Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake filed paperwork to run for the U.S. Senate in Arizona, one week ahead of her campaign announcement.
Lake filed a statement of organization to the Federal Election Commission on Monday as she visits Washington, D.C., this week to discuss her 2024 Senate run with top Republican leaders in the upper chamber. The FEC form was signed and approved on Tuesday.
While in the nation’s capital, she reportedly met with Senator Steve Daines (R., Mont.), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, likely to gain his and NRSC’s endorsement. Lake is also set to meet with Josh Holmes, a Republican strategist, and Senators John Barrasso (R., Wyo.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) to convince Republican leaders of why she’d make a great fit for the Senate, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.
“I’d like to meet them to show them that I’m a very reasonable person who loves my state,” she said.
Lake, who lost to Democratic governor Katie Hobbs in November and continues to litigate the election results with little success, will announce her senatorial run at an October 10 rally in Scottsdale, Ariz.
ONE WEEK AWAY: Join @KariLake in Scottsdale on October 10th for a BIG announcement!
FREE TICKETS 👉 https://t.co/1OsHvxCPaH #CountdownToKarizona pic.twitter.com/WmyI8spMDc
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) October 3, 2023
“We need to get a senator in there who is going to fight back and put America first,” Lake said.
Upon breaking the news to the public, Lake will challenge incumbent senator Kyrsten Sinema’s place on the Senate floor and go up against Democratic representative Ruben Gallego, who is expected to become his party’s nominee. Sinema, now an independent, left the Democratic Party in December.
So far, the Republican field for the Senate race in Arizona is narrow. Blake Masters, the GOP’s contender last year, has yet to officially launch his campaign, and local sheriff Mark Lamb is struggling to gain traction several months after having entered the race in April.
Arizona’s upcoming Senate election next fall could prove to be a tight and important race as Democrats already have a slim 51–49 majority in the chamber. If Sinema loses her seat to Lake or another Republican candidate, the GOP could easily outnumber, or at least tie with, Democrats in the Senate for the next two years.