Rage politics: Kari Lake's anger-fueled, Trump-inspired bid for Arizona governor

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

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.

Romero Ferguson said Lake’s rhetoric may have won over the political base, but her stale focus on the 2020 election and stagnant status in some polls show she may need to do more to appeal to moderate Republicans and independent voters, who decide general elections in Arizona.

And while Lake likes to portray herself as taking a stand by walking away from corporate media, her history could backfire. Lake's departure from Fox 10 followed a series of controversies in which she shared election, COVID-19 and other misinformation.

Lake told The Republic she resigned because she could "no longer stand to be part of an industry that distorts the news." She did not specify what stories she felt were distorted.

Robert Scantlebury, a former Mesa police officer, chatted with Lake after a small event supporting law enforcement outside the Arizona Capitol in March. Scantlebury, who is running for state Senate and wore a “Cops for Trump” T-shirt that day, said he likes outsider candidates — but he’s not sure Lake is one. He does like her platform, though.

"I like a lack of experience in politics,” Scantlebury said. “I want somebody that naturally is listening to people. Her (campaign) is a little weird because she was in the media for so long, so she has a lot of connections.”

Trump was the outsider candidate Scantlebury prefers. But now Trump has established a political apparatus of his own, and at least one of its key boosters — the nonprofit Turning Point USA — has turned to Lake to help raise her profile on a national stage.

Turning Point USA’s connections to Lake’s campaign also have raised suspicion about coordination that, if it occurred, could violate state election law, though the group raising the concern did not file any formal complaints.

Turning Point USA encourages free markets, limited government and fights battles in the political culture war — creating a platform for extremist ideas and conspiracy theories as a byproduct.

A September letter from conservative ethics watchdog Public Integrity Alliance suggests violations of Turning Point USA’s nonprofit designation with the IRS — nonprofits can’t engage in political advocacy — and that it is coordinating with Lake in a way that independent groups are not allowed to do.

The letter points to people with ties to Lake’s campaign and Turning Point, like Benny Johnson, who helped start Arsenal and now works on a contract basis. He's also a contract employee at Turning Point. A spokesman for Johnson said he has not worked on Lake's campaign.

The Republic also confirmed that Lake’s daughter was hired by Turning Point in November, the month after she started receiving payments from her mother’s campaign for consulting work.

Turning Point spokesman Andrew Kolvet said the letter was baseless.

“There is zero coordination, and any insinuation otherwise is someone fishing for controversy where none exists,” he said.

A vision for Arizona, an allegiance to Trump

Three teleprompters stood between Lake and a rowdy crowd at Frontier Town in Cave Creek, a replica of a Western town that caters to tourists.

On this night in October, Lake held a rally there in support of law enforcement. One attendee wore an American flag over their shoulders, the words “fake media is the enemy” on the red-and-white stripes.

Meanwhile the former news anchor rallied the crowd by talking about dangerous law enforcement staffing shortages she said threatened public safety. She took a jab at a leading Democratic opponent, Katie Hobbs.

Lake then pivoted to her campaign centerpiece.

“We cannot let her win this race. Frankly, I think she should be locked up,” Lake said.

“Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!” the crowd called back.

“Did I say it, or did you say it?” Lake said with a smile. “All right we both said it. And I agree. She was in charge of this debacle of an election, and she wants to run the state. I don’t think so.”

Hobbs has built her campaign defending the election, which she helped administer as secretary of state.

Lake’s insistence that Trump won helped secure his coveted endorsement in the crowded primary field. Lake, who voted as a registered Democrat from 2008 to 2012, during Barack Obama’s first term, has no plans to pivot away from making the 2020 election a key focus.

Trump did not respond to a request for an interview for this story.

The former president’s support is sure to help Lake in the August primary, but Republican consultants are questioning whether Lake is wise to focus on 2020 and not issues that affect many voters today, like inflation or education.

Lake has released two in-depth policy proposals, on the border and homelessness. Lake wants to house people without homes in temporary tents in "strategic locations" while expanding long-term housing options, and her plan pledges to increase arrests of those who don't seek available services. 

Like other GOP candidates, she wants to finish Trump's border wall and deploy more law enforcement resources — but she's also pledged to allow the National Guard troops to deport people, a move that could violate law that designates immigration enforcement authority to the federal government.

"My focus is on taking on the big challenges and ensuring Arizona can continue to grow economically, while maintaining our unique Western heritage and culture," Lake said in response to a written question from The Republic about her vision for the state. "Our next governor also needs to be a visionary committed to securing our border, reining in out-of-control housing cost increases, securing our elections, and addressing Arizona's pervasive water shortage."

