Republican Kari Lake will soon be announcing her candidacy for a U.S. Senate seat representing Arizona that is held by Kyrsten Sinema, according to multiple published reports.
According to Politico, three people familiar with her plans said Lake is ready to announce her campaign. Sinema was elected as a Democrat and has since left the party, but still caucuses with the Democrats, who hold a 51-49 edge in the Senate. She has not yet confirmed she will seek re-election.
Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona already announced he will seek the Democratic nomination for the seat.
“Ruben Gallego and Kyrsten Sinema are rubber stamps for Joe Biden and his radical agenda. It’s time Arizona has a true conservative fighter in the U.S. Senate,” Caroline Wren, a senior advisor to Lake, said, according to The Hill.
“The people of Arizona want Kari Lake to stay in this fight and are calling on her to run and she’s very likely to answer that call,” she said.
?Kari Lake expected to announce US Senate run in October
I wish Arizona elections & courts were honest enough to make her Governor, but giving her a national platform to inspire & embolden conservatives across America is a pretty good consolation prize
https://t.co/DFYzMg50Xd— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) September 20, 2023
A report from CNN said two sources told the network Lake was planning an announcement sometime in October.
Lake’s expected entry comes as Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, a fellow Republican, has said he will run, according to Politico. Republican Blake Masters, who lost last year’s Senate contest, has indicated he is interested in running again, but has put his plans on hold until Lake makes her decision.
An Emerson College poll of Arizona voters last month found strong support for Lake.
The poll, which had a 2.6 percentage point margin of error, found that Lake was well ahead with 42 percent support. Undecided Republicans came next at 28 percent, with Lamb receiving 11 percent support and Masters receiving 7 percent support. Potential candidates Brian Wright and Jim Lamon each polled two percent.
“[President Biden] is bought and paid for by our adversaries.”@KariLake says President Biden has shown through his actions that he is beholden to “our enemies” instead of to the American people. pic.twitter.com/x7P4UNBiRK
— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) September 20, 2023
Lake ran for governor of Arizona last year and lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs. Although Lake has waged an uphill legal battle to have a new election, citing irregularities in how Maricopa County conducted the voting, so far she has not been successful.
Lake has not abandoned her efforts to have the 2022 election results thrown out.
Lake’s newest filing says there is new evidence to support her allegations of misconduct.
“New evidence demonstrates that Maricopa falsely certified its 446 vote-center tabulators passed mandatory [logic and accuracy] certification testing prior to Election Day and strongly suggests Maricopa planned the Election Day debacle,” the brief filed with the court said.
That matters, the filing said, because “misconfigured and defective [Ballot on Demand]-printed ballots caused Maricopa’s vote-center tabulators to reject tens of thousands of ballots, which would have been prevented by proper [logic and accuracy] testing.”
As a result, the filing said, “The ensuing chaos led to massive lines and wait times, thereby impairing or depriving the right to vote of tens of thousands of predominately Republican voters.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.