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The Senate Republicans’ campaign arm is throwing its assist behind Kari Lake in battleground Arizona’s essential race, a contest that might decide if the GOP wins again management of the chamber in November.
Tuesday’s announcement by National Republican Senatorial Committee chair Sen. Steve Daines is the most recent signal that Lake is transferring previous her outsider and fiery election-denial-centered 2022 campaign for Arizona governor and is succesful of working with the GOP institution.
“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,” Daines, the Republican senator from Montana who’s chairing the NRSC this cycle, mentioned in an announcement.
THE TOP FIVE SENATE SEATS LIKELY TO FLIP IN NOVEMBER
Former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake publicizes her bid for the seat of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema on Oct. 10, 2023, in Scottsdale. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
Lake is a former longtime native TV information anchor in Arizona who’s a robust supporter of former President Donald Trump and his unproven claims his 2020 election loss to President Biden was due to huge voter fraud. She sparked loads of controversy in her slender 2022 gubernatorial election loss. Lake by no means conceded her greater than 17,000-vote defeat and repeatedly and unsuccessfully challenged the ends in courtroom.
But since asserting her Senate bid final October, Lake has constantly courted the NRSC and institution Republicans, most not too long ago final weekend on the campaign committee’s winter assembly in Palm Beach, Florida.
“I am honored to have the endorsement of Chairman Daines and the NRSC,” Lake mentioned in an announcement, which was first reported by Politico. “We are uniting Republicans in Arizona and have a clear path to victory. The Senate Majority runs through Arizona.”
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Daines and the NRSC have been far more palms on in GOP Senate primaries – in candidate recruitment and efforts to dissuade others from working – compared to the committee throughout the 2022 cycle below then-chairman Sen. Rick Scott of Florida.
Sen. Steve Daines speaks to reporters on the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 9, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The NRSC backed candidates Tim Sheehy in Montana and Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania as they launched their campaigns. But whereas Daines has complimented Lake in latest months, he has waited till now for an official endorsement.
In Arizona, Lake faces a nominal rival in Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, and she or he’s thought-about the overwhelming favourite to win the nomination.
Fox News has confirmed that the NRSC will host a fundraiser for Lake on March 6, which will likely be attended by Daines as properly as Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the Senate GOP Conference chair.
Barrasso, the quantity three Republican in Senate GOP management, had beforehand endorsed Lake and plans to campaign together with her in Arizona on Feb. 29.
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Democrats management the U.S. Senate with a 51-49 majority, however Republicans are taking a look at a positive Senate map this yr, with Democrats defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs. Three of these seats are in red states that Trump carried in 2020 – West Virginia, Montana and Ohio.
Five different blue-held seats are in key swing states narrowly carried by President Biden in 2020 – Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
From left, Republican Pinal County, Arizona, Sheriff Mark Lamb, Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake (Getty Images)
Once reliably red, Arizona has change into a key southwestern basic election battleground state.
The state narrowly voted in 2018 for then-Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema in a vital Senate race, and for President Biden and Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly in 2020.
Lake was narrowly defeated for governor in 2022, whereas Kelly received election to a full six-year time period within the Senate by 5 factors.
This yr’s Senate election in Arizona stays difficult as Sinema, who’s now an unbiased, has not but determined whether or not she’s going to run for re-election.
Rep. Ruben Gallego is the frontrunner for the Democratic Senate nomination, and the likelihood of a three-way contest with Sinema, Gallego and Lake has some Republicans salivating.
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