Kari Lake is the favorite for Arizona's next governor. At least, that what the polls say, which predict that the Republican candidate will beat Katie Hobbs in the upcoming midterm elections to be held in November. Therefore, the Democratic Party believes that with her possible victory, Lake would gain a very important role within the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement. This makes Democrats feel uneasy.
"If you get a candidate who has the performance skills of a major-market local TV anchor and the philosophy and thinking of Steve Bannon, that's a potent and dangerous combination. ... Look at Italy," David Axelrod told Axios, former adviser to Barack Obama.
"I am a true citizen."
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart, Lake explained why she decided to run in this midterm election:
I think one of the things is I am truly a citizen stepping up to run for office. Most other people running have connections in the world of politics. I am truly doing this because the people of Arizona asked me to do it. And I got fed up with my career; I got fed up with propaganda. I walked away from that. And I think that God pushed me to make that decision and opened me up for this moment.
To which she added:
I don’t need to have a bunch of political people telling me what to talk about because I get this state. And the grassroots are behind me because they recognize, ‘She’s in this for the right reason. She’s not controlled by this group or that group. She’s in this because she really loves Arizona.’ And that’s… what people want from their elected officials, someone who’s in it for the right reason.
Thanks to this approach, Lake has the backing of the Republican establishment, such as outgoing Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, and GOP donors. One of her strengths is her dialectic (she is a journalist by profession), which is helping her win the support of the majority of Arizonan voters, especially voters between 18 and 39 years of age, who put her at an 11-point lead over Hobbs.
Dialectics and criticism of the media
Her work in the media helped her adopt a dialectic that appeals to voters, GOP donors and its establishment. One of the political tools she used during her campaign was to criticize and contradict the mainstream media that positioned themselves against her candidacy.
A reporter once asked her, "You say Joe Biden is dividing the country. But don't you think Donald Trump is doing the same thing by telling people, falsely, that he won the election, when he lost it?" To which Lake replied:
How can that divide the country? Questioning an election where there are obvious problems is dividing the country? Since when can we not ask questions about our choices? I was a journalist for many years. I was a journalist after 2016. And I clearly remember a lot of people, just like you, asking a lot of questions about the 2016 election results. And no one tried to shut them up. No one tried to tell Hillary Clinton to shut up. No one tried to tell Kamala Harris, when she was questioning the legitimacy of these electronic voting machines, to stop.
Kari Lake with an absolute flamethrower for this reporter on questioning elections: pic.twitter.com/TOtF3Xa6Tk
- Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) September 3, 2022
Kari Lake and journalism
The Republican candidate was a journalist and television host for nearly three decades. She also spoke to Breitbart about her decision to leave journalism because of the progressive drift of the media:
We’re so on to the legacy media, the mainstream media, it’s so obvious what they’re up to. The way they cover things when they go, ‘Oh, you can’t ask that, you’re an election denier, you’re this,’ they call people names, and you just go ‘Wait a minute, journalists shouldn’t call names like that, they shouldn’t label people.' I think people are awake to the fake news, and thank God for President Trump for opening our eyes. I just got fed up; I knew it was heading toward the left. I knew that the majority of people in the news were liberal, some of them hardcore leftists, and it was a smaller and smaller and smaller group of people who were conservative.
Tulsi Gabbard to campaign for Kari Lake
After leaving the Democratic Party for being in the service of "a woke and warmongering elite," Tulsi Gabbard called on the rest of the more sensible Democrats to leave the party. Now, the former congresswoman is showing her support for Kari Lake and will campaign for the Arizona gubernatorial candidate. In a statement, she announced that she will participate in a Lake rally along with Blake Masters (Republican Senate candidate) and Abe Hamadeh (attorney general hopeful).
On her Twitter account, Gabbard praised Kari Lake's work:
For too long, establishment leaders from both parties have sought to enrich themselves, play games and build up their power while ignoring and even enabling the suffering of millions of hard-working Americans. Kari Lake is a leader who puts people first, is fighting for border security, energy independence, public safety, and other policies that actually make life better and more affordable for the American people. Kari Lake isn’t afraid to call out the warmongering elitist cabal of permanent Washington and the Military Industrial Complex, and their propagandists in the mainstream media.
For too long establishment leaders from both parties have sought to enrich themselves, play games, and build up their power while ignoring and even enabling the suffering of millions of hard-working Americans. Kari Lake is a leader who... (1/3) pic.twitter.com/TTpMiOsiSF
- Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) October 18, 2022
She is not the first Republican representative she has endorsed. Last week, Gabbard showed her trust and support for Joe Kent, who is running for the House of Representatives for Washington's 3rd District, and Don Bolduc, who is running to become a New Hampshire state senator, and will participate in their campaigns. Both candidates are supported by Trump.
Hobbs rejected the debate
In the Arizona governor's race, Lake and Hobbs have yet to debate, nor will they debate. The Democratic hopeful refused to debate Lake, a strategy questioned because of its importance in flipping the polls.
Hobbs said debating Lake would be "the object of national ridicule." She criticized her for "embracing former President Trump's false claims" after the former president pointed out that the 2020 election was rigged.
