Kari Lake Raises $2.1 Million as Arizona Senate Candidate, Campaign Says

Arizona Republican candidate Kari Lake speaks with supporters at a rally in Phoenix on Nov. 3, 2022. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake’s campaign revealed Monday that she has raised more than $2 million in the past quarter.

The former television anchor, a Republican, launched her Senate bid in October, with her most recent fundraising total of $2.1 million occurring between mid-October and Dec. 31, 2023, her campaign told Politico.

Ms. Lake ”has strong grassroots support that is clearly translating to fundraising success,” said Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), the National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman who is in charge of the Senate GOP’s campaigning efforts, in a statement posted by the Senate Republicans’ X account on Monday. The post was made in reference to the Politico article regarding her campaign cash.

“Kari Lake is outworking everyone, posting a very strong fundraising haul for her first quarter in the race. Arizona is the best pick up opportunity for Senate Republicans,” Garrett Ventry, a Lake senior adviser, told Politico about the fundraising.

After being endorsed by former President Donald Trump during her 2022 campaign for Arizona’s gubernatorial race, Ms. Lake threw her hat into the race to potentially unseat Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), a onetime Democrat who still caucuses with her former party. Ms. Sinema has not officially launched her reelection campaign.

Ms. Sinema raised $826,000 from July through September 2023, or about half of what she had raised between April and June of that same year. At the time, she had about $10.8 million cash on hand, according to federal election records.

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Other than Ms. Lake and Ms. Sinema, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) announced he would run for the Senate seat as a Democrat. Mr. Gallego raised $3.1 million last quarter and spent about $1.8 million, records show. Neither of Ms. Lake’s likely rivals announced their most recent fundraising totals.

Ms. Lake, meanwhile, was once again backed by President Trump as well as several GOP senators such as John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).

Other than the Senate campaign, she has continued to pursue election-related lawsuits, arguing that there were significant problems during the 2022 gubernatorial election in Maricopa County, the most populous area in Arizona, that swung the election out of her favor. She has not conceded that race, although Democrat Katie Hobbs was sworn in as governor last January.

Several weeks ago, the Republican candidate issued a warning after it was confirmed her lawyers may face punishment over her election-related lawsuits. The Attorney Discipline Probable Cause Committee filed probable cause orders against her attorneys, Bryan Blehm, Kurt Olsen, and Andrew Parker, who had represented Ms. Lake in multiple lawsuits that were filed after the 2022 midterms.

“They are suing me for having the courage to speak out about election fraud and maladministration. They are indicting and persecuting President Trump. They are imprisoning journalists. You are next. No one is safe with this tyrannical government,” Ms. Lake warned on X, formerly Twitter, last month.

‘I Continue to Fight Every Day’

She also told a local news outlet that “there is a war that’s happening against our republic. And I mean, I think that’s a fair assessment. I think there was a coup when they stole our election in Arizona.”

“There was a coup and a takeover of our state government“ and that ”the people’s will …. was taken from them when they rigged an election and they installed people in our state government who were not duly elected,” Ms. Lake said.

“And this is why I continue to fight every day,” she added.

In November, an Arizona judge rejected the former Republican gubernatorial candidate’s request to view signed ballots of about 1.3 million early voters in the state.

In a ruling on Nov. 30, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Hannah denied her lawyers from gaining access to the ballot envelopes in connection to last year’s elections. He argued that releasing the ballot envelopes and signatures would imperil the verification process for future Arizona elections.

Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, here in 2019 when she was a Democrat before becoming an Independent, could be embroiled in a three-way race in 2024 in seeking a second term. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo)

“The broad right of electoral participation outweighs the narrow interests of those who would continue to pick at the machinery of democracy,” the judge wrote at the time, adding that the release of the envelopes would “create a significant risk of widespread voter fraud where none now exists.”

Their release, he said, would also “expose voters to harassment and potentially force them to defend the integrity of their own votes. Some number of voters would stop participating entirely, out of fear of identity theft or concern about privacy.”

And in October, a federal appeals court rejected her case that sought to revive an attempt to bar electronic voting machines from future elections.

On her X account and in interviews, Ms. Lake has made fewer statements about the 2022 election and has instead focused on targeting both Mr. Gallego and Ms. Sinema ahead of the 2024 election.

The Epoch Times has contacted Ms. Lake’s campaign for comment on the fundraising figures.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.