She has pledged reforms — like cleaning voter rolls, requiring universal voter identification and adding teeth to the ballot-harvesting law — if she is elected and has called for decertifying the 2020 election. While offering her support of Trump's Space Force, Lake has said she wants to make Arizona a hub for commercial space exploration.

Even in a midterm cycle seen as favorable for the GOP, packing a venue with supporters does not equal a win in a state where independent voters are key, and where many voters have repeatedly rejected Trump’s rhetoric.  

Martha McSally, a U.S. House member appointed to a U.S. Senate seat after Sen. John McCain died, tried to walk the Trump tightrope and lost twice. Previously not an outspoken supporter of Trump’s, she sought to embrace him in her dual bids for U.S. Senate in 2018 and 2020.

Trump played heavily in the 2018 GOP primary, with former state Sen. Kelli Ward winning the favor of grassroots Republican voters for her Trump-like blasts on “fake news” and hardline immigration policy.

But her outlandish suggestions — including that McCain's family sought to hurt her campaign with the timing of the announcement that McCain would end his brain cancer treatment — alienated other Republicans faithful to Arizona’s former longtime senator. Lake has labeled McCain and former Sen. Jeff Flake “losers” of the state's old guard, and repeatedly taken shots at McCain’s establishment allies.

Early polls show that embracing Trump’s rhetoric has helped push Lake to the lead of the GOP primary. She stands in sharp contrast to leading competitors Karrin Taylor Robson, the developer who is running a more traditional GOP campaign, and former Congressman Matt Salmon, who has sought to paint himself as the only experienced candidate in the race.

At a campaign stop in Tucson in late March, Lake recounted a comment she said Trump made to one of her staff members.

“He said, ‘I really loved that I endorsed Kari Lake because whenever she’s asked any question, you can ask her about the weather, she’s going to take it right back to our stolen election, and school you on what went wrong,'” Lake told the crowd.

A video of Lake making the comment was shared by the Republican Accountability Project, a group of conservatives that campaigns against GOP members who spread Trump’s election misinformation and that will focus on Arizona elections this cycle.

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Personal expenses, payments to family

Arizona’s governor has the final say in how the state spends billions of taxpayer dollars each year, and a candidate’s campaign spending can offer a glimpse into priorities when other people’s money is at stake.

Lake’s run for governor has financially benefited her family, and she’s using her war chest to cover some personal expenses that other candidates fund from their own pockets. Arizona's campaign finance law has few restrictions on how candidates spend their money, and Lake defended the spending as legally sound.

There was $1.09 at Del Taco in Lake Havasu City and $2.91 at McDonald's in Mesa. A $12 car wash in Gilbert and $443 at Discount Tire in Phoenix. The weekend she went to Iowa to help anchor a Trump rally for a right-wing news website, Lake billed her campaign for $300 in meals there.

In 17 trips to Jimmy John's, the campaign spent enough for a few sandwiches each time, and there were multiple stops at Phoenix’s swanky Buck & Rider, including a New Year's Eve meal that rang in at $225.

The campaign stopped roughly twice a month at The Adobe Restaurant, a burger joint at the Arizona Biltmore Golf Club, spending more than $1,400 in 25 visits.

Food purchases — not for large events, but smaller-dollar expenditures that suggest day-to-day meals — have added up to more than $14,000.

Over $1,100 was spent on 10 meals at Hillstone, where her daughter worked, according to the records. Her daughter, a college student, has received $6,000 for consultant work on Lake’s campaign, focusing on events and other field work.

Other family members of Lake and her campaign staff also received donors' money.

Almost $2,200 went to ZenVideo, Lake’s husband’s video production company. Her husband is a constant presence by her side, filming video clips that later appear on social media.

The campaign spent $8,750 on polling from Data Orbital, a firm run by the son of Lake’s campaign treasurer. The firm sold a poll subscription to any candidate who would buy, and among candidates for governor, only Lake did.

The Republic asked Lake's campaign about the spending and whether, if elected, she would pledge to put a firewall between state business and her personal relationships. The news organization also asked about financial oversight after identifying one donor who appears to have exceeded the $5,300 maximum campaign donation.

Lake dismissed that as a minor error and said overpayments occasionally happen and get refunded, though records current through March 31 show that has not happened.

"Reporters trying to play gotcha and draw lines between non-issues like this and something totally unrelated only happens to Republicans," Lake said. "Arizona has good controls and checks and balances in our state accounting, and that isn't going to change under my watch."

