Kari Lake
Opinion: If Doug Mastriano can win Pennsylvania, is Kari Lake the guaranteed GOP victor in Arizona? And if so, is that really a gamble either political party wants to take?
By Elvia Díaz | Arizona Republic
First came Doug Mastriano’s win in Pennsylvania. Is Kari Lake next in Arizona?
She could walk away with her party’s nomination if Republicans and Democrats are foolish enough to merely focus on beating each other at the expense of the greater good.
Mastriano, the new GOP nominee for governor, is an early and prominent election denier who stands – if elected in November – to wield his power toward a movement bent on discrediting vote results they don’t like.
Mastriano is a true Big Lie believer
His recent past that led him to this moment is proof he’ll act on what he preaches.
The Pennsylvania state senator catapulted to prominence by joining efforts of the Big Lie team to overturn the 2020 presidential election results to keep Donald Trump in the White House.
He organized the Gettysburg “hearing” where Trump’s then-lawyer Rudy Giuliani spread conspiracy theories of a stolen election, has ties to Arizona’s bogus audit and tried to get the Pennsylvania Legislature to decertify the election.
He also helped arrange bus trips to the U.S. Capitol for the Jan. 6 rally. Mastriano himself apparently didn’t actually go into the building, but we know what others did that fateful day.
Moderates didn’t complain until it was too late
How did a guy with those and other “extreme” political tendencies secure the GOP nomination?
That’s the biggest question many are asking in the aftermath of Tuesday’s primary, but clues to its answer were everywhere.
Establishment Republicans didn’t want Mastriano to win, The Washington Post and other media outlets are reporting.
“They think he’s too radical to win in a general election in a state that voted to send Biden to the White House,’’ reported the Post.
But guess what? Those Republicans who reportedly tried to stop him first followed him, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
What will Ducey do in the governor’s race?
This is where Arizona comes in with another Trump-backed firebrand leading in the GOP primary.
Kari Lake not only has the same flashy style of Mastriano. She’s an integral member of the Big Lie crowd. She’s leading among four other Trumpian Republicans vying for the GOP nomination to replace Gov. Doug Ducey.
