Kari Lake takes MAGA firepower on the road beyond Arizona Senate race

Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake has been on the road, far from the state she’s running to represent, to fundraise and build support for other MAGA-approved candidates.

She’s built a national profile since her failed Arizona gubernatorial run in 2022, allowing her to appear at a steady clip of GOP events and build momentum for one of the most competitive Senate seats in 2024.

Most recently this week, Lake’s campaign announced it raised $1 million at a fundraiser at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, the most money raised by a nonincumbent at the Florida resort, according to a source familiar with the situation.

“We were honored by the support we received from Arizonans who joined us at our historic event at Mar-a-Lago last night, as well as the strong support from patriots across the nation who know that the Senate majority runs through Arizona and don’t want to see a Far-Left socialist like Ruben Gallego in the U.S. Senate,” a statement from her campaign reads. “Arizonans want to see Senator Kari Lake because they know that she will work to secure the border and get our economy back on track.”

Last month, Lake raised $330,000 at a Washington, D.C., fundraising event hosted by Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), the chairman of the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm. The event was attended by over 20 Republican senators, including Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD), Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso (R-WY), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and others.

Lake also has been stumping for Bernie Moreno, Trump’s endorsed candidate in Ohio, and other GOP candidates. She also spent time in Iowa and New Hampshire, campaigning with Trump during the primaries. According to reporting from the National Review, Lake’s itinerary has included more than a dozen appearances out-of-state since launching her Senate campaign last October. Including her book tour and other political events, Lake’s national celebrity status will have taken her out of state more than 50 times from January 2023 through April 2024.

Lake’s recent fundraising hauls come ahead of her first-quarter fundraising numbers which will be made public at the end of the month. The U.S. Senate race in Arizona is expected to draw hundreds of millions of dollars in spending on behalf of the candidates in the race that could decide which party is in control of the Senate.

Lake’s Democratic challenger is Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), whose campaign announced it raised $7.5 million in the first three months of the year, more than doubling his prior quarterly filings after Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) decided against running for reelection last month. That is more than double his biggest quarterly haul since entering the race in January 2023 and pushes his available cash to $9.6 million.

Lake reflected on the topic of fundraising during an event this week in Sun City West, according to reporting from the Arizona Republic, suggesting her Democratic opponent had likely outraised her.

She said Democrats and Gallego “take in a ton of money from God knows where and God knows who, and he’s going to run ads making himself look like he’s just a middle-of-the-road kind of guy. And it couldn’t be further from the truth.”

Democratic groups and Gallego’s campaign plan to pour resources into the battleground state. On Thursday, Gallego released his second television ad of his Senate run, an over $1 million 30-second ad titled “Breathe Easier,” which is now airing across the Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, markets and digitally.

Senate Majority PAC, the independent group associated with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), recently announced that it plans to reserve $23 million in television advertising in Arizona beginning this summer.

The Senate race in Arizona could be one of Republicans’ best opportunities to seize control of the upper chamber next year. Polling shows a tight contest between Lake and Gallego, but the most recent surveys indicate Gallego has an edge. He leads Lake by 8 percentage points, 36% to 28%, according to a poll by RABA Research conducted during the last week of March.

Lake’s allies point out that Trump’s polling in Arizona against Biden is a bright spot for the campaign. The former president is leading Biden 39% to 36%, according to RABA Research.

There are 34 Senate seats up for grabs in the 2024 election cycle. Of those, Democrats must defend 23, compared to just 11 for Republicans — and nearly all competitive seats are held by Democrats, putting them on the defensive as they try to maintain their narrow majority.

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Democrats hold a slim 51-49 majority in the Senate, with the advantage of having Vice President Kamala Harris as a tiebreaker vote. As a result, Republicans only need to flip one Senate seat to win the majority if they are able to win back the White House in 2024. If Republicans aren’t able to regain the Oval Office, they need to secure two extra Senate seats.