Kari Lake flanked by President Trump/campaign photo
By Stacey Barchenger | Arizona Republic
Kari Lake descended the stairs inside her Phoenix campaign headquarters toward scores of adoring volunteers gathered below. Chants filled the atrium.
“Kari! Kari! Kari!”
Lake smiled and put her hand over her heart as she continued down to a landing set up for a speech, an Arizona state flag draped from the second floor.
“Kari Lake, guys,” a man in a grey suit said into a microphone, giving rise to a new round of cheers. “Aren’t we lucky to be working with Kari Lake? Aren’t we lucky to have Kari Lake endorsed by President Trump?”
The moment tickled at political déjà vu.
Seven years ago, Donald Trump famously sailed down an escalator in New York City to declare his candidacy for president, proclaiming, “There’s been no crowd like this.” Lake said her event showed there was “no other campaign in the country that has this much excitement!”
A political outsider, Trump defied campaign conventions. His demeanor connected with many voters, who propelled him in 2016 to the zenith of American power.
Lake similarly is new to the campaign trail, and while she’s using Trump as a kind of prototype, she’s refined his brash approach. She thrives on attention — and anger — to fuel her bid for Arizona governor, borrowing from decades of on-camera experience along the way.
Arizona hasn’t seen a campaign for statewide office quite like the one that Lake is putting together. It’s an unorthodox operation that relies on advice from several political novices — a point of pride for the would-be governor. The campaign’s connections to a key Trump-boosting organization, Turning Point USA, have prompted scrutiny about skirting election rules.
Campaign finance records show a candidate with a tendency to spend with abandon, and who is directing payments to family members. And while first-time candidates can generate a fresh spirit of hope for the future, Lake’s campaign looks to the past with rage. Hers is one of the loudest voices supporting Trump’s unfounded claims the 2020 election was stolen, and she’s making that falsehood the centerpiece of her pitch to voters.
It has all fused to boost a candidate who, although early in the year, leads a field of GOP contenders who have spent years in Arizona’s political circles.
The Arizona Republic contacted the campaign in its effort to document the sensation of Lake’s gubernatorial bid, but campaign spokesman Ross Trumble declined interview requests on Lake’s behalf. The former longtime Fox 10 newscaster harbors intense bitterness toward journalists, some of whom she has said are liars who should be “punished.”
Asked directly for an interview as she was leaving an event supporting law enforcement in March, Lake said she felt she was the victim of “attack pieces,” and continued walking away.
After multiple requests via email, text and direct contact were rebuffed, The Republic sent the campaign 36 questions seeking to understand Lake’s approach, and how it might translate from the campaign trail to the Governor’s Office if she’s elected to run a government that has immense power over the lives of 7 million Arizonans and billions of their tax dollars.
“Do you mean my actual demeanor, style, and decision-making, or the caricature the media is trying to make of me?” Lake replied to a question about how her style would extend to elected office. “My focus throughout this race has been on building a people-first, Arizona-first movement, and those same principles will guide my decision-making in office as well.”
A political newcomer’s unusual tactics
Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake speaks at the Back the Blue Rally on Oct. 2, 2021, in Cave Creek, Arizona.
Lake smashed her way into Arizona politics last summer.
In heels, a leather jacket and safety goggles, she hurled a sledgehammer into a stack of television sets. “It’s time to take a sledgehammer to the mainstream media’s lies and propaganda,” she says, opening the 3½ minute video.
The tone-setting production declared to Arizonans that Lake was in charge, and she’s retained control as the ultimate decision-maker in a campaign ruled by instinct. She takes guidance from a media firm making its first foray into running political campaigns, and her bid is raising questions about just who is involved in shaping her strategy.
The sledgehammer video was produced by a conservative firm with a trademark flashy style and an atypical billing policy. The in-your-face video debut needed to go viral for Lake to fill her campaign coffers and pay the firm — Arsenal Media Group — that made it.
While some candidates have said the high fees for going viral are necessary to raise their profile, Lake is already well known in Arizona. She was a feature in Arizona homes hosting the news for more than two decades on Fox 10.
Lake often seeks the spotlight as she transitions her image from steady newscaster to flamethrower.
“As much as everyone loves the ad of someone walking their golden retriever with their kids and wife by the white picket fence, it’s a lot of the same stuff, so we try to stick out,” said Arsenal Media Group Vice President of Strategy Billy Grant, who is consulting on Lake’s campaign.
Arsenal Media Group takes a cut of the money raised off those videos. That is unlike traditional contracts, where campaigns pay firms an agreed-upon amount.
Lake’s campaign has paid Arsenal over $152,000.
“She wants to be the controversial candidate that people are talking about, which is exactly how Donald Trump ran his presidential campaigns,” said Lorna Romero Ferguson, a GOP political consultant and former aide to Gov. Jan Brewer and Sen. John McCain. She is not involved in Lake’s campaign.
