Former TV news anchor Kari Lake has scored some impressive endorsements as she seeks to win a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona currently occupied by Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema.
The contest is very important, as it could end up determining which political party gains control of Congress’ upper chamber following November’s election.
On Tuesday, Senator Steve Daines, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, announced they will be supporting Lake for the seat.
This support foreshadows that Lake could be advancing her political chances after narrowly losing the Arizona gubernatorial election in the 2022 midterms.
In a statement released this week, Daines said:
“Kari Lake is one of the most talented candidates in the country. Kari is building out an effective campaign operation that has what it takes to flip Arizona’s Senate seat in November. I’m proud to endorse Kari Lake for United States Senate.”
Lake has aligned herself very closely with former President Donald Trump, which has won her many supporters but also some detractors. She has consistently peddled claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
While Lake lost Arizona’s governorship election in 2022 by only about 17,000 votes, she refused to ever concede. She tried on multiple occasions to challenge those results in court, but she was unsuccessful in her efforts.
Last October, she announced that she would be running for the Senate in Arizona, targeting a seat that has a good chance to flip after Sinema left the Democratic Party last year to become an Independent.
In that time, she’s courted members of the NRSC and Republicans from the “establishment,” seeking to expand her reach and move from the outskirts of the party to the mainstream.
She appeared at the committee’s winter meeting that was held last weekend in Florida.
After she received the endorsement from Daines, Lake issued a statement of her own that said:
“I am honored to have the endorsement of Chairman Daines and the NRSC. We are uniting Republicans in Arizona and have a clear path to victory. The Senate Majority runs through Arizona.”
During Daines’ time as chair of the NRSC, the committee has been much more hands-on during primaries — attempting to not only get certain people to run for office but also in dissuading others from running — than it was under his predecessor, Florida Senator Rick Scott.
The NRSC has also officially endorsed Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania and Tim Sheey in Montana.
Lake is currently considered the overwhelming favorite to win the Republican primary this spring. Her only GOP rival is Mark Lamb, the sheriff of Pinal County.
If she is to make it through that, she’ll face a Democrat and possibly also Sinema in the general election in November.
On March 6, the NRSC will host a fundraiser for Lake that Daines will attend alongside of Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, who’s the chair of the Senate GOP Conference.
