‘Formidable Candidate’: NBC Reporter Who Went Viral for Searing Takedown of Kari Lake Talks Up Her Chances of Winning Senate Seat
Joe Scarborough asked NBC News correspondent Vaughn Hillyard for his take Wednesday morning on the news that failed Arizona GOP candidate for governor, Kari Lake, is gearing up for a U.S. Senate run and may announce in the fall.
“I saw that Kari Lake was talking about jumping into the Arizona Senate race, with or without Kari Lake, that is a fascinating race,” Scarborough began.
“You look at some of the numbers and see it split three ways. We don’t know whether Sinema is going to continue to run in that race or not. But talk about Arizona and I mean, just a lot of different pieces of that puzzle in that Senate race,” the Morning Joe host asked of Hillyard, who covered Lake extensively during her 2022 run. Lake sparred with Vaughn during the campaign and the NBC reporter went viral in November 2020 with a brutal post-mortem analysis of why Lake’s campaign failed.
“Right. And Kari Lake, essentially, the rest of the Republicans have sat it out. And Governor Doug Ducey still lives in Arizona, but he has shown no indication or desire to jump into this race,” Hillyard began, adding:
There is a sheriff in Pinal County who is running for the Republican nomination. You can see him there, though. But this is Kari Lake’s to lose if she, in fact, gets into this.
And I think it’s important for folks to remember Kari Lake lost Joe and Mika by 17,000 votes here. She has a firm base of support still in the state of Arizona, a longtime conservative state. Kyrsten Sinema has not officially announced her independent run here, but if she gets in, early polling has suggested that Kari Lake would be a very formidable candidate here against Ruben Gallego and against Kyrsten Sinema.
“There are a lot of dynamics at play, but I think it all comes back to us remembering the potency of that MAGA base that still exists. Well, in a plurality election, it’s not enough to get over 50 percent. But in a race that would be split three ways, it could very well put Kari Lake into the U.S. Senate,” he concluded.
Axios reported on Tuesday evening that Lake is “staffing up for a Senate campaign in anticipation of an October launch, making Arizona ground zero to replay — and relitigate — GOP losses in the last two elections.” Lake became a national figure in 2022 for her close ties to former President Donald Trump and her bombastic rhetoric, which included debunked claims of voter fraud in both the 2020 and 2022 elections.
Watch the full clip above via MSNBC.
