Kari Lake Is Losing Her Fundraising Battle in Arizona

Kari Lake's Democratic rival has raised $1 million more than her in the last three months of 2023 as they compete for a chance to represent Arizona in the Senate, according to newly released figures.

The Republican announced her intention to run for the Senate in October, setting up a possible three-way battle against independent incumbent Senator Kyrsten Sinema and a Democratic Party candidate.

Lake's campaign said she raised $2.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 after announcing her Senate bid on October 10. However, in a blow to the Donald Trump ally, Representative Ruben Gallego—who is widely regarded as the frontrunner to win the Democratic Party primary for the seat—picked up $3.3 million over the same period, leaving his Senate campaign with $6.5 million in the bank.

In November 2022, Lake, a former news anchor, ran unsuccessfully in Arizona's gubernatorial election, narrowly losing to Democratic rival Katie Hobbs. Lake refused to concede following her defeat and claimed without evidence that the election had been stolen from her, though this argument has been repeatedly rejected in the courts.

In a statement sent to Newsweek the Lake campaign said it was pleased by its fourth-quarter fundraising effort. They commented: "Kari Lake is out working everyone, posting a very strong fundraising haul for her first quarter in the race. Arizona is the best pick up opportunity for Senate Republicans, and Kari is well positioned to win in November."

Nichole Johnson, Gallego's campaign manager, told The Messenger that the Democrat had received financial support from "hundreds of thousands" of donors. She said: "Our campaign has built the infrastructure to take on whatever comes our way in 2024 thanks to the support of hundreds of thousands of small-dollar donors who chipped in what they could to elect Ruben Gallego."

Newsweek has reached out to the Senate campaign of Rep. Ruben Gallego for comment by email.

Sinema, the incumbent who was elected to represent Arizona in the Senate as a Democrat in November 2018, announced she was leaving the party to serve as an independent in December 2022. She remains aligned with the Democrats for committee purposes. In an article for The Arizona Republic, she said: "Like a lot of Arizonans, I have never fit perfectly in either national party."

Sinema is yet to announce if she will stand for reelection in November, but the independent throwing her hat in the ring could make it a rare three-way contest for a Senate seat. As of her last fundraising report, covering the third quarter of 2023, Sinema had $10.8 million in her campaign war chest.

In December, Lake suffered a legal blow when a Maricopa County judge rejected her attempt to throw out a defamation lawsuit brought against her by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, an election official and fellow Republican.

Richer is seeking damages after Lake accused him of having "printed a 19-inch image, the wrong image on the ballot, so that the tabulators would jam" on election day and also inserting "300,000 illegal ballots" for the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election.

In his ruling, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jay Adleman said: "The alleged statements in this case cannot be classified merely as 'descriptive' language. In point of fact, Defendant Lake's statements regarding improper 19-inch ballots and/or the existence of 300,000 fraudulent ballots may be discerned by a factfinder as either true or false when considered in the light of any available evidence."

Update 1/10/24, 03:36 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with a statement from Kari Lake's Senate campaign.