Kari Lake struggles to soften MAGA edges despite courting Arizona centrists

Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake is on a mission to court centrist Republicans she unapologetically attacked when running for governor last cycle, but her outreach has been met with some skepticism.

Lake was among the most vocal of last year’s Republican candidates who promoted former President Donald Trump’s stolen election claims. After narrowly losing her bid for governor to Democrat Katie Hobbs, Lake continues to challenge her own loss in 2022.

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Nonetheless, the former local TV anchor is positioning herself in the 2024 Arizona Senate race as a conservative who can reach far beyond her base of Trump backers to win the John McCain wing of the Republican Party and even soft Democratic voters.

Lake will first need to defeat Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb in a primary and then compete in what could be a three-way race with progressive Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), the likely Democratic nominee, and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), an independent. Sinema has not yet said if she is running for a second term after leaving the Democratic Party late last year.

“I think the media has tried to label me as somebody who has extreme views,” Lake said in an interview with the Washington Examiner this month. “I am always reaching out to every voter. I want every single vote. I want the independents, I want the Republicans, and I even want the disaffected Democrats who are kind of lifting their head up, going, ‘Whoa, this is not the Democratic Party we thought it was.'”

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However, many centrist Republicans in the state are not ready to forgive and forget. Less than a week ago, Lake was spotted at a campaign event with Jenna Ryan, who went to prison for her involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. She has also continued to defend those who participated in the Jan. 6 riots while campaigning for Senate, although national Republicans have advised her against focusing on events related to the last election.

During an appearance on Fox News last week, Lake emphasized those involved in the Jan. 6 attack were “political prisoners,” specifically one defendant who was seen swinging a baseball bat at police officers, according to court documents.

The Republican Senate candidate also posted about Owen Shroyer, a Jan. 6 participant and Infowars host who was recently released from prison after serving a two-month sentence following his participation in the riot, which prosecutors said he “helped create” by spreading misinformation on his platform.

“Glad you are back, healthy and energized,” Lake wrote, citing Shroyer’s social media post announcing he had been released.

Lake’s continued focus on the outcome of the last election and her insistence that recent elections were stolen from the GOP have some national Republicans on edge. In an interview with CNN ahead of Lake’s campaign announcement, Sen. Steve Daines (D-MT), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, recommended Lake “look to the future.”

“I think one thing we’ve learned from 2022 is voters do not want to hear about grievances from the past,” Daines said. “They want to hear about what you’re going to do for the future.”

Garrett Ventry, senior adviser to Lake, said the vast majority of what his candidate is talking about on the campaign trail and on social media is focused on issues such as the border, the economy, and inflation.

“It’s a lot of nitpicking from the press, unfortunately, on maybe one or two issues that folks don’t agree with, but there’s a large majority of the Republican Party that agrees with her on the Jan. 6 issue,” Ventry said.

To some extent, Lake is attempting to turn the page on her 2022 loss and has reached out to several of her political rivals from last year to repair the damage.

“She’s reaching out to people who in the past have not supported her because she thinks it’s important to get folks on the same page,” Ventry said. “She has even apologized for past comments; folks were offended by those, and she is trying to bring the party together.”

However, some Arizona centrists aren’t convinced Lake has changed.

“Campaigning with those who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection and defending them on cable news and social media is not a winning strategy,” said an Arizona GOP strategist, speaking on condition of anonymity. “That kind of rhetoric pushes moderate Republicans and independent voters away and truly shows she isn’t committed to making any kind of change.”

Throughout her 2022 gubernatorial campaign, she bragged that she “drove a stake through the heart of the McCain machine” and even called for repealing the Affordable Care Act at a campaign event in Scottsdale last year, slamming the late Arizona senator who voted “no” on his party’s effort to repeal it in 2017. During her bid, Lake has repeatedly attacked the legacy of the senator, who is still well respected in the state with centrists.

“A year ago, she told the McCain-wing, moderate Republicans, right-leaning independents, not to vote for her. It’s hard to make that pivot,” said Barrett Marson, an Arizona-based GOP strategist, in an interview with the Washington Examiner.

“I’ve talked to someone who met with her recently, and the pitch really was not that great. There didn’t appear to be any actual trying to appear more moderate, so I don’t know if the sales job is really going to work,” Marson added.

Lake met with Karrin Taylor Robson, her 2022 primary opponent, in late October in an effort to put the 2022 primary race behind them after Lake called Robson a gold digger using her husband’s money to win the election on social media during the race last year.

After the meeting, Robson did not endorse Lake but emphasized that she’d be watching the race closely, according to a person familiar with the discussion.

Lake also reached out to Kathy Petsas, a former Republican official Lake’s campaign personally attacked last year. Chuck Coughlin, a longtime Republican consultant and pollster in the state, said he heard the meeting did not go well.

“Kathy told me there was no really honest exchange of information. It was more robotic, like my presence here is going to make you feel better about me. It was not a substantive discussion of the issues,” Coughlin said.

Not everyone has had the same experience. Seth Leibsohn, a conservative talk show host in Phoenix, did not vote for Lake in the gubernatorial primary last year but ultimately decided to support her in the general election. He said he’s been part of several Zoom meetings in recent weeks with Lake and centrist Republicans and said they went “exceedingly well.”

“What I really do admire about Kari is her willingness to talk, at length and patiently with anyone. These calls went on longer than I had planned and longer than I expected at the busiest time of the year,” Leibsohn said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. ” She’s engaging back and forth with some of these folks who had their reservations and making sure she was responsive to their questions.”

While national Republicans, including the NRSC, were noncommittal about endorsing a Lake candidacy, they have begun to take her more seriously and are weighing an endorsement. Lake has also met with several Republican senators and has earned an endorsement from Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY) and Tom Cotton (R-AR).

“Since launching her campaign, Kari Lake has spent her time holding far-left Democrats like Ruben Gallego and Kyrsten Sinema accountable for their support of Biden’s failed agenda,” said Tate Mitchell, an NRSC spokesman. “Voters across the spectrum know Democrats are responsible for open borders, higher prices, and rising crime, and Arizonans are looking for a change.”

In a recent memo, Lake’s campaign argued that Arizona could be Republicans’ top pickup opportunity in an effort to make a case for national funding and support. However, national Republicans have focused most of their attention on Ohio and Montana, where vulnerable Democratic incumbent senators face reelection in states Trump won in 2020.

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“If they are looking at the numbers we are looking at, and I’m sure they are, this is way down in their priority list in terms of other options they have around the country,” Coughlin said.

“There are pickup opportunities for them to go get that are much easier for them to discern than this three-ring circus we got going on out here,” he added.