SCOTTSDALE, Arizona – Kari Lake officially announced her entry into the U.S. Senate race in Arizona Tuesday evening at Jetset Magazine in Scottsdale. Incumbent Kyrsten Sinema, now an independent, is expected to run again, and Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03) appears to have the Democratic primary locked up. Lake will face Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb in the Republican primary. Over a thousand showed up for the event, filling the area outside the business. Former President Donald Trump appeared by video to endorse Lake.
Abe Hamadeh, who is still challenging his 280-vote loss to Democrat Kris Mayes in the attorney general’s race, gave a brief speech first. He slammed the politicians concerned more about their “decadent, self-serving cocktail parties,” In reference to his previous military experience, he said he was ready to be “down in the trenches” with Lake and the campaign.
Lake began her speech by saying she missed Trump as president, including his “mean tweets,” which were “keeping us safe.” She went after Joe Biden, “I’m about to put him on an Amtrak back to Delaware.” She said she didn’t care “where he wants to go … China, Ukraine, Iran.”
Lake addressed the recent atrocity in the Middle East, Hamas’ attack on Israel. “I’m worried about the same thing happening here,” she said. She cited the “thousands of young men” coming across the U.S.-Mexico border and the “heavily armed cartels going back and forth across the Arizona border like they own the place.”
She declared, “The cartels own Arizona!”
Lake said Biden was in Arizona two weeks ago, but “nobody cares;” he “stumbled off the plane” and “recited a few lines that somebody told him his handlers told him he had to say, but he never once uttered a word about the invasion of our southern border.”
Biden called MAGA “a threat to democracy,” she said, but “you, Joe, are a threat to America, and crooked Joe, you are a threat to the world.” She said, “Can you believe this on day one, he came in and he reversed President Trump’s policy that made us energy independent. I mean, what kind of a fool does that and that is what is leading up to the out-of-control inflation.”
She said, “No one has been hit harder [with inflation] than Phoenix.”
The senate candidate said Arizonans are forced to use credit cards to pay their bills.
“When President Trump was in office, we had record low mortgage rates. Now they’re at 8 percent and they’re climbing. And 75 percent of Americans say that things are going in the wrong direction,” Lake said.
She added, “We’re going right off the cliff now.”
As Lake does in every speech, she blasted her former colleagues in the media, labeling the packed risers with reporters at the back of the event as “propagandists back there in the media.” She asked, “Have you noticed how they like to build up the warmongers and the liars? And they like to tear down the peacemakers and the truth tellers.” “The news is full of crap,” she said. “It’s gone full-blown propaganda.”
She went on, “We have the most biased news in the whole world right here in Arizona,” citing a local reporter who called her “the most dangerous politician in America.” She said the local news has also called her “Trump in heels,” which the reporter thought was an insult but she said is a compliment.
She countered the negativity by adding, “But I will tell you what’s happening right now in the world is bringing people closer to God.”
Unlike a large number of Republicans, Lake has not shied away from championing issues the media ridicules like combating election corruption, and she reminded her audience, “I’m really tired of watching our politicians retreat from every single important battle. … We are on the final hill right now. And I’m not surrendering this hill. I am not going to retreat. ”
She pledged to be “the most pro-America senator, and the only way to fix our problems is with America First policies. President Trump showed us how to do it.”
Lake peppered her trademark humor and sarcasm throughout her speech. Addressing her detractors, she said, ”I’ve raised toddlers and teenagers. I don’t give a d*** what you think about me.”
“I want to warn you it’s going to be even crazier and nastier than the last election cycles,” she cautioned. “Bring it on. And the media, our friends in the media are going to be incredibly awful.” She explained how “it’s always opposite day with the media.” “Whatever they say assume the polar opposite. The people they attack the most, like President Trump, are the people who are fighting for you the most.”
Lake criticized the fentanyl pouring over the border, and brought a mother on stage who had lost her son to fentanyl. She criticized her opponents Sinema and Gallego for caring more about Ukraine’s border than the U.S.’s border.
Lake addressed several other issues in her speech. “We want to start drilling for oil and gas again.” She brought up abortion, noting, “I don’t know any mother who says ‘I wish I wasn’t a mother.’” In contrast, she said, ask a woman who has been to an abortion clinic and she will likely respond “it is the greatest regret of her life.” Lake pointed out that she is the “only mother in the race.”
She said her constituents are the “people of Arizona.” In contrast, the constituents of her opponents are the “military-industrial complex, giant corporations, Big Pharma, big banks, [and] the WTF globalist organizations.”
Lake noted that Gallego “just recently filled out a federal form saying Washington D.C. is his main residence in Arizona. Actually, if that’s his main residence can even run for Senate in Arizona?” She criticized Sinema for referring to Arizona as “the meth lab of democracy.” She pointed out that her opponents’ campaign websites are devoid of policy; “all you’ll see is a donate button.”
Taking another dig at Gallego, she said, “The fastest growing homeless population in America is smack dab in the middle of Ruben Gallego’s district.”
Trump appeared in a video toward the end of the event, calling Biden the “worst,” “most corrupt,” and “most incompetent” president ever. “In three awful years, crooked Joe Biden has sent our nation on a tragedy to hell,” he said.
Lake, who has not indicated she is giving up her election fight for governor, concluded her speech telling the attendees to “turn off the fake news” and “cancel the subscriptions.” She asked them to sign her petitions and get others to sign them and donate.
“God put us here at the moment means we are the people who save this country,” she ended, bringing her family up on stage. “God bless each and every one of you.”
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
