Kari Lake Unites Many Arizona Republicans After Party's Earlier Divisions Over Trump

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T

PHOENIX—Kari Lake, the Republican candidate in the Arizona governor's race, has taken many pages from former President Donald Trump's campaign playbook.

She repeats his false claims of rampant fraud in the 2020 election. She attacks the legacy of the late Arizona GOP senator, John McCain. And she has made the media a favorite foil, even though she spent 22 years as an anchor for a local news station.

Where she and the former president differ is that Mr. Trump’s contentions  tore apart the Arizona Republican party , with supporters of the former president on one side and traditional pro-business Republicans on the other. Ms. Lake, by contrast, has gone a long way to stitching it back together even while claiming the 2020 election was stolen and saying that  her win in the August primary  “drove a stake through the heart of the McCain machine.”

Several Republicans who had supported Ms. Lake’s opponent in the primary and are now backing her said they agreed with her policy proposals—especially  on the economy —and they played down or omitted her contentions on election fraud.

There was no fraud in the 2020 election widespread enough to change the result, according to federal officials.  Dozens of lawsuits  filed by supporters of Mr. Trump challenging the results failed.

The party’s coalescence behind her isn’t unanimous, but it has given the political newcomer momentum in the race in the final weeks before the election, according to interviews with Republican and Democratic officials, strategists and voters.

Ms. Lake in an interview said the first things she would do as governor would be to take control of the  southern border  from the federal government and work  to secure elections .
“Don’t believe what the, you know, corrupt media is saying that ‘Oh, the party is not going to come.’ They have completely come behind us,” said Ms. Lake, 53 years old, in her campaign office with a large photo of Mr. Trump behind her.

The outcome Nov. 8 will depend on Ms. Lake’s ability to bring independents and Republicans to her side in a contest likely to be close, as many recent elections in the state have been. Her opponent, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, won her last race by less than 6,000 votes; President  Biden  won Arizona by less than 11,000 votes. A Republican-led audit of the 2020 election results  confirmed Mr. Biden’s victory .

Most polls show the race as a statistical tie. Ms. Lake has committed only to accepting the results in the governor’s race if she wins.

“I’ll be very disappointed if Kari Lake doesn’t win. And even though she’s a little Trumpy, that’s not a deal breaker for me,” said Steve MacMillan, 59, a resident of Goodyear, a Phoenix suburb. He said he liked Ms. Lake’s policy proposals but wishes she would talk less about the 2020 election.

Arizona voters know Ms. Lake because of her years anchoring newscasts for the local Fox channel in Phoenix. (Fox Corp. and News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, share common ownership.) Many say they are nervous  about inflation  and  high gas prices , and polls show they trust Republicans over Democrats to handle the economy. The Phoenix metro area had the nation’s highest rate of inflation at 13%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released last month.

Ms. Lake also has proven to be an effective communicator—often targeting the media, which she calls “fake news”—while Ms. Hobbs has been stuck in a monthslong controversy over her refusal to debate Ms. Lake. Ms. Hobbs said in an interview that Ms. Lake’s focus on the debate issue is “because she has nothing else to run on. She has no experience. She doesn’t understand how government works. She’s not offering real solutions to any of the issues we’re facing.”

Ms. Hobbs has said debating Ms. Lake would be a disservice to voters because Ms. Lake is a “conspiracy theorist.”

Some Democrats are calling on Ms. Hobbs to be more aggressive toward Ms. Lake and to emphasize her governing credentials stemming from her experience as a former state legislator and secretary of state.

Ms. Lake “is essentially a more polished version of Trump. My concern is that, as we learned with Trump in 2016, it’s not enough to simply label a candidate as an extremist and therefore disqualified from being elected,” said Roy Herrera, who worked as Mr. Biden’s Arizona counsel in 2020.

Ms. Lake has said, if elected, she would eliminate cities’ ability to put in place a rent and grocery tax. She has promised to offset the cost for five years with surplus state funds and then expects the state’s rapid growth to provide a larger tax base to fund cities in the years to come.

“We will be providing the good people of Arizona some relief,” she said.

Ms. Hobbs has proposed making diapers and baby formula tax exempt, a sales tax holiday on school supplies and a child tax credit. She said she wouldn’t roll back tax cuts put in place under GOP Gov. Doug Ducey, who is term-limited from running again. Changes in tax policy must be approved by the state legislature.

On the border, Ms. Lake has said she would declare an invasion and use state law enforcement to conduct border-security operations, including arresting and deporting migrants. Such plans are likely to face logistical and legal challenges from the federal government. Under federal law, only the U.S. government has the authority to deport migrants accused of being in the country illegally.

Ms. Hobbs has called for more funding for border communities, including for law enforcement.

On elections, Ms. Lake has said she would work with the legislature to craft bills that would keep future elections secure. Ms. Lake is focused on ways to remove software from the process. As secretary of state, Ms. Hobbs is the chief elections administrator for the state and she was a leading figure in defending against fraud claims in 2020

Not all Republicans are on board. “The very low bar that I’ve set for people to endorse in this election is No. 1 don’t be an election denier,” said John Giles, the Republican mayor of Phoenix suburb Mesa who has endorsed Ms. Hobbs.

“I’m worried about suffering potentially a real reputational risk and kind of losing the aura and the glow that the state has right now,” said John Graham, the chairman of real-estate developer Sunbelt Holdings and a Republican supporting Ms. Hobbs.

Ms. Lake has made clear she isn’t separating herself from Mr. Trump. “What would it say about my character if I stepped away from my friends?” she said as she hugged the former president at a rally earlier this month.

For many Republican voters, it is Ms. Lake’s embrace of Mr. Trump, especially his claims of election fraud, that holds appeal. “There’s Republicans and there’s patriots, and she’s a patriot,” said Karen Phillips, 75, a real-estate agent from Chandler, another Phoenix suburb.

Yet Ms. Lake gauges how much to talk about Mr. Trump and his agenda depending on her audience, said four people who have been at events with her. “When Kari needs to turn on Trumpism she can and when she needs to switch to Reaganism she can,” said senior adviser Colton Duncan. A video that plays ahead of events includes Ms. Lake talking about how former President Ronald Reagan is her hero.

There is no better example of the party coming around to Ms. Lake than Gov. Ducey.

Ms. Lake hammered him during her primary campaign for his decision to certify the 2020 election results, among other things. She called him “do nothing Ducey” and “doormat Ducey.” Mr. Ducey said Ms. Lake was putting on an act and “misleading voters” with her claims of a fraudulent election.

Ms. Lake said the pair since have had one meeting and Mr. Ducey has said he would support the whole Republican slate. The Republican Governors Association, of which Mr. Ducey is the chairman, has spent roughly $10 million to support Ms. Lake. Mr. Ducey, through a spokesman, declined to comment.

Sara Glass, 64, a Chandler resident who works in human resources, is unhappy with Ms. Lake’s stance on abortion and the election. As a “former news anchor, she would know that you do your due diligence, you do your research. When your research proves otherwise, you’ve got your answer,” she said.

Democrats say differences between Ms. Lake and Ms. Hobbs on abortion could benefit Ms. Hobbs following  the Supreme Court decision in June  that eliminated the constitutional right to abortion. The future of abortion access in the state is in dispute. Arizona  bans most abortions after 15 weeks , but a separate law from when Arizona was a territory  could impose a near-complete ban . Its applicability is now being litigated in court.

Ms. Lake has said she opposes abortion and will enforce whatever the law is. Ms. Hobbs opposes any restrictions on abortion and has said she would veto any legislative measure to impose them.

Alicia A. Caldwell contributed to this article.