Republicans looking to take back the Senate received two pieces of unwelcome news Tuesday when Axios and Politico separately reported that a pair of far-right favorites, Arizona's Kari Lake and Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale, are each preparing to run in their respective states.
We'll start with Lake, whom Axios writes is "staffing up for a Senate campaign in anticipation of an October launch." Lake, who refuses to accept her defeat in last year's gubernatorial contest, has spent the last year talking about running for the seat held by Democrat-turned-independent Kyrsten Sinema, though it's not clear how much of that time has been spent in Arizona.
People Magazine reported in June that Lake had in fact "spent a significant portion of her time" in Florida at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago lair. "Kari Lake is there all the time," volunteered one unnamed source. "There’s a suite there that she practically lives in." Lake's team responded by calling the account "ridiculous," adding, "Kari Lake often speaks at events all over the country in support of America First candidates and organizations; and when she does have the honor of being invited to speak at the beautiful Mar-a-Lago, she overnights at Hilton properties in Palm Beach with her loving husband of 25 years."
But there's no disputing that Lake has indeed been traveling "all over the country" to promote her memoir and to stump for conservative causes like Ohio's Issue 1, the failed amendment that would have made it more difficult to change that state's constitution in the future. Yet Lake, wrote cleveland.com's Andrew Tobias, didn't actually mention Issue 1 at her appearance the weekend before the vote; instead, she mispronounced the name of Ohio's senior senator, calling him "Sher-ROD" Brown," something the late Rush Limbaugh once did while incorrectly asserting that the Democrat was Black.
Lake later used Tuesday's election to amplify conservative conspiracy theories about temporarily malfunctioning ballot scanners at a single polling place, though it's by no means the only one she's spread in recent months. Lake, who has been one of the Big Lie's most fervent proponents, recently exhorted House Republicans to decertify Joe Biden's 2020 win, saying of Trump, "He won in 2016. He won even bigger in 2020. All that Jan. 6 was, was a staged riot to cover up the fact that they certified a fraudulent election." That unconstitutional advice came about two months after she urged her Twitter followers to read a thread that claimed the state of California, which backed Biden 63-34, had actually gone for Trump "BIG."
But if Republicans like NRSC chair Steve Daines have an alternative to Lake in mind, they've been quiet about it. The only notable Arizona Republican who has announced a bid is Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, a former Lake supporter who is himself an ardent ally of far-right causes. Lamb, though, raised an unimpressive $603,000 during his opening fundraising quarter, and he finished June with just $335,000 banked. Rep. Ruben Gallego continues to have the Democratic side to himself (and has been raising large sums), while Sinema is still keeping everyone guessing whether she'll run again.
The situation is different in Montana, where Daines, who is the state's junior senator, has enthusiastically backed self-funder Tim Sheehy's bid to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. However, Politico's Ally Mutnick says that Rosendale, who lost to Tester 50-47 in 2018, is still planning to seek a rematch despite Daines' attempts to deter him. Indeed, Mutnick reports that the congressman has hired Caroline Wren, a prominent fundraiser who continues to advise Lake and other hardliners.
But Rosendale's detractors, who remember him as a weak nominee from his campaign five years ago, may still have time to talk him down. While Mutnick first reported in April that the congressman had "told friends and allies that he plans to run for Senate," we're still waiting for him to actually announce nearly four months later. And it doesn't seem like Rosendale himself is in any hurry to finally get in, either. In late July, he told Bloomberg, "We've got plenty of time for that."
Rosendale's team, though, is continuing to preview the attacks it would use in a primary. ABC reported last month that Sheehy's aerial firefighting company did an investor presentation in December touting its support for environmental, social, and corporate governance measures—a major bugaboo among conservatives these days. Rosendale's team this week called their would-be rival a "candidate who supports Leftist ESG and [diversity, equity, and inclusion] provisions." In keeping with the GOP's increasing embrace of Vladimir Putin, Rosendale's camp also highlighted Sheehy's previous anger with America's "inaction" as Russia invaded Ukraine.