Lake joins list of MAGA supporters bombing races as midterm elections reach their end
Rachel Schilke
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Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is the latest in a string of MAGA enthusiasts to lose in the midterm elections as the final results for remaining races begin to roll in.
Lake lost to Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D-AZ) on Monday night. Hobbs won with 50.4% of the vote, compared to Lake’s 49.6%. The Republican, endorsed by former President Donald Trump and an avid 2020 election denier, has not conceded the race. Instead, she tweeted, “Arizonans know BS when they see it.”
She is the latest MAGA Republican to lose her race in a midterm election that was expected to bring about a major victory for the party. However, Republicans had a weaker showing than expected, and the red wave never came to fruition. The Democrats secured a majority in the Senate, thanks to wins from Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) in Nevada against Adam Laxalt and Sen. Mark. Kelly (D-AZ) in Arizona against Blake Masters, another MAGA supporter.
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Republicans are now on track to only net 1-2% of all House races due to MAGA supporters losing predictably winnable races, according to Dave Wasserman, the House editor of Cook Political Report. The projection comes as Republicans are set to have a 6-7% pro-GOP vote swing in the lower chamber of Congress.
“The #AZGOV outcome is the exclamation point on how badly MAGA enthusiasts bombed last week — costing Rs eminently winnable races up and down the ballot,” Wasserman tweeted.
Lake joins the five other Trump-endorsed candidates who lost the gubernatorial race, the most notable being Tudor Dixon in Michigan. Dixon, who is a vocal Trump supporter, blamed the Michigan GOP, rather than Trump, for her loss.
Some Republicans are placing the blame on the shoulders of the former president himself for their significant losses. Sarah Chamberlain, the president of the Republican Main Street Partnership Political Action Committee, said Friday that Trump “single-handedly wasted” the party’s golden opportunity to make massive gains in Congress by endorsing bad candidates in key contests.
Several GOP leaders are hoping that Trump decides to stay out of the Senate runoff race in Georgia between Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Trump-endorsed Republican Herschel Walker. Walker’s campaign, meanwhile, is hoping for support from respected members of the GOP, such as Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had overwhelming personal and state victories during the midterm elections.
Four of six Trump-endorsed Senate candidates in swing states have already lost their races, including Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, which the Democrats were able to flip blue, and Masters, whose victory could have led to preventing a Democratic majority. All four secretary of state candidates endorsed by Trump in swing states lost their races.
Backlash against Trump’s involvement in the 2022 midterm elections comes as he is expected to announce his run for president on Tuesday night from Mar-a-Lago.
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DeSantis is also projected to be a major contender for the GOP nomination for president in 2024. He said during a news conference Tuesday that Trump needs to “check out the scoreboard” when looking at his victories in Florida compared to Trump’s in 2020.
Tensions between the two have continued to rise, as Republicans may look to dump the former president in favor of the Florida governor.