Kari Lake tried to jump from the news business, where she was a TV anchor, to major political office without any political experience. It didn’t work.
What happened was predictable: It was too wide a crevasse. She fell in twice, losing a race for Arizona governor in 2022, and a Senate race in 2024.
She came close in 2022, missing by 17,117 votes (0.6%). Tying herself to MAGA and Trump’s election denialism turned off at least 30,000 Republican voters (see posting here) cost her that election.
But getting that close encouraged her to try again. The second time, it wasn’t so close. Although votes are still being counted, at this writing Lake is behind by more than 45,000 votes, a deficit of 1.5%, even though Trump handily carried the state by nearly 185,000 votes (6.2%).
Let’s recap. Based on preliminary tallies, but with most ballots counted four days after the election, Trump got about 148,700 more votes than she did in the same election. It certainly seems the more Arizona voters get to know her, the less they can stand her (bottom photo).
Lake hadn’t changed between the two elections. She still hasn’t conceded her 2022 loss, which she kept litigating until every judge in Arizona was tired of her.
She was still sucking up to Trump, even visiting him at Mar-a-Lago and sharing body heat with him (photo, right), angling for the veep spot on his ticket (a pipedream if there ever was one, see posting here).
So why did she lose, when he won? Partly because his coattails are very short, if they exist at all. But mostly because she’s a lousy candidate.
For starters, she’s stupid (see postings here and here), and incompetent as a candidate (see posting here); we have no data on her competence to govern, because she’s never held any office, and never will, but I think we can extrapolate.
She’s a weasel when she isn’t lying (see posting here, and posting and video here). And in her court battles, she argued (in her own defense) that she’s crazy (see posting here), a point I won’t dispute (see posting here).
She’s so determined to get on the public teat she contemplated committing election fraud (see posting here). I have no idea whether she followed through with that scheme, but if she did register dogs and gila monsters to vote, they must have voted for her opponent.
If you’ve been clicking on all these links, by now you realize I’ve had a field day making fun of her. I even called her a “comedian” here. Because she is one, in the non-funny sense; she not only sucks as a candidate, but as a human being too. She’s dishonest, empty-headed, and frankly, repulsive.
What’s next for her? She can’t return to journalism because she’s partisan now. She could try to stay in politics, but that won’t be up to her; if GOP donors pull the plug on her, she won’t be able to run for office again. She’s given them no reason not to. She’s a proven bad investment of campaign dollars.
She’ll undoubtedly grovel for a job in Trump Administration 2.0, but if she gets one it’ll be a very minor role. Losers unpopular with their own party’s voters don’t get big political jobs. If Trump tried to give her one, his transition staff would intervene.
What if he completely snubs her, as he eventually does to everyone who sucks up to him? And Trump is known to despise losers. How does an ex-candidate whose “signal accomplishment in politics is losing to a Democrat in Arizona” twice make a living? As I posted here, “That took work, and a reverse sort of genius.”
Well, she could call Kamala Harris for tips on how to apply for a job at McDonalds. After all, Harris did land that job, despite what Trump says. I just would recommend a little more disguise when she goes in for the interview. The shades alone (photo, left) might not be enough.
