Kari Lake’s bid for the Arizona governorship ended in defeat in 2022, with Katie Hobbs emerging as the winner. Despite strong predictions about her future within the MAGA Republican Party, Lake’s recent loss in her Senate race to Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) showed a more margin, trailing eight points behind Donald Trump and six points behind other GOP candidates for the House in Arizona.
Political expert Larry Sabato offered an analysis of Lake’s loss, suggesting that her demeanor and approach might have alienated voters. “The way she comes across, there’s just an arrogance that turns people off,” he remarked. Phil Boas of the Arizona Republic echoed this sentiment, calling her “an unreformed fanatic.”
With Trump’s shadow looming large, Kari Lake’s setbacks might signal the end of the line for political imitators
It’s also possible that Lake’s defeats point to a broader trend—similar to the losses of Mehmet Oz and Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania—that voters are less receptive to Trump imitators than they are to Trump himself.
Lake often refers to herself as “Trump in heels,” echoing his rhetoric during her 2022 campaign. She controversially labeled the late Sen. John McCain “a loser” and told any McCain Republicans at her rally to “get the hell out.”
At another rally, Lake repeated a Trump remark about immigrants, claiming they were bringing drugs, crime, and rape into the country, a statement widely discredited. She also mimicked Trump’s attacks on the media, calling the Arizona Republic “repugnant” and belittling a reporter who challenged her stance on ivermectin as a COVID treatment.
When Hobbs was declared the victor, Lake contested the results, declaring the election “the most dishonest” in Arizona history. She refused to concede, filing a series of legal challenges that went nowhere. She accused fellow Republican Stephen Richer, a county official in charge of voting, of sabotaging the election.
Richer, who received threats of violence, filed a defamation lawsuit against Lake. She dismissed it as a “political witch hunt,” but as the trial date neared, she chose not to defend herself in court, leading to a default judgment.
A jury will decide on damages next year. Despite Lake’s insistence that she was wronged in 2022, many voters who believe Trump’s 2020 election loss was stolen do not share that sentiment.
Lake’s 2024 Senate campaign retained a distinctly Trumpian tone, with false accusations against Gallego, including claims that he supported illegal immigration and was part of efforts to raise the Social Security retirement age. She also misrepresented his record on police funding, falsely accusing him of supporting the defunding of law enforcement.
In another attack, Lake made baseless claims about Gallego’s family, alleging that his father’s criminal conviction tied him to Colombian cartels. The facts, however, revealed that Gallego’s father, who was Mexican, had been estranged from him for years, and Gallego himself had taken his mother’s last name.
To counter Lake’s accusations of being a “deadbeat dad,” Gallego released details of his divorce and coparenting arrangement, which was described by a judge as “one of the most garden variety” filings he had ever seen.
Trump, for all the praise and criticism he receives, remains a singular figure in American politics. So far, no one—including Lake, who dubbed herself “Trump in heels”—has been able to follow in his footsteps with the same level of electoral success. Trump, likely pleased by this, continues to maintain his dominant position in the GOP.
For many Americans who oppose Trump, the failure of his imitators offers some relief, though it is tempered by his frequent comments about potentially serving a third term as president.
