51 Facts About Kari Lake

Kari Lake Halperin is an American former television news anchor and political candidate, who was the Republican nominee in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election.

Kari Lake stepped down from her anchor role shortly before announcing her gubernatorial candidacy and won the Republican nomination with the endorsement of former president Donald Trump.

Kari Lake's campaign was marked by various controversies, including promoting false claims of Trump winning the 2020 presidential election and calling for the imprisonment of those who accepted Trump's defeat, including her Democratic opponent, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.

Kari Lake graduated from North Scott Senior High School in Eldridge, Iowa, and then received a Bachelor of Arts in communications and journalism from the University of Iowa.

In May 1991, Kari Lake began working at KWQC-TV in Davenport, Iowa, as an intern while attending the University of Iowa.

Kari Lake later became production assistant before joining WHBF-TV in Rock Island, Illinois, to be a daily reporter and weekend weathercaster in 1992.

Kari Lake later became evening anchor at KPNX before relocating to work for WNYT in Albany, New York, in the summer of 1998, when she replaced Chris Kapostasy.

Kari Lake returned to Arizona in 1999 and became an evening anchor for KSAZ-TV.

In July 2019, Kari Lake was caught on "hot mic" footage promoting her account on the web platform Parler.

Kari Lake shared COVID-19 misinformation on Twitter and Facebook in April 2020.

Kari Lake was a member of the Republican Party until November 3,2006, when she changed her registration to become an independent.

Kari Lake registered as a Democrat on January 4,2008, the day after the Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses were won by Obama.

Kari Lake returned to being a Republican on January 31,2012.

Kari Lake explained leaving the Republican Party in 2006 as a reaction to the then-ongoing Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Kari Lake had supported John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008.

Kari Lake filed paperwork in June 2021 to seek the Republican nomination for governor of Arizona in the 2022 election to succeed incumbent governor Doug Ducey, who was term-limited.

Kari Lake centered her campaign on promoting the false claim that the 2020 presidential election in Arizona and nationwide was "rigged and stolen"; Boris Epshteyn, a former Trump White House aide who promoted Trump's efforts to overturn the election results, attributed her victory in the Republican primary, despite being "outspent 10-to-1," to that stance.

Kari Lake won the Republican primary in Arizona on August 2,2022, winning in all counties.

Kari Lake said that as governor she would not tolerate mask and vaccine mandates of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In November 2021, Kari Lake told a group of Republican retirees that she was taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent COVID-19 infection.

Kari Lake stated that, as governor, she would work to have hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin produced in the state to "make it easier for us to get these lifesaving drugs".

Kari Lake questioned the science behind COVID-19 vaccines and said that she had not been vaccinated.

Kari Lake accused President Joe Biden and Democrats of harboring a "demonic agenda".

In 2021 and 2022, Kari Lake attended the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual meeting of conservatives and Republicans, in Orlando.

Kari Lake expressed support for banning both surgical abortions and medication abortions in Arizona.

Kari Lake has referred to LGBTQ rights and people as being a part of the "alphabet mafia".

Kari Lake had been a leading proponent of the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was "stolen" from Trump.

Kari Lake claimed President Joe Biden did not receive 81 million votes and that Arizona was actually won by Trump.

Kari Lake endorsed a false assertion by Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington that Democrats use mail-in ballots to rig elections, even though Trump himself was a vote-by-mail permanent absentee voter in Florida while serving as president.

Kari Lake tweeted quotes made by Sidney Powell on Lou Dobbs Tonight falsely asserting there was a sweeping election fraud conspiracy.

Kari Lake has advocated imprisoning Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, her Democratic opponent in the gubernatorial race, on baseless and unspecified allegations of criminality related to the 2020 election.

Kari Lake attacked Robson for failing to endorse false claims of election fraud.

Kari Lake attended events headed by My Pillow founder Mike Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims regarding fraud in the 2020 election.

Fox News reported in July 2022 that nine days before the 2017 Inauguration of Donald Trump, Kari Lake had posted a meme on Facebook that declared the inauguration a "national day of mourning and protest", in which she asked her followers how they would react to Trump's inauguration.

Kari Lake described Stevens' allegations as "defamatory lies", specifically denying they had been friends and denying that he had ever been in her home.

Kari Lake has threatened litigation against both Stevens and outlets that pursued the story.

Kari Lake endorsed Jarrin Jackson, a far-right online streamer, in his campaign for State Oklahoma Senate.

Multiple media outlets projected on November 14,2022, that Kari Lake had lost the gubernatorial election to Hobbs.

Conversely, the analysis found that Kari Lake received less than 6,000 voters from Democrat-leaning voters in Maricopa County.

Kari Lake alleged voter disfranchisement due to ballot printing problems and long waiting lines in Maricopa County, which had elections run by local Republican officials.

Kari Lake herself told her supporters to stay in line to vote, while a lawyer for Kari Lake's campaign assuaged concerns about using Box 3 to vote.

Kari Lake's campaign filed a lawsuit on Election Day to extend voting for another three hours, but Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Tim Ryan declined to do so, stating: "The court doesn't have any evidence that any voter was precluded from their right to vote".

Kari Lake self-identified as a "proud election denying deplorable" in December 2022.

Kari Lake posted a false claim that almost 250,000 voting attempts failed during the 2022 Arizona elections, without proving that the votes were not counted; during the elections, votes that could not be initially scanned were later counted at another location.

On December 9,2022, after Arizona certified the election results, Kari Lake filed a new suit in state court, seeking a court order to either overturn Hobbs' victory and declare Kari Lake as the winner of the election, or redo the election in Maricopa County.

Kari Lake's complaint alleged that there were hundreds of thousands of illegal votes in the election, but provided no evidence in support of these claims.

Kari Lake appealed the dismissal and the order directing her to pay $33,000 in fees.

The Arizona Supreme Court in May 2023 ruled that it was employing "the extraordinary remedy of a sanction" on Kari Lake's lawyers, imposing a $2,000 fine on them for making "false factual statements to the Court".

Kari Lake has been married to Jeff Halperin since August 1998.

Kari Lake was previously married to Tracy Finnegan, an electrical engineer.

Kari Lake previously identified as a Buddhist before 2015 according to her friends.