凤凰城-共和党人Kari Lake是一位受欢迎的前当地新闻主播，自称为“MAGA Mama Bear”，是前总统唐纳德·特朗普的坚定盟友。将发起竞选美国参议员的活动周二晚上，在亚利桑那州斯科茨代尔的一次集会上，在输掉该州州长竞选近一年后，她仍然拒绝承认失败。
去年离开民主党成为无党派人士的Kyrsten Sinema参议员尚未表示她是否会竞选连任，但Lake已经准备好与Sinema和可能成为民主党提名人的众议员Ruben Gallego进行三方竞争。
美国广播公司新闻此前报道称民主党人和共和党人都预计，在这个三分之一的选民不支持任何一个政党的州，会有一场不可预测的竞争。获胜者可以决定国会一半席位的控制权平衡;目前民主党以51比49的比例控制着参议院。
在上个月的一份声明中，莱克攻击盖莱戈和西内马是乔·拜登总统议程的“橡皮图章”。
“他们两人在国会已经呆了20年了，却没能保证亚利桑那州的边境安全，”她说。
在今年早些时候宣布自己竞选参议员时，加莱戈说，部分原因是，“我竞选美国参议员，因为富人和有权有势的人不再需要华盛顿的拥护者，但买不起食品杂货的家庭需要。”
Sinema在国会吹嘘她过去的记录:“我每天都去那里埋头苦干，专注于解决问题，”她在1月份的一次当地电台采访中说。她和加莱戈都表示，他们关注的是边境政策。
莱克上周向联邦选举委员会和亚利桑那州国务卿办公室提交了竞选意向文件，她还在国会山会见了几位共和党参议员。
2022年11月8日，亚利桑那州州长共和党候选人Kari Lake在亚利桑那州斯科茨代尔参加中期选举夜间集会时做手势。
布莱恩·斯奈德/路透社，文件
“我们与Kari Lake和她的团队进行了富有成效的对话，”R-Mont的Steve Daines说。国家共和党参议院委员会主席在一份声明中告诉ABC新闻。"她是一位才华横溢的活动家，具有激发基层民众热情的惊人能力。"
莱克还会见了得克萨斯州参议员约翰·科宁和阿肯色州参议员汤姆·科顿，并被发现与怀俄明州参议员约翰·巴拉索一起走过国会大厦，巴拉索是参议院共和党领导层的第三号人物。
与此同时，民主党人认为莱克是一个失败的候选人，密歇根州民主党参议员竞选委员会主席加里·彼得斯称她的竞选是“参议院共和党人最糟糕的噩梦”。"
彼得斯在一份声明中说:“即使是共和党人也不想让莱克参选，因为选民以前拒绝过她，他们将在2024年再次拒绝她。”。
Gallego发言人Hannah Goss在Lake的竞选活动开始前的一份声明中说,“她的极端主义应该取消她担任公职的资格——它会的。又来了。”戈斯指出了莱克对堕胎限制的支持，以及她对自己竞选失败的批评。
莱克将面临前皮纳尔县治安官马克·兰姆的初选，他去年支持莱克竞选州长。
“我不会睡在马克·兰姆身上，”亚利桑那州共和党策略师巴雷特·马森(Barrett Marson)说，他在这个周期迄今为止没有参与任何竞选活动。“他是一名保守派，但他不是卡莉·莱克，她只想谈论选举否认主义，这是更广泛的亚利桑那州选民不关心的事情。”
兰姆竞选顾问里克·戈尔卡(Rick Gorka)将莱克比作“亚利桑那州的(民主党)斯泰西·艾布拉姆斯”，指的是另一位高调但失败的州长候选人——在佐治亚州。
“虽然她去过除亚利桑那州以外的所有地方，但治安官马克·兰姆一直在为人民服务，努力确保边境安全，并与值得证明的保守党获胜者会面，”戈尔卡在给美国广播公司新闻的一份声明中说。
湖镜川普
莱克的州长竞选提升了她在保守派中的形象，并赢得了广泛的关注，这在很大程度上是因为她如何拥抱前总统的风格和政策，包括发誓要在南部边境宣布入侵，并定期与新闻媒体争吵，尽管她随时准备接受记者的采访。
莱克还经常重复特朗普毫无根据的说法，即2020年的选举是欺诈性的，她试图将自己险胜现任州长凯蒂·霍布斯(Katie Hobbs)的行为合法化。(法院驳回了莱克的诉讼请求。)
在2022年共和党州长初选中击败被广泛认为是共和党建制派候选人的卡林·泰勒·罗布森(Karrin Taylor Robson)后，莱克很快在保守派基础上建立了追随者，但也疏远了已故亚利桑那州参议员约翰·麦凯恩(John McCain)的支持者，称她的运动成功地“推动了麦凯恩机器的核心”。
共和党人涌向亚利桑那州，为这位政治新人增添热情，包括弗吉尼亚州州长格伦·扬金(Glenn Youngkin)、南达科他州州长克里斯蒂·诺姆(Kristi Noem)和佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯(Ron DeSantis)，莱克在2024年挑战特朗普入主白宫时对他产生了反感。
知名人士也在竞选中反对莱克，包括前共和党众议员利兹·切尼(Liz Cheney)，他在亚利桑那州投资了反对莱克的广告，以及前总统巴拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)，他在2022年的早期投票中告诉凤凰城挤满支持者的体育馆，当选的办公室“不仅仅是漂亮的线条和良好的照明。”
