Arizona Republican Kari Lake has no political future in the state after a judge in Maricopa County threw out a lawsuit over the results of the 2022 election last week, according to a GOP consultant in Arizona.
Lake, a Trump-backed Republican who has repeatedly cast doubt on the outcome of his gubernatorial election loss, announced that he would appeal the judge’s decision. Earlier this week, he was also ordered to pay $33,000 in expenses incurred by Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) and her select team.
Chuck Coughlin, an Arizona-based Republican consultant, told The Hill on Friday that Lake has put himself in harm’s way as a result of the “degradation” of Arizona institutions.
“I think there’s a lot of will that’s going to happen as a result of the appeal – I mean, it’s okay to file a case, but some of the things that are being said in the media and the posts and just damaging the Arizona Institution – I think it’s going to hurt them here,” Coughlin said. .
“And I don’t think they have a future in terms of their own electoral space in Arizona,” he said.
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While Coughlin said Lake’s political future looks bleak in Arizona, he told The Hill he could still be a “key replacement” in former President Donald Trump’s bid to take the state in the 2024 presidential election.
“I see it more as a stepping stone to whatever the ’24 presidential cycle is, and how he can be a spokesperson for Trump’s candidacy,” he said.
Another Arizona GOP strategist, Barrett Marson, also indicated to The Hill that Lake could be Trump’s spokesperson.
Marson said he is not sure that Trump, whose new presidential campaign has been damaged by the January 6 House committee referral of criminal charges against him to the DOJ and a controversial dinner with an openly antisemitic public figure, will pull Lake as his choice. to be vice president when he becomes president in 2024.
“If you win this race, if you become governor, yes,” said Marson. “But now – you can be a lot of things in Trump World, but you can’t lose.”
Read the full report on The Hill here.