Kari Lake wins Arizona Senate primary, will face 'extreme liberal Democrat' Ruben Gallego in November

On Tuesday, Kari Lake defeated rivals Mark Lamb and Elizabeth Reye to become the Republican candidate for Senate in Arizona. Lake, who also ran for governor of the state in 2022 but lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs, will face off in November against uncontested Democrat Ruben Gallego.

Over 600,000 Arizonans showed up to have their say in the Republican primary, with 340,213 casting their ballots for Lake. Lamb and Reye received 240,877 and 33,287 votes, respectively.

 

"This is an all-hands-on-desk moment," Lake told the audience at her victory party. "It's gonna take people from all walks of life; it's gonna take Trump Republicans, it's going to take traditional Republicans, it's going to take conservatives, libertarians, even some disaffected Democrats."

The Illinois native described her opponent as "an extreme liberal Democrat from Chicago who was hand-picked to move to Arizona and try to turn this amazing state into a socialist state," pulling out binders full of paper showing his "destructive voting record."

"He votes with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris 100 percent of the time," Lake said before going through a laundry list of all the policies he championed and the impact they've had on Americans and Arizonans alike. She zeroed in on those related to Gallego's stance on defunding the police, allowing biological men into women's spaces, and keeping the border open.

Lake went on to attack Gallego's character, saying he's "not a good guy." To illustrate her point, she noted that he "walked out on his wife days before she gave birth to their first-born baby … served her divorce papers, and ran off with a DC lobbyist."

"If he's willing to walk out on his family," she said, "he's willing to walk out on the voters of this great state. We cannot let that man in the US Senate."

In a statement, per the Hill, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines congratulated Lake on her success, and called on Arizonans to "unite to defeat Ruben Gallego, one of the most radical Democrats in the country." Lake, he argued, "will work with President Trump to secure the border, get crime under control, and bring down prices."