Arizona Republic Opinion: “Polls show that a fair number of people, even in her own party, just don’t like Kari Lake.”

Wednesday, August 21st, 2024

ARIZONA -– Laurie Roberts, writing for Arizona Republic Opinion, noted that in the three weeks since the primary, Lake has drawn only 73% of her own party’s support, saying “If you aren’t winning at least 85% of your own party, you’ve got a problem. And Lake, it appears, has a problem…” The problem? Lake’s agenda is toxic and divisive, and “Arizona’s McCain Republicans won’t let [Kari Lake] forget” that she told them to “get the hell out.” 

Read more about the first three weeks of Kari Lake’s general election campaign being plagued by how the “question for Kari Lake” remains whether she can “consolidate the Republican party in this state” as concerns have only deepened among Republicans that Lake’s self-serving politics and toxic agenda will “sabotage them yet again:”

Arizona Republic Opinion: Kari Lake shows once again why she’s behind in the Arizona Senate race

By: Laurie Roberts

August 20, 2024

Key Points: 

• …Lake, meanwhile, can’t seem to convince anyone that she learned a lesson from her unsuccessful smash mouth campaign for governor in 2022, when she dubbed the late U.S. Sen. John McCain a “loser” and invited his supporters to “get the hell out” of a campaign event.

• Two years later, The Arizona Republic’s Ron Hansen reports that Lake is getting basically stiffed by national Republican groups that are pouring money into competitive races in other states as they battle to win control of the Senate.

• Of the eight most competitive Senate races, Lake has drawn the least Republican money in future television ad reservations.

• This, in a red(ish) state with an open Senate seat.

• “Money talks,” Jessica Taylor, of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, told Hansen. “It reflects that there are other races that Republicans see as (more) winnable than the Arizona Senate race right now.”

• It’s easy to see why. Polls show that a fair number of people, even in her own party, just don’t like Kari Lake.

• A May CBS/YouGov poll told the tale. While Trump drew support from 93% of Republican voters, Lake drew only 73%.

• If you aren’t winning at least 85% of your own party, you’ve got a problem.

• And Lake, it appears, has a problem….

• “Guess how much money I spent in the primary? Zero. I didn’t spend a penny,” Lake told reporters earlier this month. “I have been, since I jumped into this, focused on the enemy. The enemy is not Mark Lamb. The enemy is actually Ruben Gallego.”

• The enemy?

• Gallego is the son of immigrants, raised by a single mother on a secretary’s salary. A kid who went to work early doing whatever job he could find to help support his family. He’s a Marine who deployed to Iraq in 2005, serving with a company that lost 22 Marines and a Navy Corpsman during eight months of combat.

• And he’s … the enemy?

• That will play well with her MAGA base, which considers anyone who doesn’t march in lock-step with their views as a traitor to America. But those voters in the middle, the moderate Republicans and independents who Lake must win over if she wants to win?

• I picture them exhausted by Lake’s ever-present, MAGA-fueled fury, rolling their eyes and wondering.

• Since when did a fellow American become “the enemy” simply because you don’t agree with his politics?