Kari Lake’s signal accomplishment in politics is losing to a Democrat in Arizona.
That took work, and a reverse sort of genius, but she was up to it. Lake ran for governor on a 3-part platform: (1) Zero experience for the job, (2) insisting Trump was robbed in 2020, and (3) asserting the election would be illegitimate unless she won.
Arizonans, including many independents and some Republicans, turned out to vote against her. Although the election was close, a majority of voters didn’t want a crackpot running their state. Since losing, Lake has worked overtime to prove they were wise to brush her off.
Lake had worked as a local news anchor, so she had name familiarity going for her, but by far her biggest asset was Trump’s endorsement. That got her the top spot in the GOP primary, but in the 2022 general elections, Trumpist election denial hit a brick wall across the country, including in Arizona.
What’s next for her? She can’t return to mainstream journalism, because she’s too partisan, and went out of her way to antagonize the media. She won’t be Trump’s VP pick in 2024 (he won’t win anyway), because as a GOP strategist pointed out, “you can be a lot of things in Trump World, but you can’t be a loser.” Local GOP consultants say she’s creating too much ill-will to have a future in Arizona politics. (See story here.)
But one of those consultants believes she still has a career path open to her: “This whole campaign was just an audition for either RBSN, OANN, NewsMax, some conservative outlet … she could probably get some sort of … gig on one of those channels.” Maybe even on Steve Bannon’s podcast, until he has to report to prison.