相比之下，霍布斯的竞选很低调，因为拒绝与莱克辩论而受到批评，但她最终以17，000多票的优势获胜。专家称这是一个例子，说明美国各地的中期选民似乎对选举否定主义失去了兴趣。
前总统唐纳德·特朗普在2022年10月9日在亚利桑那州梅萨举行的美国传统体育的竞选集会上，拥抱了他支持的亚利桑那州共和党州长候选人卡利·莱克。
马里奥·塔玛/盖蒂图片社，文件
莱克继续错误地宣称胜利，尽管她对选票签名验证工作和所谓的选民欺诈的挑战在法庭上失败了。今年7月，她的一些律师甚至被批准向马里科帕县偿还122，200美元的法律费用，此前一家联邦法院裁定，莱克与失败的国务卿候选人马克·芬奇姆(Mark Finchem)提起的诉讼是“追求无聊的宪法索赔”。
“刚刚开始”
自霍布斯就职以来的几个月里，莱克走遍了全国——去了爱荷华州、佛罗里达州、密歇根州和更多的战场州——以特朗普复出总统竞选的代理人身份出现在媒体上，但也在她的第一本书《不害怕:刚刚开始》中表达了自己的选举不满，她在书中错误地称自己为“亚利桑那州的合法州长”。
“她可以赢得初选，但我认为，如果她不放弃对选举的否认，她将面临与2022年相同的问题，”共和党策略师马森说。“一个正常、保守的共和党人可以轻松赢得这场竞选。但像卡莉莱克这样的唐纳德特朗普的追随者会发现前进的道路非常艰难。”
亚利桑那州是共和党在2024年瞄准的少数几个民主党控制的参议院席位之一。这也是乔·拜登总统在2020年看到他最狭窄的战场胜利的地方。
Kari Lake set to announce Arizona Senate campaign after narrow gubernatorial loss
PHOENIX --Republican Kari Lake, a popular former local news anchor, self-described "MAGA Mama Bear" and staunch ally of former President Donald Trump,will launch a campaign for the U.S. Senateat a rally in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Tuesday night, nearly a year after losing the state's gubernatorial race -- a defeat she still refuses to concede.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who left the Democratic Party last year to become an independent, has not yet said whether she'll run for reelection, but Lake is already preparing for a three-way race against Sinema and Rep. Ruben Gallego, the likely Democratic nominee.
ABC Newspreviously reported thatDemocrats and Republicans alike were expecting an unpredictable contest in a state where a third of the electorate identifies with neither party. The winner could determine the balance of control in one half of Congress; currently Democrats hold the Senate 51-49.
In a statement last month, Lake attacked Gallego and Sinema as "a rubber stamp" for President Joe Biden's agenda.
"Both of them have been in Congress for a combined two decades and have failed to secure the border here in Arizona," she argued.
In announcing his own Senate bid earlier this year, Gallego said, in part, "I'm running for the U.S. Senate because the rich and the powerful don't need any more advocates in Washington -- but families who can't afford groceries do."
