Now that Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema, aligned last year as an Independent, made her announcement earlier in the month that she would no longer seek reelection, Arizona voters will choose between Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego and Kari Lake the gubernatorial candidate who lost to Katie Hobbs in 2022 for Sinema’s senate seat in November.
Even though Lake will face Sheriff Mark Lamb in the July 30 primary, she is considered the overwhelming frontrunner for the nomination.
Kari Lake has tried just about everything to get elected to office, perhaps any office in Arizona.
This has been pretty evident and painful for Arizonans who have had to deal with her relentless parade of lawsuits filed by Ms. Lake (all unsuccessful) while accompanied by a spewing of whiny unevidenced claims over being the “victim” of election fraud after losing to Katie Hobbs— and now Lake wants to be the GOP answer to a Senate seat in a swing state.
There’s just one big problem—the millstone around her neck—her cemented stance on abortion rights for Arizona women—the stance she keeps trying to “modify” and muddy the waters on.
Lake’s consistent forceful pledge during her fiery pledges during her gubernatorial campaign that Arizona would be the “sanctuary state” for the unborn— her proclamation that abortion was the ultimate sin and that she was among those candidates that endorsed a federal ban on abortion.
Fast forward to her current senate campaign strategy and the apparent her about face on the issue that has become political poison for the MAGA GOP and where abortion rights will take center stage in the battleground states within the march to the presidential election.
But Lake has never been particularly creative or shown any kind of noteworthy independent thought—it’s always going to be—whatever works for her— in the moment— and in this case, she’s simply another (about what we would expect) copy-cat of the GOP MAGA crew that realize what they’re up against with abortion rights.
Their strategy is simple—keep the voters guessing, misinformed and befuddled.
Take the U-turns on the record with statements of “moderation” regarding abortion rights but keep the chatter and promises in the MAGA backrooms the same—enact a national ban on abortion as soon as Trump is in office.
Hard line MAGA’s are not actually skipping to a new abortion beat.
They are just really good cons.
But Arizona abortion rights activists and supporters aren’t buying any of the MAGA reversal tactics and they don’t have to when even conservative (red) states are passing legislation that will protect abortion rights for women in light of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Ms. Lake, (Trump’s most loyal devotee) is more than aware that the former president has been out bragging about his power and taking credit for overturning Roe v Wade through his Supreme Court.
But Lake just blames the Democrats for the very messed up messaging and the GOP abortion platform.
“Republicans allowed Democrats to define them on abortion,” Ms. Lake said in a statement to The New York Times.
Wait…so that wasn’t Kari Lake who during a primary gubernatorial debate said she supported and would enforce, if elected, the pre-Roe ban on abortion which would prohibit the procedure in nearly all cases and would criminalize doctors who perform it?
Arizona abortion rights activists are intent on getting Lake’s true stance on abortion out to Arizona voters.
And just like the words from Trump’s own mouth, Arizona activists will remind voters that it was indeed Trump’s Supreme court (something Trump loves to brag about) that overturned Roe v Wade. And it’s the MAGA GOP candidates like Kari Lake who carried the flag of a barbaric refrain in support of laws that would eliminate (even criminalize) women for their personal and health choices.
“We will be there to refresh the minds of all voters in a country that is largely pro-choice,” said Arizona abortion rights activist, Tammy Boyd.
“Trump ushered in the ability to make many of archaic—even criminalized abortion laws stick that were previously on state books but never enforced.”
“What we’re seeing now is a state by state battle on abortion access and protection and many GOP legislators are still calling up barbaric “laws” to put in place because they saw an open door with Roe v Wade being overturned.”
“Republicans are doing this, not Democrats,” Boyd said.
Abortion activists say they’re all in for the fight and that even conservative states have broken with harsh abortion rulings and are standing, state by state, and taking back the right for women to control their personal healthcare choices.
“There’s no more going backward.”
“So tell Ms. Lake, Mr. Trump and all MAGA GOP candidates who try to eliminate and criminalize our choices even further, that they will hear from us at the ballot box.”
“Trump’s own words will come back to haunt him and every MAGA candidate out there.”
“After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade, much to the ‘shock’ of everyone,” said Donald Trump, on his social media platform.
But groups like Ms. Boyd’s are aggressively working to make certain that abortion access is not only available in Arizona, but they are intent in making Arizona one of the most progressive states on abortion access with a “front line” of legal advocacy for women who are denied access.
“We won’t be Texas,” Boyd said.
Serena Martinez, a colleague of Boyd’s told Northeast Valley News, “We are not fooled by Kari Lake’s supposed reversal on abortion— it’s her desperate campaign strategy and
we don’t believe anything she says. We will work tirelessly to keep Lake out of the Senate.”
