PHOENIX (CN) — Kari Lake says she will continue fighting in court over her loss of the Arizona governor’s office while campaigning to be Arizona’s next U.S. Senator.
“I’m going to continue my election challenges,” the former news anchor told a crowd of cheering fans, minutes after announcing her bid for the U.S. Senate.
Lake, who lost Arizona’s gubernatorial election in 2022 and has since launched at least four lawsuits challenging the results, filed paperwork to run for Senate last week and solidified her campaign at a rally in Scottsdale Tuesday night.
Nearly 300 people wielding American flags and wearing “MAGA” hats gathered outside the offices of Jetset Magazine to support their preferred candidate.
“I will be the most pro-America senator in the entire country,” Lake told the crowd. “The only way to fix our problems is with America-first policies.”
The crowd chanted, “Kari! Kari! Kari!” in response.
Former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Lake in her run for governor in 2022, endorsed her again for this race, appearing via a pre-recorded video played on a large screen behind Lake, whom he called “Arizona’s next senator.”
“When I’m back in the White House, I need strong fighters like Kari,” said the former president, who faces 91 felony counts in four criminal cases. “For four incredible years, my administration brought historic peace and prosperity to America. And in three awful years, Joe Biden has sent our nation on a tragedy to hell.”
Despite five indictments, Trump is still heavily favored to be the next president among Republican voters.
“Who else misses President Trump?” Lake asked. The crowd cheered in agreement.
Trump was one of the first to claim election fraud after losing the presidency to Joe Biden in 2020, inspiring Republicans like Lake to focus heavily on fraud as part of their campaigns.
Lake argued unsuccessfully to a Maricopa County judge in May that elections officials failed to conduct signature verification on early mail-in ballots, and in another trial in September in which she is still awaiting the judge's verdict, she requested access to those ballot envelopes for further inspection.
Lake’s attorneys have been hit with sanctions on two occasions for bringing false or frivolous claims to before judges — once by the state supreme court for false claims in the signature verification suit, and again for false claims in a federal lawsuit aimed at banning the use of electronic voting machines before the election was held.
“They stole it,” her supporters yelled to her after she mentioned the 2022 election.
Lake will likely run against Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, who has echoed Lake’s election denialism and support for Trump, in the Republican primary. If she wins the primary, she would likely run against Democrat Ruben Gallego, who currently serves as a U.S. representative for Arizona’s third congressional district.
Lake is running for the seat presently held by Kirstin Sinema, who changed her affiliation to Independent in December after winning the 2018 election as a Democrat. She hasn’t officially announced whether she will run in 2024, but many assume both her and Blake Masters, the Republican venture capitalist who lost to Mark Kelly in 2022, will run again.
Lake said on the Roseanne Barr Podcast in September that someone came to her house and offered her a bribe to stay off the 2024 ballot, though she didn’t say who it was. She made the same claim in May at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, saying the offer came from "powerful people” in Washington D.C.
“‘How much would it take you to get off the ballot?’” Lake recounted the person asking her before she left Arizona for the conference.
When asked after Tuesday’s speech who offered the bribe, Lake didn’t answer, instead signing autographs and taking selfies with the remaining crowd.
Lake celebrated in her speech being called by a journalist “Trump in heels,” while echoing Trump’s policies as her own.
She said she’ll make securing Arizona’s border with Mexico “priority numero uno.”
She told tales of children who have lost their lives overdosing on fentanyl, the deadly synthetic opioid that often makes its way to the United States through Mexican cartels.
“The solution is simple,” Lake said. “Go back to Donald Trump’s border policy and finish the wall.”
Lake went on to endorse continued drilling for oil and natural gas to make the U.S. “energy independent.” She spoke out against abortion and promised to ban public camping in an effort to end Arizona’s homelessness crisis.
She finished her speech by telling her supporters to “turn off the fake news” and get out to the polls.
“We’re gonna swamp them,” she said.
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