Kari Lake, who within the span of two years transformed herself from a veteran local television news anchor right into a tribune of the far-right political movement, won Arizona’s Republican primary for governor, in keeping with The Associated Press.
Ms. Lake prevailed over a field that included Karrin Taylor Robson — an ally of Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican who defied former President Donald J. Trump by defending the outcomes of Arizona’s 2020 election — and two other candidates.
Ms. Lake will face Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, in the final election. Mr. Ducey is prohibited by term limits from searching for re-election.
In a statement on Thursday night after her race was called, Ms. Lake took a jab on the election process and Ms. Hobbs as she claimed victory. “Though the outcomes took longer than they need to have, Arizonans who’ve been forgotten by the establishment just delivered a political earthquake,” she said.
Nearly as soon as she left her Phoenix TV station within the spring of 2021, Ms. Lake began repeatedly proclaiming that Mr. Trump, who endorsed her that fall, had been cheated out of a second term in office. After spending 25 years in local television, she attacked the news media as corrupt.
The competition was the newest primary for governor to turn into a proxy war between Mr. Trump and establishment Republican power brokers.
As in Maryland and Illinois, where Trump-endorsed candidates toppled rivals backed by local G.O.P. officials, Ms. Lake’s victory signaled the declining power of party donors and tv spending. Ms. Taylor Robson, a developer who served on the Arizona Board of Regents, largely paid for her campaign herself, spending hundreds of thousands more on TV promoting than Ms. Lake did.
But in the long run, Mr. Trump’s endorsement proved more priceless than anything Ms. Taylor Robson could buy.
