Former GOP Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake announced her bid for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, seeking the Republican nomination in 2024.
Lake, 54, a former television anchor in Arizona for more than 20 years before entering politics, registered her Senate campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission last week.
“I am not going to retreat,” Lake reportedly told a crowd in Scottsdale, Arizona. “I’m going to stand on top of this hill with every single one of you. And I know you’re on my side as I formally announce my candidacy for the United States Senate.”
Since leaving the media, she became one of the most outspoken supporters of former President Donald Trump. Lake spent the months leading up to her bid for Congress advocating for his 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
“We’ve got one year to save this country, and we’ve got to go in a different direction, people,” Lake said, according to Axios. “We’ve got to go away from Joe Biden.”
Trump reportedly endorsed Lake in a video played during the event.
“In the Senate, we have to have a big, strong majority to help me push our America First agenda through and to push it through really fast,” Trump said, according to Axios. “And that starts right here, tonight, by helping Kari Lake win in Arizona. She will win.”
The former journalist made election integrity a top priority of her 2022 campaign for governor, in which she narrowly lost the election of Democrat Katie Hobbs. She has yet to concede losing the race.
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Lake legally challenged the election results that showed her defeat to Hobbs by roughly 17,000 votes, alleging misconduct and illegal votes with issues ranging from mail-in ballots, chain-of-custody, and problematic ballot printers.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson rejected the final part in May after a failure to show the county did not properly perform signature verifications for early ballots.
Lake reportedly spent the summer traveling across 14 states, speaking to Republican organizations at the state and county levels to support candidates in other Senate races.
Her announcement follows Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, who placed his bid for the Republican nomination, and businessman Brian Wright, according to Reuters.
One of the GOP candidates will likely face Democrat Rep. Ruben Gallego and incumbent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who became an independent last year after leaving the Democrat Party. Sinema has not confirmed if she will run in the next race.
Reports indicate the Arizona race is expected to be one of the most closely watched in the next election cycle as the state shares roughly 370 miles of its border with Mexico. The massive influx of immigration into the United States is reportedly to become one of the main topics in the Senate race.
“Our border is wide open in Arizona… there is an absolute invasion in our country,” Lake said. “I’m really, really worried about the same thing happening here. The cartels own Arizona, and until we kick Joe Biden to the curb, Ruben Gallego, and Krysten Sinema, we’re not gonna have a state.”
Daniel Chaitin contributed to this report.