Fresh off a narrow defeat in her gubernatorial race, Kari Lake is seeking to remake the Arizona GOP in her image — rather than in John McCain’s. Her moves include plans to primary Republicans who did win their elections as recently as last November — and they come as the former journalist is keeping multiple professional irons in fires, all while freezing the GOP field in next year’s high-stakes Senate race.
While most Arizona strategists expect Lake to announce a Senate campaign this fall, there is also speculation that she is competing to be Donald Trump’s running mate.
“We drove a stake through the heart of the McCain machine,” Lake bragged. During her campaign, she infamously told McCain voters that she did not want their support, despite the political maverick’s decades-long track record of actually winning Arizona elections by landslide margins.
In recent years, Arizona Republicans have flamed out in every statewide election where they’ve nominated the type of candidate Lake and her allies want Republicans to select next year. Lake, however, remains incredibly popular with her loyalists in the state and on conservative media outlets across the country — and far right, but potentially unelectable, candidates are what they’re looking for.
Abraham Hamadeh is rumored to be a potential candidate to primary Rachel Mitchell, who is up for reelection as the district attorney of Arizona’s populous Maricopa County, next year. He campaigned extensively with Lake last year during his unsuccessful campaign for attorney general.
If not Hamadeh, some in Lake’s circle are publicly agitating for Jen Wright, a former assistant attorney general whom fellow Arizona Republicans deride as a “whacko,” to challenge Mitchell. For months, Wright has fought side by side with Lake as she tried to overturn her defeat to Katie Hobbs, a Democrat who many criticized for barely campaigning last year.
Winning Maricopa County is essential for winning statewide; both Lake and Hamadeh lost it last November, while Mitchell beat back a repeat opponent funded by George Soros-tied groups.
It’s not just Mitchell who is facing a potential primary from the far right. Maricopa County recorder Stephen Richer may face former Lake ticket-mate Mark Finchem, who also lost last November. Finchem recently moved into Maricopa County and is already mulling a bid for a position to administer elections. Prior to winning his statewide primary, Finchem was derided by some of his GOP colleagues in the legislature as “one of the dumbest legislators in the state House.”
One Republican operative involved in Arizona races told Cockburn that “people would be wise to focus on candidates who have the ability to win over voters who were critical to the success of Republicans who actually won statewide races.” It’s unclear if that will happen next year.
While some of these primaries have yet to materialize, Lake’s forces have already successfully purged intra-party foes like the former House speaker, Rusty Bowers, and member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Bill Gates, who is not running for reelection. Gates, who has been targeted with death threats for refusing to side with Donald Trump’s camp in seeking to overturn his Arizona loss, says he has suffered from PTSD since the 2020 election. Now, both parties will seek to win his seat next year.
A Lake Senate campaign, combined with potential wins by her fellow travelers down-ballot, already has some Arizona Republicans sweating. “Arizona Republicans are in serious threat of losing control of the State Legislature and powerful local offices if they continue to placate a fringe that is largely out of step with your average Arizonan,” a local Arizona political consultant told Cockburn.
An earlier version of this story contained a reference to Hamadeh’s father, which has since been removed.