As to payments to her family members, Lake said she would not abuse taxpayer dollars. Her husband was paid only for his costs, and her daughter deserved to be paid for her hours, Lake said. She said each was "doing fantastic work" and "for anyone to insinuate otherwise is an insult" to them.

"Arizona needs a genuine leader committed to improving the lives of all of our citizens, not another career insider dedicated to lining the pockets of their friends," she said in her written responses to questions.

Despite the vigor at her rallies, Lake has not translated that into standout financial support in a race where one of her GOP opponents is willing to put in millions of her own money. Lake has raised more than $2.4 million from donors and spent heavily.

Lake's single biggest expense was on merchandise — tallying more than $163,000 for hats, flags and T-shirts with her name or images of burning face masks. The campaign has spent over $86,000 to host two fundraising soirees at Trump's Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago. 

Other portions of Lake’s funding went to traditional costs that also eat up her competitors' bank accounts, like paying for campaign staff and setting up a candidate website.

While spending on merchandise might appeal to base voters who want the gear, Paul Bentz, a pollster with HighGround public affairs in Phoenix, said it also reflected an immature strategy.

"Bumper stickers don't vote," he said.

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The company Lake keeps

Lake's insistence on looking back to 2020 has helped make her the darling of Trump's Arizona base and racked up endorsements from those who share her view. Her campaign is buoyed by the support of national extremist figures, and at home, she's relied on a team of political outsiders for everything from offering counsel or office space to warming up crowds at her campaign rallies.

She’s endorsed by 2020 election-deniers Wendy Rogers and U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar. Both lawmakers were censured by their peers for referencing violence against people who oppose them.

State Rep. Mark Finchem, an Oro Valley Republican subpoenaed by congressional investigators regarding his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, has praised Lake for her commitment to “election integrity.”

She has the backing of the national Trump slate, including election conspiracy theorists like MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Lake routinely makes the rounds at right-wing conferences and on webcasts and podcasts, where conspiracy theories take root. At an event in December, Lake snapped a selfie with Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Both women have spread unproven claims that Jan. 6 rioters were invited into the U.S. Capitol by police and were held without charges.

Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist leader of the America First Political Action Conference who has expressed antisemitic views, has pledged his support of Lake. Ron Watkins, who some believe is the founder of QAnon, the group that believes establishment leaders are trafficking children, has said Lake inspired him for her willingness to “lead the fight to take back Arizona from do-nothing RINOs,” or Republicans in name only.

She has appeared on numerous podcasts with hosts who spread COVID-19 misinformation and she has publicly burned face masks as a show of defiance. Those beliefs have spilled over into her own campaign stops, and last week, gained the attention of late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel.

Lake told a few hundred people gathered for a candidate forum in late April that, if elected, she'd encourage the arrest of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has led the nation's response to COVID-19 under both the Trump and Biden administrations. Cheers erupted from the crowd. She alleged Fauci lied about the effectiveness of unproven drugs to treat COVID-19, including ivermectin, which Lake said she had taken. 

"It was Anthony Fauci who kept that from us," Lake said. "I'm encouraging any lawman here ... to issue a warrant for Anthony Fauci's arrest out of Arizona."

Lake called ivermectin a "wonder drug." Researchers most recently concluded ivermectin treatments did not keep COVID-19 patients out of hospitals, adding to evidence it is ineffective against the virus. Public health officials and federal regulators say its use can be dangerous.

Kimmel, for his part, called Lake's position "dumb, irresponsible, dangerous." 

Fanning the fringe leaves Lake stuck in political quicksand: Each appearance and every selfie undoubtedly raises her profile in the eyes of some voters but also risks alienating others. 

Asked if she worried about the potential to turn off swing voters, Lake replied: "No," and said she couldn't vet people who want photos with her, nor her supporters.

While these marquee names among the far right back her nationally, at home Lake has welcomed people to her campaign who may contradict her populist and pro-police messaging.

Lake rents her campaign headquarters on a stretch of Camelback Road in the Biltmore area from precious metals broker Republic Monetary Exchange, which specializes in the gold business. The arrangement appears to be a sublease with the company run by Jim Clark.

"I'm honored that Kari would ask me in the very beginning, 'Is this something that I should do?'" Clark said, apparently referencing her run for governor, during a July 2021 webcast from one of Lake’s rallies.

Clark volunteers as a member of the campaign’s finance committee. He also still owes nearly all of a $1.5 million debt to victims of securities-related crimes he committed in the mid-1990s.

Clark is supposed to pay $800 a month to Maricopa County to compensate his victims but has not kept pace. He has paid just $73,780 of the debt, according to Maricopa County court officials.

