It appears that former President Donald Trump endorsed a good one in Kari Lake, the Republican running for Arizona’s governorship.
Axios just published a report indicating that Lake has the Democrats’ alarm bells going off.
“Democratic Party strategists are watching Arizona’s Kari Lake with growing alarm,” the report begins.
What is it about Lake?
Based on Axios’s report, the reason that Lake, a former journalist, has the Democrats’ alarm bells ringing is that she simply has too many positive things going for her as a political candidate.
Axios quotes David Axelrod, the former Obama adviser, as putting it this way, “If you get a candidate who has the performance skills of a major-market local TV anchor and the philosophy and thinking of Steve Bannon, that’s a potent and dangerous combination. … Look at Italy.”
Axios, itself, points out that Lake “is skilled at creating viral moments by dressing down reporters and eviscerating the mainstream media.”
Axios also points to the fact that Lake, unlike many other pro-Trump candidates, “has been embraced by top figures in the Republican establishment” and “is benefiting from their money and connections.”
Another Obama strategist even suggested that Lake has so many things going for her that she appears to be a “plausible presidential candidate.”
Looking forward
Lake is in the running for the governorship of Arizona. She is facing off against Democrat Katie Hobbs, who, in recent years, has been Arizona’s Secretary of State. Before that, Hobbs was an Arizona state representative and a state senator.
Lake, of course, has no such political experience. But, you wouldn’t necessarily know it by the way she is running her campaign. And, it also doesn’t appear to be affecting her in the polls.
Real Clear Politics has Lake in the lead, on average, by 0.8 percentage points. It certainly is not the most comfortable lead. The most recent poll has Lake in the lead by three percentage points, and only a poll from CNN, taken several weeks back, has Hobbs in the lead, by three percentage points.
The bottom line is that it’s a close race. Anyone could win. And, based on Axios’s report, Lake really has the Democrats worried, not just for this race, but for the future.