'Caged wolf': Ex-GOPer says Kari Lake is trying to drop 'crazier theories' for Senate run

Failed Arizona gubernatorial nominee turned Senate candidate Kari Lake is best known for her refusal to accept she lost the 2022 election, combined with a series of unsuccessful lawsuits as she scrambled to get the results thrown out.

But she is now trying to put all that behind her, wrote former GOP strategist Tim Miller for The Bulwark, and present a softer, more moderate version of herself — at least to party officials.

After a recent interview with the candidate, Miller wrote, "I could tell that Lake, though she would never admit it, recognized that her extreme, confrontational, conspiratorial persona contributed to a 2022 defeat at the hands of a not-so-impressive opponent."

For example, he continued, "She kept going out of her way to try to present a more mainstream, more ... human ... face to the viewers. And she kept pivoting back to being a mother and to how she wanted to solve the fentanyl crisis and address pocketbook issues."

"On voter fraud she stayed away from some of the crazier theories she espoused in the past in favor of more normal-sounding (but still non-fact-based) complaints about long voting lines and broken voting machines."

Moreover, wrote Miller, "My observation about her demeanor does not seem like a one-off. It is buttressed by buzz in the state that she has been privately 'wooing the McCain wing of the party' to show them she has 'moderated' since 2022" — a far cry from when she told McCain supporters to "get the hell out" of the party."

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"But you know what they say about best-laid plans," he added. "The normie-candidate mask could only stay on for so long. As the interview wore on, I could sense Lake struggling to keep down the bad wolf that wanted to be let loose to growl about my outfit or bare its teeth at the Communist Marxist vermin in our midst. And you can only keep a wolf caged for so long."

All of this comes as Arizona prepares for a potentially complicated Senate election, with former Democrat Kyrsten Sinema laying the groundwork to run for re-election as an independent, and Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Phoenix clearing the field for a run himself.