Kari Lake, who barely lost Arizona’s gubernatorial election in 2022, announced this week that she would be running for a seat on the U.S. Senate.
And now, she has the backing of a very prominent member of her party – former President Donald Trump.
Lake has long been an ardent supporter of Trump, and he has returned the favor to her by officially endorsing her for this position, just as he did when she ran for governor during the midterm elections in 2022.
On Tuesday, Trump posted a video to his social media platform, Truth Social, in which he said:
“When I’m back in the White House, I need strong fighters like Kari in the Senate. She is a fighter. She’s strong and she’s good. She’s got a great heart by the way.”
Lake has been mentioned as a potential running mate for Trump. She fits the profile of someone who would help the Trump campaign – as she’s a woman who has a high profile, since she’s a former anchor for Fox News.
But, through his endorsement this week, Trump may have hinted that he believes Lake could better serve him from the Senate than she would from the White House. As he added in the video:
“I will need a majority in the House and in the Senate. We have to have a big strong majority to help me push our America-first agenda through and to push it through really fast. That starts right here tonight by helping Kari Lake win in Arizona, and she will win, too.”
Lake just officially announced her candidacy for the Senate seat this week. That seat will be up for election in November 2024, on the same ballot that Trump will be running for president.
Many political pundits have expected her to run for Senate, given her high profile in the Republican Party. She’s expected to cruise through the GOP primary in the state against Mark Lamb, the current sheriff of Pinal County who’s also running for the nomination.
Democratic Representative Ruben Gallego is the presumed favorite on the liberal side as well.
The Senate seat is currently being occupied by Kyrsten Sinema, who earlier this year departed the Democratic Party to become an Independent.
She hasn’t announced whether she plans to run for re-election yet, although the political team representing her circulated a prospectus recently outlining the shares of voters from all parties that they believe could support her in a bid for the seat again.
That being said, Sinema seemingly would have an uphill climb to re-election. She sort of ostracized herself in the Democratic Party by consistently opposing the liberal agenda and blocking legislation such as President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better package from being pushed through Congress.
On Tuesday, Public Policy Polling, a left-leaning polling company, released a new poll this week that showed Gallego has 41% support in state, followed by Lake’s 36%. Sinema garnered only 15% support in a hypothetical race among all three potential candidates.
Another poll from National Research Inc. revealed that Gallego has 37% support, with Lake at 33% and Sinema at 19%.
