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You may have heard that Kari Lake, the Trump-loving election denier running for an Arizona seat in the U.S. Senate, is in an all-out sprint trying to distance herself from her extreme, antidemocratic views.
On Tuesday, she faceplanted when Arizona’s Supreme Court declined her request to toss a defamation lawsuit filed against her by a Phoenix-area election official she targeted after her failed candidacy in Arizona’s 2022 gubernatorial race. Stephen Richer, a fellow Republican who serves as Maricopa County recorder, is suing Lake in his personal capacity over falsehoods she spread widely on social media after her loss. Lake, who has repeatedly told her followers that she was a victim of election “sabotage,” has characterized Richer’s lawsuit as an attempt to silence her.
The lawsuit is just one of the ways that voters in Maricopa, the state’s most populous county, could be reminded of Lake’s assault on their voting system as they cast their ballots.
The lawsuit is just one of the ways that voters in Maricopa, the state’s most populous county, could be reminded of Lake’s assault on their voting system as they cast their ballots. As The Arizona Republic noted, the case “could go to trial during a contentious election year in which both Richer and Lake will be running for elected offices, or immediately after in 2025.”
Lake’s team has been hard at work trying to paper over her extremism in recent weeks. On Monday, her lawyer withdrew a notice that Lake would appeal after losing her third lawsuit challenging her election loss. Lake had sought access to more than 1 million ballot envelopes, but now she doesn’t want to move forward with the charade.
Some of Lake’s attempted backpedaling has earned mockery and rebuke. This was clearest when she tried to trivialize her attacks on the late Sen. John McCain, seemingly out of concern that his Republican allies won’t back her in November. The unmistakable resentment from Meghan McCain, the senator’s daughter, in response was just a peek into the struggles that Lake is likely to face in winning over non-MAGA voters this fall.
Further complicating things is the fact that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., just announced that she won’t be running for re-election. That means non-MAGA voters will have a clear choice between Lake — assuming she wins her primary — and the Democratic opponent, which is almost certainly going to be Rep. Ruben Gallego, who has lots of name recognition in the state as a member of Arizona’s congressional delegation.
Not a great political outlook for right-wingers when it comes to this Senate race.
And the fact Lake was recently photographed with someone who has ties to white nationalism won’t help her as she tries to whitewash her extremist ways. If Republicans thought draining the “swamp” was hard, just wait until they find out how difficult it is to cleanse a Lake.