Kari Lake a Likely Contender for Donald Trump Vice President Pick? – Defeated Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake could be on Donald Trump’s shortlist for vice president.
Unfortunately, both individuals suffer from a lack of tactical and strategic vision, which could be a problem in crafting a successful campaign.
Kari Lake: Donald Trump Would Pick Her?
Axios’ Mike Allen reported in March that Lake was on a shortlist of four women to be his running mate.
Allen noted that the big downside to putting Lake on the ticket would be that Trump does not want someone who could outshine him.
Former Vice President Mike Pence brought a cool head to the 2016 ticket that balanced out Trump’s impulsiveness. Lake – at least according to many experts – is Trump’s female clone. She showed herself unwilling to accept defeat following the 2022 election.
Allen noted that Trump wants a running mate like Pence, who is aligned with him ideologically but who will be a pliant sidekick.
Lake Loss in Arizona Election Tarnishes Her Reputation
Additionally, her loss of a winnable gubernatorial election last Fall tarnished her image with Doanld Trump.
Lake challenged her defeat in court and, like Trump, lost bigly.
The state appeals court ruled that she could not prove her claim that voter fraud contributed to her loss to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.
“Questionable mathematics aside, Lake does not explain (or offer any legal basis) for how the difference between an initial estimate and a final, precise figure invalidates any vote,” the Arizona court said in its ruling.
Lake also supported Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him, and like Donald Trump, she refuses to let go.
“The courts have just ruled that anything goes. We can play by those same rules,” Lake added in a speech in March. “If anything goes then anything goes… If the Left plays that way, maybe we should start playing that way. We’re gonna inundate them with so many mail-in ballots their heads are gonna spin.”
Lake Develops Loser Reputation
She developed respect from her time as a local television anchor; however, her loss has tarred her as someone who is anything but a winner.
Her complaints have proved a turnoff for many Centrist Republicans who find her unquestioning loyalty to Donald Trump and inability to accept defeat a turnoff.
“We had the best candidate in anyone’s lifetime in Kari Lake, and she had the Republican wind at her back,” Stan Barnes, a former state lawmaker and Republican consultant in Arizona, told Politico. “Yet, Kari lost. And I think the post-mortem is, you can’t stand on, ‘The whole system’s corrupt’ and ‘Elections are stolen’ as a platform for why people should vote for you.”
He said, “No matter what you or I think of the reality of it, if you want to win the election and you want to change things, it’s not the way to win.”
Had Lake gone away gracefully and regrouped for her next election, she might not have tarnished her chances.
Reports suggest that Lake could challenge Independent Sen. Krysten Sinema next year; however, her connection with Trump and failure to bow gracefully out of the 2022 gubernatorial election do not bode well for her.
Chances are that Donald Trump who claims to be a winner and who wants his followers to think he is a winner despite his track record for losing will pass on Lake as his running mate.
John Rossomando was a senior analyst for Defense Policy and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
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