Sinema has touted her track record in Congress: "I get there every day to put my head down and just focus on solving problems," she said in a local radio interview in January. Both she and Gallego have said they are focused on border policies.
Lake filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission and Arizona secretary of state's office last week on her intent to run, and she met with several Republican senators on Capitol Hill.
"We have had productive conversations with Kari Lake and her team," Steve Daines, R-Mont., the chairman of the National Republican Senate Committee, told ABC News in a statement. "She is a talented campaigner with an impressive ability to fire up the grassroots."
Lake also had meetings with Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton and was spotted walking across the Capitol with Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the third-ranking member in the Senate Republican leadership.
Democrats, meanwhile, argue Lake is a losing candidate with Michigan's Gary Peters, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair, calling her bid "Senate Republicans' worst nightmare."
"Even Republicans didn't want Lake to run because voters rejected her before, and they'll do so again in 2024," Peters said in a statement.
Gallego spokeswoman Hannah Goss said in a statement ahead of Lake's campaign launch that "her extremism should disqualify her from public office — and it will. Again." Goss pointed to Lake's support for abortion restrictions as well as her criticism of her own election loss.
Lake will face a primary contest against former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, who supported Lake's bid for governor last year.
"I wouldn't sleep on Mark Lamb," said Barrett Marson, a GOP strategist in Arizona who isn't working with a campaign so far this cycle. "He's a conservative, but he's not Kari Lake, and she only wants to talk about election denialism, something that the broader Arizona electorate just does not care about."
Rick Gorka, an adviser to Lamb's campaign, likened Lake to "Arizona's version of [Democrat] Stacey Abrams," referring to another high-profile but unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate -- in Georgia.
"While she has been everywhere but Arizona, Sheriff Mark Lamb has been serving the people, fighting to secure the border and meeting with voters who deserve a proven, conservative winner," Gorka said in a statement to ABC News.
Lake mirrors Trump
Lake's campaign for governor burnished her profile among conservatives and earned her widespread attention, in large part for how she embraced the style and policies of the former president, including vowing to declare an invasion at the southern border and regularly sparring with the news media even as she readily made herself available to reporters.
Lake also often repeated Trump's baseless claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent and she sought to delegitimize her own narrow loss to now-Gov. Katie Hobbs. (The courts rejected Lake's claims.)
After defeating Karrin Taylor Robson, widely thought of as the GOP establishment candidate, in the 2022 Republican gubernatorial primary, Lake quickly built up a following among the conservative base but also alienated supporters of the late Arizona Sen. John McCain, saying her movement successfully "drove a stake through the heart of the McCain machine."
Republicans flocked to Arizona to fuel the enthusiasm for the political newcomer, including Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who Lake has since soured on amid his 2024 White House challenge to Trump.
Prominent names campaigned against Lake as well, including former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, who invested in ads against Lake in Arizona, and former President Barack Obama, who told a packed gym of supporters in Phoenix during early voting in 2022 that elected office "is about more than snappy lines and good lighting."
While Hobbs ran a low-key campaign by comparison, facing criticism for refusing to debate Lake, she ultimately won by just over 17,000 votes. Experts called it an example of how midterm voters in various parts of the country appeared to be turned off by election denialism.
Lake continues to falsely claim victory, despite her challenges over ballot-signature verification efforts and alleged voter fraud failing in court. In July, some of her attorneys were even sanctioned to reimburse Maricopa County $122,200 in legal fees after a federal court determined a lawsuit Lake filed with failed Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem was "pursuing frivolous constitutional claims."
'Just getting started'
In the months since Hobbs' inauguration, Lake has traveled the country -- to Iowa, Florida, Michigan and more battleground states -- hitting the media circuit as a surrogate for Trump's comeback presidential campaign but also airing her own electoral grievances with her first book, "Unafraid: Just Getting Started," in which she falsely calls herself "the lawful governor of Arizona."
"She can win a primary, but I think she'll have the same problem she had in 2022 if she doesn't move off of her election denials," said Marson, the Republican strategist. "A normal, conservative Republican could easily take this race. But a Donald Trump acolyte like Kari Lake will find a very difficult path forward."
Arizona is among the handful of Democratic-held Senate seats that Republicans are targeting in 2024. It was also where President Joe Biden saw his most narrow battleground win in 2020.
