Kari Lake proved this week that she has the backing of the largest share of Arizona Republicans β at least those who voted in the primary.
Now she has to figure out how to appeal to everyone else.
It starts with the 53% of Republican voters who wanted one of the other four candidates on the GOP ballot to be the partyβs nominee for governor.
Senate President Karen Fann issued a call Friday for βunity,ββ praising both Lake and Karrin Taylor Robson, Lakeβs main rival, as βstrong leadersββ who βran respectable campaigns.ββ She then launched into a full-throated endorsement of Lake, who now faces Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs in the November general election.
But that call has yet to be answered.
βIt is my hope that our Republican nominees are successful in November,ββ Robson said in her concession statement late Thursday. But there was no endorsement of Lake β and no indication she will do anything to help her former foe.
βThis part of my lifeβs journey has come to an end,ββ Robson said. βNow, I need time to be with my family and get back to my business.ββ
There also was a snub of sorts by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, whom Lake repeatedly insulted during the campaign by calling βdo-nothing Ducey.ββ
The Republican Governors Association put out a statement Thursday night congratulating Lake on her victory. Of note, though, is that the quote came from Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, the organizationβs vice chair, and not from Ducey, who chairs the organization and had endorsed Robson.
Even on Friday there was no response to inquiries made to Duceyβs press aide about Lakeβs win.
But Republican strategist Stan Barnes said he thinks the party faithful eventually will come around.
βThe partyβs been through really bad fights in the past,ββ said Barnes, a former state legislator. βI think the dust will settle.ββ
The reason is the desire to win, he noted.
βTo be unifying, you donβt have to have 100% love,ββ Barnes said.
βYou have to have voters see you represent a better picture than the other guy,ββ he continued. βAnd I believe that will happen.ββ
Barnes said Lake, a former, longtime news anchor in Phoenix, has something else unrelated to her stance on issues.
βIf youβre with her at a rally, if youβre with her in a living room, she is the most unifying and likable charismatic politician that I have seen in decades,ββ he said.
It was that βsuper power,ββ he said, that enabled Lake, vastly outspent by Robson and her political allies, to pull out a win.
And it could be Lakeβs path to victory, said independent pollster Mike Noble.
βThereβs a big difference between Kari Lakeβs personality and Hobbsβ personality,ββ he said. βAnd that could be the X factor.ββ
Noble said Hobbsβ best bet is not to βget in the mudββ with Lake. That could mean avoiding at all costs any face-to-face debate, or letting Lake set the political agenda, he said.
βThe biggest opportunity for Lake is for Katie Hobbs to mess up,ββ Noble said.
Conversely, he said, to the extent Lake continues to make her campaign about the 2020 presidential race, she will end up meeting the same fate as Donald Trump in Arizona β losing the votes of the more affluent Republicans, who were the same people who supported Robson.
The strategy for Hobbs, said Noble, is to take a page from the playbook used by the stateβs two U.S. senators, Democrats Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, who portrayed themselves βright in the middle.ββ
GOP consultant Chuck Coughlin agreed that the model being used again this year by Kelly is the one for Hobbs to follow.
He noted the endorsement of Kelly by Mesa Mayor John Giles, a Republican, complete with a commercial.
βTheyβve got to do, βHey, weβre problem solvers,β ββ Coughlin said of Hobbs and her campaign.
βThatβs an appealing message to unaffiliated voters,ββ he said. βThatβs an appealing message to the Republican base, or the Republican portion of Karrin Taylor Robsonβs crew.ββ
What that also means, Couglin said, is not getting wrapped up in the progressive message β and not letting Lake put Hobbs on the defensive that sheβs a Joe Biden clone or a socialist or a supporter of an open border.
βIf they can just talk about solving problems, if they can embrace that message, thatβs where the narrative needs to be in order to make themselves available to that portion of the electorate that wants to show up and wants progress,ββ he said.
Fann, for her part, acknowledged that primaries are by their nature divisive, as candidates from each party stake out positions that can span the political spectrum. And thatβs what happened among Republicans.
βBut when itβs time to go on to the general (election), itβs not so much about the person, itβs about the issues,ββ the Prescott Republican said.
That often means asking voters if they are happier now than they were several years ago, Fann said β presumably meaning before President Biden took office. That can play very well for Lake, she said.
A question that remains, though, is can β or will β Lake make the changes necessary to broaden her base beyond what has been a central theme that elections were rigged and that Trump actually won the 2020 race in Arizona.
Fann said she believes that now, with the primary over, Lake is βgoing to surround herself with some good policy that will also help her navigate and guide through that.ββ
She said Lake has one other asset that works in her favor. Lakeβs background in the media means she has βher finger on the pulse on what people are thinking and the issues and everything else,ββ Fann said.
βSheβs not somebody out of the blue,ββ Fann said. βSheβs somebody thatβs been engaged in politics for a long time now.ββ
But so, for that matter, has Hobbs, who was an elected state legislator before becoming secretary of state four years ago.
And Lake clearly still has at least one foot in the election conspiracy camp: an active lawsuit playing out in federal court seeking to bar Arizona from using machines to tabulate ballots.
In legal papers, Lake and Mark Finchem, now the Republican nominee for Arizona secretary of state, contend the machines are unreliable because they are subject to hacking. They say the use of components in computers from other countries makes them vulnerable. No date has been set for a hearing.
Polling so far is sparse.
A survey run by Beacon Research of 504 likely voters suggested Hobbs was the choice over Lake by a 49% to 40% margin. But that was conducted in early July, before Lake became the nominee.
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