Former television personality Kari Lake may have won the battle to run as the Republican candidate for a seat on the U.S. Senate but, according to GOP insiders in her state, her victory on Tuesday over a sparsely funded conservative rival should set off alarms.
In her column for AZCentral, journalist Laurie Roberts — a constant thorn in Lake's side — stated that the feeling in Arizona is that the controversial conservative who has been losing in the polls to Rep. Rueben Gallego (D-AZ) needed to reel in over 60 percent of the GOP vote to show she can win in November.
However, as Roberts pointed out, Lake came up considerably short, stalling out at about 55 percent as of Wednesday afternoon according to NBC News.
As Roberts wrote, Lake's vote total is "a disappointing number given that she was the presumptive Republican nominee even before she announced she was running for the Senate last year and endorsed by Trump soon after."
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Adding Lake needed 60 percent or more to "show the D.C. money crowd that she can be competitive against Democrat Ruben Gallego," Roberts turned to local GOP insider Tyler Montague who lamented, “Lake’s underwhelming numbers are a bad sign for her general election."
Before the vote tallies started being released, Republican consultant Barrett Marson explained, "If (Lake's opponent Pinal County Sheriff Mark) Lamb gets 35% to 40%, that’s a huge problem for Lake." Lamb was sitting at 39.2 percent on Wednesday morning.
Calling other races on the Arizona ballot a "disaster for traditional Republicans," Roberts concluded, "The story of the night is Lake, who didn’t deliver the numbers she needed to be considered a top-tier candidate for grabbing a Senate seat."
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