Republican Senate leadership is throwing its weight behind Kari Lake’s campaign for Arizona’s toss-up seat.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee is endorsing Lake and is set to host a fundraiser with her on March 6th, Politico first reported.
“I am honored to have the endorsement of Chairman Daines and the NRSC,” Lake told the outlet in a statement. “We are uniting Republicans in Arizona and have a clear path to victory, The Senate Majority runs through Arizona.”
Lake reportedly met with NRSC Chair Steve Daines (R., Mont.) when she visited D.C. in October at the time her campaign filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission. She was also scheduled to meet with GOP strategist Josh Holmes and Republican Senators Graham (S.C.) and Barrasso, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Barrasso intends on campaigning with Lake in Arizona on February 29th after previously endorsing her campaign, according to Politico.
“Kari Lake is one of the most talented candidates in the country,” Daines told Politico. “Kari is building out an effective campaign operation that has what it takes to flip Arizona’s Senate seat in November.”
A star among the MAGA faithful, Lake narrowly lost the Arizona gubernatorial election in 2022 to Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs and continues to contest the outcome of the election. The former news anchor rose to national prominence during the 2022 campaign cycle and has become one of former President Donald Trump’s most high-profile surrogates, thanks in part to her continued insistence that Trump was the rightful winner of the 2020 election.
Trump endorsed Lake in a video posted to Truth Social upon the official launch of her senate campaign.
Lake is widely expected to win the Republican primary against Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb and other lesser known GOP candidates. The state’s former GOP Chair Jeff DeWit resigned in January after an audio conversation leaked where he appeared to attempt to bribe Lake out of running for the senate in early 2023.
Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema, the incumbent, has not made a decision on whether she will run for reelection. She defected from the Democratic party in December 2022 after emerging as a moderate swing vote by opposing Democrats’ plans to end the filibuster to pass a national abortion law and objecting to parts of President Biden’s “Build Back Better” spending proposal that later became the Inflation Reduction Act.
Representative Ruben Gallego (D., Ariz.) is the projected Democratic senatorial candidate for the general election and will likely command the overwhelming Democratic vote share.
Limited polling data shows Gallego and Lake are in a dead heat with or without Sinema in the race, according to FiveThirtyEight. Multiple polls show Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, leading President Biden in the 2024 general election.