Kari Lake Receives Election Boost in Arizona as Campaign Team Teases Future

Kari Lake, the Donald Trump-backed candidate who refused to concede to Democrat Katie Hobbs in Arizona's latest gubernatorial election, enjoys a huge lead over likely Republican rivals in the 2024 race for a U.S. Senate seat in the state, though she hasn't officially confirmed whether she will join it.

According to a recent poll by J.L. Partners shared by conservative media company InteractivePolls on Twitter, Lake holds a 28-point lead over her nearest rival for the Republican nomination in the state when a sample of Republican voters in the state was asked to choose between a list of likely candidates.

The poll, conducted from April 10 to 12, surveyed 550 likely Arizona Republican primary voters, randomly sampled from data based on a state voter file. The results show that Lake attracted 38 percent of the vote, followed by Karrin Taylor Robson with only 10 percent of the primary vote, Mark Lamb with 8 percent, Blake Masters with 7 percent, Abe Hamadeh with 4 percent, and Jim Lamon with 3 percent.

Some 29 percent of Arizona Republican primary voters said they were undecided about which candidate they would support, while 2 percent said they would vote for "someone else."

The poll comes at a time when Lake's campaign team has teased that the public hasn't "seen the last of Kari Lake." In a post on Twitter, Alex Nicoll, Lake's rapid response director, was quoted saying: "Kari Lake is committed to fighting for the people of Arizona, championing America First policies, & doing everything in her power to ensure that President Trump is elected in 2024. One thing is for sure, you haven't seen the last of Kari Lake."

Lake had previously dismissed speculation about her joining the state's U.S. Senate race, saying that she would keep fighting to overturn the result of Arizona's gubernatorial race, which she lost by 17,000 votes.

But as her lawsuit challenging the election results has been consistently dismissed by state courts—though last month Arizona's Supreme Court kept the case alive by sending one of Lake's claims back to a county judge to review—Lake has changed her stance, saying she's "seriously considering" running for the Senate.

The Senate seat up for grabs in Arizona in 2024 is held by Kyrsten Sinema, who won the seat as a Democrat in 2018 but left the Democratic Party late last year. Sinema has not declared whether she will run for re-election, but The Wall Street Journal reported on April 7 that Sinema is preparing for a re-election campaign, setting the stage for what could be an unpredictable three-way contest.

U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego has said he'll run for the Democratic nomination.

Whether Lake plans to run for the state's Senate seat or not, she appears to be a popular candidate among Arizona's Republican voters.

Support for Lake grew among those who would back former President Donald Trump as the presidential candidate in 2024, according to the J.L. Partners poll. Some 58 percent of Trump voters said they'd choose Lake as their favorite candidate at the primary, while all other potential candidates collected less than 10 percent of the vote.

Pinal County Sheriff Lamb trailed Lake with 9 percent of the vote among Trump supporters, followed by Masters with 8 percent, former prosecutor Hamadeh with 5 percent, Lamon with 3 percent, and Taylor Robson with 1 percent. Lamb is the only declared Republican candidate so far.

Taylor Robson ran in the 2022 Republican gubernatorial primary in Arizona, when she was beaten by Lake. Masters lost to Democrat Mark Kelly in the 2022 election for Arizona's other U.S. Senate seat, while Lamon lost in the Republican primary in that same race.

J.L. Partners also polled Republican voters who would support Ron DeSantis in a party's presidential primary for 2024. A majority of DeSantis' voters also supported Lake as the party's Senate candidate, though they were generally less enthusiastic than Trump voters. Some 32 percent would vote for Lake, while 16 percent would support Taylor Robson, 9 percent Masters, 8 percent Lamb, 4 percent Lamon, and 2 percent Hamadeh.

More than half—51 percent—of voters who don't have a presidential primary preference were also unsure about who to vote for. Some 13 percent said they'd vote for Lake, while 13 percent said they'd support Taylor Robson.

For context, 47 percent of all registered Republican voters are likely to vote in support of Trump in the Arizona presidential primary and only 24 percent for DeSantis, according to the same poll.

Newsweek has contacted Lake's team for comment by email.

CORRECTION 4.50 p.m. EDT 04/17/23: Alex Nicoll is Kari Lake's rapid response director, not her campaign manager, as previously stated.