His last payment was in November 2020. Yet Clark has donated the maximum of $5,300 to Lake's bid — compared with the $10,500 the campaign paid him in rent.

Lake’s decision to involve him in her campaign doesn’t sit well with one of Clark’s victims, 76-year-old Carolyn Hill of Tennessee.

“I hate that he’s messed up in the finances,” she said when reached by phone. Clark was ordered to pay James Hill, Carolyn’s husband, who died in 2016, more than $47,000.

Clark said his past shouldn’t color Lake’s chances, and told a reporter he was recording a brief phone interview. “If you do print something that’s other than what we’ve talked about, then we’re going to have problems,” he warned.

He’s not the only campaign surrogate who has had a brush with the law.

Kenneth Ulibarri, introduced at a Lake rally last year as a man who overcame drug addiction to help others in recovery, credited his faith for helping turn his life around in a roughly 10-minute speech. He didn’t share the details of what happened.

An indictment accused Ulibarri of collecting money to hire a hit man amid a sweeping cocaine and marijuana trafficking investigation in New Mexico. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice alleged Ulibarri “attempted to murder an FBI informant to prevent that informant from testifying” at the drug trafficking trial.

Ulibarri was convicted of obstruction of justice and drug distribution for selling heroin at an Albuquerque shopping mall. Ulibarri wrote in the plea deal that he made claims about hiring a hitman only to get money from the informant. He was sentenced to five years in prison, federal records show.

Several years later, Ulibarri started stumping for Lake — attacking liberal policies and wading into the culture war — pledging he'd never send his children to public school because they could “come back with purple hair and gay." Lake’s campaign paid him $2,000 in 2021, though Lake claimed he was merely a "supporter and volunteer."

Lake held a fundraiser at Viva Coffee House in Tucson in March. The operator of the business, Kelly Walker, is a local anti-COVID-19 mandate activist who was cited in September for trespassing. Authorities alleged he and others barged into a Tucson elementary school with zip ties and threatened to arrest the principal over a COVID-19 quarantine policy.

Lake wrote in response to a question from The Republic that she believes in redemption, citing her Christian faith.

"That, if given a chance, people can and do turn their lives around and embrace godliness and goodness, do good works, and through those works overcome and make amends for mistakes they may have made in the past," she said. "I'm not about to turn my cheek on people like Jim, Ken, or Kelly."

Another of Lake's paid campaign members has come under scrutiny for mispresenting himself.

In February, progressive student groups at Arizona State University alleged a paid staffer, an intern and others tried to infiltrate their organizations on multiple occasions.

In a letter, the groups alleged Lake aide Matthew Martinez and four others used fake identities and posed as supporters of Hobbs. Lake has paid Martinez more than $34,000.

Daniel Lopez, a graduate student and club officer in Students for Socialism, said students were able to use phone numbers to identify the imposters’ real identities on social media.

Lopez said students felt like they were being baited into gaffes the Lake campaign could use to boost her image — copying the political warfare championed by far-right favorite Project Veritas, which uses undercover videos to target members of the media and Democrats.

Lake said she wasn't aware of the effort in advance, and other than instructing them not to do something similar again, declined to comment on any internal discipline from the campaign.

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How will voters respond?

The chemistry between Lake and Trump was on stage for the public to see last summer, during a Turning Point-affiliated event in Phoenix billed as a "rally to protect our elections." In this room of election disbelievers, Lake got the loudest applause.

“Whoa,” Trump said, raising his eyebrows in surprise. “Whoa. Wow, this could be a big night for you.”

That night was early in Lake's bid, but not the first time she’d admired the man now synonymous with her campaign.

“When he came down the escalator and he spoke, I said, ‘That man is going to win, and that man is speaking to the American people,’” Lake said in a February interview with an online commentator, recalling Trump’s 2015 campaign announcement. “And we need politicians like that, who not only speak to them, but they mean what they say. He's inspired me immensely.” 

Trump’s playbook has helped guide Lake to the head of the pack in the race to keep the Arizona Governor's Office occupied by a Republican. Trump still commands support from a sizeable chunk of the party and its Arizona leadership, thanks to unending pressure and focus on overturning the 2020 election. The midterm offers a proxy test of his power and candidates who pledge their loyalty to him and his election lies.

Lake continues to look back to the election two years ago, but the most important questions loom ahead: Are Arizona voters looking backward, too? And are they willing to trust a candidate tethered so tightly to Trump?

Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at stacey.barchenger@arizonarepublic.com or 480-416-5669. Follow her on Twitter @sbarchenger.

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