On June 1, former Fox 10 Phoenix television news anchor Kari Lake announced her bid for Arizona’s gubernatorial race in the midterm elections in 2022.
“I have been covering this state for over 27 years. I know this state inside and out.” Lake said in an interview with Townhall. “I am well aware of the kind of change in leadership the people of Arizona are looking for.”
Come 2022, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) will not be eligible for reelection due to term limitations. Lake is now one of several candidates on both sides of the political aisle who’ve thrown their hat in the ring for the upcoming election.
Lake’s announcement came months after she left her 22-year long position as a television news anchor for Fox 10 in Arizona, where her impressive portfolio includes one-on-one interviews with former presidents. But, throughout former President Donald Trump’s presidency and the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, Lake saw the media take an unethical turn pertaining to the reporting of the news, prompting her departure from the industry.
“I decided to leave my career in the middle of a contract because I didn’t feel the work was ethical,” Lake said. “It’s not just unethical, it’s not just biased – it’s immoral.”
After leaving the journalism industry, Lake is now running for Governor on a slew of conservative platforms. From nationwide issues like border security and defunding the police to Arizona-focused issues like water supply to her all-encompassing, straight-to-the-point platform: “Don’t California Our Arizona,” Lake has a clear vision for the future of Arizona if she were to take office in 2023.
“I am not going to sit by and just allow the state of Arizona to become a sprawling suburb of California,” Lake said. “The taxes, crushing regulation, massive government overreach....If all this stuff that Democrats like my opponent Katie Hobbs supports comes to Arizona, then we're going to end up just like California. Just like the place everyone is fleeing - even the people who voted for all of that in the first place.”
Lake is right on point, as Arizona has reportedly seen a massive influx of new residents settle in in recent years.
“Thousands and thousands of people have moved to Arizona in recent years to flee the high tax, over regulated states they came from.” Lake said. “Arizona is the symbol of western freedom — we want to keep it that way. Arizona is a place where people can move to, to be far away from the overbearing elements of the federal government. We need to keep it that way.”
One pressing issue at the forefront of Lake’s campaign is border security, as Arizona entails roughly 370 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. And since May, the number of individuals crossing the southern border has increased to momentous proportions. Furthermore, the construction of the border wall that began under the Trump administration has since ceased, making the country more vulnerable to international criminal cartels.
“As Governor, I will do whatever I can to stop it,” Lake said. “We are not going to let them have control of our border. We need somebody who's got a spine to stop this. It’s insanity.”
This initiative goes hand-in-hand with another hot-button issue plaguing the nation: defunding the police. Lake aspires to do the exact opposite in Arizona by funding police, raising police officers’ salaries, and welcoming law enforcement officers from blue areas to come work in Arizona.
“I want to fully fund the police. I want to use state money to bring up police officers salaries,” Lake said. “We want the good men and women in law enforcement to come here and work here.”
Lake’s stances on both securing the border and backing the blue emphasize an overarching vision for her campaign: “I want Arizona to be the safest place in this country.”
Not only would Lake aim to make Arizona the safest place in the county, but she would also roll out short and long-term solutions to solve Arizona’s water supply shortage, an issue that grows with the increasing population.
“We have too many people living off of one river,” Lake said. “The Colorado River just can't sustain the number of people who now rely on it, and we're still growing. We need both short and long term solutions, and we need to start on both now.”
Some of Lake’s other platforms include keeping "woke" curriculum out of schools, protecting small businesses, preserving religious freedom, preserving rural communities, and one that put Arizona center stage recently with the Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee Supreme Court case: election integrity.
“We know how to run secure elections: voter ID, keep machines that run on software out of the counting process, and audit the heck out of your work,” Lake said. “This isn't rocket science, it's a matter of honesty and political will.”
While the 2022 election is still over a year away, Lake’s campaign is already underway. Her “common sense conservatism,” as noted on her website, envisions an Arizona where limited government, low taxes, individual liberties, and other issues near and dear to conservatives will prevail.
“The federal government has seeped into every element of our lives, they are trying to control what we say, what we think, and what we do from nearly 3,000 miles away.” Lake said. “Leadership is about knowing the difference between right and wrong, and when something is wrong, getting the right people in place to fix it.”
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