Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake (R) was defeated by Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) for Senator Kyrsten Sinema's (I-AZ) seat. While Lake has not yet conceded, uncovered documents allege election official Stephen Richer intended to "make life hell" for her by running against her last year.
The New York Post reported that Richer, the Maricopa County recorder, allegedly commented in March 2023 to a friend known as "Ben Blink" that he was considering running against Lake for Senate because he had a "laundry list of bullet points" on why he should do so.
"Get out of politics permanently; get out of politics temporarily; run for re-election as a Republican; run for re-election as an independent; run for mayor if no Kate; and then finally run for U.S. Senate, just to fly the flag for real conservatism and make life hell for Kari," Richer supposedly said.
The document containing the comments was uncovered in a June 2024 deposition for a defamation case Richer launched against Lake in June 2023. In it, Richer claimed Lake's repeated insistence that the 2022 gubernatorial election against Governor Katie Hobbs (D-AZ) was stolen had made him the subject of threats against his life and family.
More specifically, Lake evidently claimed Richer intentionally sabotaged the Maricopa County voting machines.
Lake declined to defend her inflammatory remarks in March.
Richer was noted by the Post to be leaving office at the year's end.
In January, leaked audio from a conversation between Lake and former Arizona Republican Party Chair Jeff DeWit suggested DeWit attempted to bribe Lake into not running, demanding his resignation.
In the recorded conversation, Lake could be heard saying, "This is not about money; this is about the country," and called the fact that she was even being offered money not to run "disturbing."
"I am not going to let these people who hate our f*****g country tell me not to run," Lake continued in the recording, further suggesting, "they are going to try to have me murdered," should her campaign continue.
