Conciliatory messages on social media. Open invitations for coffee. Zoom calls invite participants to unload.
Even before she announced her run for Senate in Arizona, Kari Lake, a Republican and favorite of former President Donald J. Trump, was on a mission to bring peace. Her failed bid for governor two years ago was distinguished by her fervent embrace of Mr. Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen and by her relentless attacks on established party figures who blamed her for that dishonesty criticized. But now Ms. Lake is trying to wrest a seat from Democrats in a key presidential race by courting former opponents and trying to mend fences.
In addition to her public overtures, Ms. Lake has in recent months privately reached out to establishment Republicans in the state — including some she has personally insulted — and sought their support. The list includes Doug Ducey and Jan Brewer, two of the state’s former governors; Karrin Taylor Robson and former MP Matt Salmon, two of her main rivals for 2022; and Meghan McCain, the daughter of longtime Arizona Sen. John McCain, according to six people with knowledge of the action, some of whom insisted on anonymity to discuss private interactions. In some cases, Ms. Lake expressed regret for her past behavior, one of the people said.
“This primary did some damage that clearly impacted the general election,” said Daniel Scarpinato, a Republican consultant in Arizona who worked as a top aide to Mr. Ducey years ago. “I think you’re clearly seeing a real effort to attract more Republicans to the party.”
Ms. Lake, a former television host and political newcomer in 2022, ran a scorched-earth campaign to win the GOP primary for governor. She appealed to Mr. Trump’s supporters by pushing his baseless election fraud theories while hurting her opponents. She accused Ms. Robson of “trying to buy the election with her 95-year-old husband’s millions” and called Mr. Ducey a “no-hour Ducey.”
Perhaps most critically, she angered the family of Mr. McCain, who died in 2018, by declaring that her political rise had “driven a stake through the heart of the McCain machine” and by urging voters in the state who admired him to “to come to hell.” The disunity caused some Republicans to shy away from supporting Ms. Lake, even if it meant a Democrat would win.
She now says her insults toward Mr. McCain were meant “in jest.”
“Things have gotten so much worse under Joe Biden that we are at a point where we no longer have time to use previous arguments to stop us from moving forward as a country,” Ms. Lake said in an interview on Phoenix Im last month. She described herself as someone “who enjoys talking to people and bringing people together.”
If Ms. Lake wins her primary, she can expect a tough race against Rep. Ruben Gallego, who is running virtually unopposed for the Democratic nomination. Ms. Lake has a primary opponent, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, but she leads him by a wide margin in polls ahead of the July 30 primary. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a former Democrat who left the party in 2022, is not running for re-election.
Some early signs suggest that their efforts are bearing fruit, at least at the national level. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which works to elect Republicans to the Senate, endorsed her, and Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the third-largest member of Senate Republican leadership, campaigned alongside her in Phoenix last month. She met with Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the longtime Republican leader, on Capitol Hill on Wednesday before attending a fundraiser with about 20 senators in Washington.
Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, said in an interview that he also supported Ms. Lake and that she had become “more mature” in her approach.
Still, her success appears to be mixed at home, where some of her advances have been rebuffed. Ms. Lake sent Ms. McCain, whom she once compared to a “rabid dog,” a public message on X last month inviting her to lunch. Ms. McCain responded, “NO PEACE,” punctuated by a vulgarity.
“These are wounds that cannot heal for me and my family because people like Kari Lake and Trump continue to demean my family and my father,” Ms. McCain said in an interview. “What she has asked me to do is cover her for her vile comments and her vile statements about my family, and I would rather die than do that.”
Mr. Ducey is not expected to make his endorsement in the Republican primary, according to a person familiar with his plans. A recent conversation between Ms. Lake and Ms. Robson was productive, according to aides for the two women, but nothing has been decided yet.
By her own admission, Ms. Lake’s peace efforts included meeting skeptical Republicans in their offices, inviting them for coffee or a drink and making phone calls. In an interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington last month, Ms. Lake said some of the conversations had been difficult, describing occasionally intense phone and Zoom calls that began with outrage on the other side. She has also held Zoom meetings courting Republican donors and advisers and attended a luncheon with members of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce last month.
“I am ready to continue extending olive branches. If someone rejects it and says, ‘No, I’m not interested,’ that’s fine,” she said in the Phoenix interview. “The olive branch is still out there. My door is still open.”
But new reservations about Ms. Lake have also emerged among some rank-and-file Republicans, many of whom are vocal supporters of Mr. Trump. Many were dismayed by the release in January of an audio recording that Ms. Lake secretly recorded during a conversation she had last year with Jeff DeWit, chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, in which Mr. DeWit appeared to have offered her a bribe to persuade her not to run for Senate. In the recording, which Mr. DeWit said was “selectively edited,” Ms. Lake can be heard rejecting his request.
Mr. DeWit resigned shortly after the recording surfaced, and Ms. Lake called the episode an example of her independence. Some members of the state party reacted angrily and expressed concern about other private conversations that Ms. Lake may have recorded. Ms Lake was greeted with boos at a meeting to elect a new chair.
“Is this really how we should all behave, even as Republicans? Tape someone who trusts you?” asked Jeanne Kentch, chairwoman of the Mohave County Republican Party. “I love Kari, don’t get me wrong. But I think that’s what people are worried about.”
Ms Lake denies that she regularly records private conversations. Still, Mr. Lamb, who lags far behind her in fundraising, sensed an opportunity. Mr. Lamb is the only candidate who can “appeal to all Republicans, conservative independents and disaffected Democrats,” said Ed Morabito, a senior adviser to his campaign.
Despite a newfound desire for party unity, Ms. Lake did not shy away from extreme views, continuing to promote baseless theories of voter fraud in her news media appearances, telling reporters in Washington last week that “we had a truly rigged election in Arizona.” (After losing to Ms. Hobbs, Ms. Lake falsely claimed to have committed fraud and filed unsuccessful lawsuits to overturn the result.) She also sympathized with and appeared alongside individuals charged with crimes related to her participation were sentenced on January 6, 2021. Attack on the Capitol.
However, she has not made those positions the centerpiece of her Senate campaign, one of a few departures from her campaign for governor. On abortion, which she once called the “ultimate sin,” she now opposes a federal ban.
“Kari Lake will say or do anything to gain power,” Hannah Goss, a spokeswoman for Mr. Gallego, said in a statement.
And for some Republicans, the scars left by Ms. Lake may be too deep. Sharon Harper, the chief executive of real estate firm Plaza Companies, who was a close friend of Senator McCain, supported Ms. Hobbs in 2022 and has no plans to support Ms. Lake in this campaign.
“I think people understand who Kari Lake is,” Ms. Harper said. “We saw what she showed, and I don’t think anyone’s opinion changes when they say, ‘I didn’t really mean it.'”
Michael C. Bender and Kayla Guo contributed reporting.
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2024-03-10 09:01:20
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