![]() But he said the candidate had turned him down - a decision, Barnes said, he has come to see as wise. Stan Barnes, an Arizona-based Republican strategist who is a longtime friend of Lake’s, said that he had early on urged Lake to soften her hard-edged rhetoric. She said she has repeatedly turned down requests from political professionals looking to meet with her. During the interview, she read aloud text messages she’d received from those in the political class offering advice - outreach, she said, that she had ignored. While Lake has emerged as a conservative hero - thanks largely to her strident support of Trump, her clashes with the media and her opposition to vaccine mandates - some top Republicans worry that she has turned off moderates who could tilt the election.īut Lake has made clear that she’s determined to run her own race. Within some corners of the party hierarchy, however, there is concern that Lake’s reluctance to advertise could cost her swing voters. “I think I’m a unique candidate in that I didn’t need to run as much advertising to let people know who I am, because they already knew who I was,” Lake said. Much of the pro-Lake advertising is being done by the Republican Governors Association, which has so far spent around $4 million on a blitz bolstering her. Lake said she anticipates running some commercials ahead of the election, but they won’t be a focus because she felt voters had already come to know her through her anchoring days. Her team believes the viral videos have drawn more attention to the candidate than traditional TV ads would have. After her husband records the exchanges, the footage is distributed to Lake’s allies in the social media world, such as the prominent far-right commentator Jack Posobiec. Rather, Lake has used her well-honed skills as a TV communicator to focus on generating free media coverage for herself - sometimes by holding combative press conferences where she rails against reporters. So far in the general election, Lake has been outspent by Hobbs 7-to-1, according to media tracking figures. Toward the end of the race, Lake decided to stop running TV ads because she thought they were being drowned out and were a waste of money. During the primary, she was outspent on the airwaves 17-to-1 by her rival, former Arizona Board of Regents member Karrin Taylor Robson. She was also cool to TV advertising, reasoning that ads become white noise in a state flooded with political commercials. ![]() (“I said, ‘That’s the stupidest thing ever.’”) Thanks but no thanks,’” Lake recalled saying.) Another told Lake she couldn’t win a primary because she had previously backed former President Barack Obama. One urged Lake distance herself from Trump, who narrowly lost the state in 2020 - a no-go for the staunch Trump backer. She determined early on that she wasn’t keen on consultants. Supporters of Lake pray at an election night gathering in Scottsdale, Ariz. or another big city to come into Arizona and tell me what Arizona is about,” Lake said during an hour-long interview in her Phoenix campaign office, pointing to her 27-year-history as an anchor, which made her a household name in the state. “I don’t need a pollster or a consultant from D.C. With senior Republicans increasingly viewing her as a rising figure, Lake is - much like Trump, who backed her in the primary - breaking the norms of politics and establishing herself as a firebrand outsider driven by the sheer force of personality and celebrity. The guerrilla-style approach provides a window into the role Lake would embrace in the party should she win, and the style of candidate Republican voters are increasingly gravitating toward. ![]() After soundly defeating a better-funded primary opponent who had the backing of the sitting governor, Lake is in a neck-and-neck race with the incumbent Democratic secretary of state, Katie Hobbs. While some seasoned Republican political hands wince, Lake is seeing positive returns - and has emerged as one of the most formidable Trump-aligned candidates of the midterms.
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