PHOENIX (KGUN) — Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s seat is opening up this fall.
Before a hotly-contested election this fall, comes this month’s primary to determine which Republican candidate will take on Democrat Ruben Gallego.
Former Arizona Governor candidate and TV anchor Kari Lake recently sat down with KGUN 9’s Ryan Fish.
"We need to get serious about what’s happening. We’re losing our country. We’re losing our safety,” Lake said recently on the campaign trail, railing against the current leadership in D.C. and Arizona.
Arizona voters have seen Lake before. She’s a tough-talking conservative who has hitched her star to President Trump’s. The former president has endorsed her in the Senate race.
“The ‘America-First’ Republican Party is a big-tent party,” she told KGUN. “All Americans are welcome.”
Like Trump, she didn’t accept the latest election results. She lost the 2022 governor's race to Katie Hobbs by 17,000 votes.
“Our movement was so—is so powerful—that they had to sabotage election day operations,” she said at a rally back in 2022.
Lake contests that issues on Election Day in 2022 tarnished the results. She fought back in court, but lost those legal battles as well.
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KGUN asked what her response is to voters, including conservatives, who may think her legal losses hurt her credibility.
“I think conservatives and many Arizonans are happy I fought that,” she said. “Everybody wants honest elections.”
Border security is still one of her top issues. She wants to restart construction on a “fully-funded” border wall and make asylum seekers wait outside the country before their cases are heard.
She also wants to get back to what she calls the ‘Trump economy.’
“We were energy independent,” she said. “We were exporting oil, we were actually on the way to being energy dominant, and Joe Biden reversed that.”
At the one and only official primary debate, Lake was a no-show. Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb was the only candidate to participate. Lake held a rally in Tucson that night instead.
Before that debate, Lake was asked the biggest difference between her and Lamb as a candidate.
“Well, I’m really running against Ruben Gallego,” she said.
Lake is confident she can coast to victory in the primary, and says her entire focus is on defeating the “dangerous” Gallego and Biden.
More from the Republic primary race for U.S. Senate:
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Ryan Fish is an anchor and reporter for KGUN 9 and comes to the Sonoran Desert from California’s Central Coast after working as a reporter, sports anchor and weather forecaster in Santa Barbara. Ryan grew up in the Chicago suburbs, frequently visiting family in Tucson. Share your story ideas and important issues with Ryan by emailing ryan.fish@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.