump.” She is just concerned with defeating Katie Hobbs and furthering the goals of Arizona First.

Following a close primary race, Lake formally accepted her party’s selection on Thursday. She was greeted like a rock star by the audience of conservative activists on Friday at CPAC in Dallas.

Boris Epshteyn, a former special assistant to Trump in the White House who worked on the ground in Arizona challenging the election results, said that Kari Lake won this difficult race in which she was outspent 10-to-1 by sticking to the important, crucial issue that the 2020 election in Arizona and nationwide was rigged and stolen. The fact that Kari Lake has stayed the course and is unafraid of the media, Democrats, or RINOs are two key factors in her widespread praise. Kari prevailed because she stayed on the primary MAGA topic.

The emergence of Lake in the Trump universe is evidence of more than simply the influence of the former president’s support and the prominence of 2020 election rumors in contemporary GOP politics. It also highlights how well Trump has done in securing governorships around the nation.

While supporting MAGA candidates in contests for positions ranging from state legislature to the U.S. Congress, Trump has paid particular attention to governorships. He frequently felt hampered by Republican governors who, in his opinion, were out of his league while he was in the White House, according to allies and staffers. In addition, he sees governors as essential to his potential political future, pointing out that they control most of the voting infrastructure.

This is especially true in swing states where Trump feels he was conned out of a victory, including as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona. He supported Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania, who supported the former president’s fabrications about a rigged 2020 election, went to Trump’s rally and march to the Capitol on January 6, and won the Republican nomination. Trump supported Tudor Dixon, a right-leaning broadcaster who won the Republican primary for governor in Michigan. Despite losing to Biden by thousands of votes, Dixon said she still thinks Trump won the state in 2020, and she has expressed her opinion that there were abnormalities in the vote. However, she did not go as far as other Republicans in the state in asserting that the vote was rigged.

Trump-backed Lake in Arizona competed against Karrin Taylor Robson, who was supported by a number of people including former vice president Mike Pence and departing governor of Arizona Doug Ducey. Robson spent $18 million, Lake only $3.8 million, and both relied heavily on Trump’s support and media appearances to attract voters.

Despite supporting a primary campaign against Georgia’s incumbent governor Brian Kemp because of his reluctance to annul the results of the state’s 2020 election, Trump was unable to unseat him. Additionally, Charles Herbster, a “stop the steal” rally participant who was Trump’s favored candidate in Nebraska, lost the state’s primary.

However, the president has had an impact on GOP governor elections in other states, such as Maryland, where Dan Cox, Trump’s favorite candidate, defeated Kelly Schulz by a significant margin. While Cox referred to Pence as a “traitor” for his conduct on January 6, Schulz received support from more traditional Republicans. And in Arkansas, Trump supported Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a former press secretary for the White House who won the Republican primary and is seen as a lock to succeed Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who criticized Trump’s actions on January 6.

Political analysts caution that the elevation of GOP gubernatorial candidates who support Trump’s election fraud allegations could have a significant effect on American democracy. If Mastriano, Lake, and Dixon win election, they will be in powerful positions to influence the outcome of the 2024 election. In the 2020 election, Trump would have won a second term if Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona had supported him.

However, those candidates must first win the election and take office. Additionally, some Republican strategists have cautioned that due to their commitment to the outgoing president and the lies surrounding the 2020 election, they are terribly defective in general election contests.

It’s a challenge for Republicans in the general election, in my opinion. In general, voters want to look forward rather than backward, according to Republican strategist Mike DuHaime, who oversaw Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 and Chris Christie’s 2016 campaigns. Even Republican voters who supported Trump and may even share some of his views are preoccupied with gas costs and inflation; they aren’t thinking about the 2020 race at all. Whatever the case, it is over. It would be better for the Republican Party if Biden were the subject of the 2022 and 2024 elections rather than Trump.

Because of her proximity to Trump, Lake is one of individuals who might see a surge in popularity only to discover that a bigger electorate doesn’t share that sentiment. Republicans in Arizona claim that if she is to defeat Democratic nominee Katie Hobbs, who currently holds the position of Arizona’s top election official and has spent the past year defending against Lake’s allegations of election fraud, she will need to embrace moderates in the state in addition to MAGA zealots.

After Biden won Arizona by a razor-thin margin in the 2020 election, Trump and his allies launched a legal campaign to challenge the results. Arizona became the focal point for efforts to cast doubt on the results of the 2020 election throughout the course of the following 18 months, thanks to a flurry of partisan election “audits,” conspiracies, and lawsuits. It was discovered that many of the assertions made by Trump and his allies were untrue. Arizona’s attorney general Mark Brnovich recently determined that a claim made by the Cyber Ninjas, the organization in charge of one of the state’s purported “audits,” claiming that nearly 300 dead persons cast ballots in the election, was untrue. On the Cyber Ninja list, only one individual had passed away.

According to Republican strategist Barrett Marson, “Election denialism absolutely works in a Republican primary, but when you go to the general election, it’s incumbent upon Kari to reach out to both the Republicans who didn’t vote for her and the independents or Democratic voters who are upset with the direction of the country.” Yes, it does, but I’m not sure if it will play in the general election. Arizona was a loss for Trump.

After winning the primary, Lake met with representatives of the Republican Governors Association to discuss how they might help assist her in the general election. The incumbent governor of Arizona, Ducey, who supported Robson in the primary, currently serves as chairman of the RGA, which supports GOP candidates around the nation.

In a statement, RGA Vice Chair Kim Reynolds said, “The RGA congratulates Kari on her primary victory and we look forward to working to get her elected governor come November.”

Before the results of Tuesday’s primary election were announced, NBC News asked Lake whether she had a message for the conservative establishment, including Pence and Ducey, whom she personally excoriated.

“I’m trying to unite the Republican party. We’re one big happy—and occasionally dysfunctional—family, but we can get along, said Lake. “I want to unite people,” he said.

But at that news appearance, she resumed talking about allegations of fraud that had not been proven.

“We’re going to address the irregularities and flaws we have a lot of proof for. I won’t divulge them to the bogus news, Lake declared.

Source: politico.com