As Kari Lake starts her run for the Arizona Senate, she is turning over a new leaf. Gone is her enthusiasm for the MAGA fringe claims of election fraud–the Big Lie–the endless conspiracy theories and the attack dog tactics meant to endear herself to the delusional Donald Trump who demands one hundred percent loyalty in exchange for his support. By riding his coat tails, she lost her bid for the governor’s seat in 2022. It’s time to try a new approach.
Lake is reconsidering whether Trump’s coat tails are worth riding at all. In the mid-term election in 2022, the GOP expectation of a Red Wave never materialized. Indeed, it was a very disappointing showing and perhaps a wakeup call for all those Republican candidates who believed that Trump’s endorsement would mean a golden ticket to Congress. Trump “dragged down his party’s candidates — nationally and in key swing states with Senate races — despite being out of power.”
“It was a Trump problem,” a Republican operative involved in the 2022 election told NBC News. “Independents didn’t vote for candidates they viewed as extreme and too closely linked with Donald J. Trump.”
Lake is now trying out a new tactic; the question is whether she can succeed in freeing herself from the fringe elements, and craft a new image.
She is seeking to appeal to the Republican “big tent” by framing Trump’s Make America Great Again movement as a natural evolution of Reaganism, a political philosophy that catapulted former actor Ronald Reagan to the White House and became a byword for a moderate Republicanism in the 1980s. These policies emphasized tax cuts, decreased social spending, increased military spending, and deregulation of domestic markets. Reagan’s approach was rooted in his belief that a smaller government and reduced taxes would foster economic growth. But the popularity of Reaganism was also fueled by his charisma and considerable powers of communication—gifts that few politicians have.
Despite being a polarizing figure, Reagan’s pragmatic approach allowed him to redefine the modern Republican Party and leave a lasting impact on American politics. Until Donald Trump came along in 2016, that is.
Lake has also moderated her message on abortion, an issue that is virtually a litmus test for staunch conservative Republicans. She now opposes a federal ban on the procedure she once called “the ultimate sin.”
Nevertheless, after six months, Lake is struggling to peddle her new image, not least because, as she did at a campaign event last week in Cave Creek, Ariz., she continues her legal challenges to her 2022 election loss and continues to admonish her fellow Republicans as cowards who did not support her fight. She also persists in disseminating more election fraud conspiracy theories: this time that Democrats are orchestrating illicit voting schemes involving undocumented immigrants.
“That’s the only way they can win — with illegals voting,” Lake said.
Moderate Republicans in Arizona are not buying her new sales pitch and question its adequacy and sincerity. Even more ominous is that her attempt to capture a new contingent of Republican voters may lose her many of her former supporters. According to The New York Times, some conservatives who supported her in 2022 “have voiced concerns about her authenticity and questioned her ability to win in November”.
“Kari Lake is making a lot of rookie mistakes, and you just don’t know what you’re going to get with her or where she’s going to land,” said Dan Farley, the president of the Arizona Tea Party and a former supporter who is now backing her primary opponent, Sheriff Mark Lamb of Pinal County. “She’s a powerful force but kind of like a bazooka lacking aim. She’s blowing up her own garage instead of enemies in the driveway.”
Despite the uncertainty of her position, she is currently the front runner in the race for the seat being vacated by Senator Kyrsten Sinema, an independent. The question remains as to how far Kari Lake go in crafting and pushing a new agenda that does not pander to the MAGA contingent and that may be seen by many as a transparently cynical attempt to deceive.
