GOP warns Kari Lake against obsessing over 'grievances of the past'

Far-right MAGA Republican, conspiracy theorist and election denier Kari Lake has announced her plans to seek the GOP nomination for Arizona's 2024 U.S. Senate race. But Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), fears that if Lake becomes the nominee, she will alienate voters by obsessing over past elections.

Lake last week announced her plans to run for the U.S. Senate seat presently held by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a centrist independent and former Democrat. Liberal Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona), meanwhile, is seeking the Democratic nomination. If Sinema runs for reelection as an independent and Lake and Gallego are nominated by their parties, Arizona may see a three-way race.

Lake has been pushing the repeatedly debunked claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump — and that Arizona's 2022 gubernatorial race was stolen from her. After Lake lost to Democratic now-Gov. Katie Hobbs, conservative Republican then-Gov. Doug Ducey congratulated Hobbs, rejected Lake's bogus claims of a stolen election and offered the incoming Hobbs Administration his full support during the transition period.

During an interview with CNN, Daines said of Lake's election denialism, "I think one thing we've learned from 2022 is voters do not want to hear about grievances from the past. They want to hear about what you're going to do for the future. And if our candidates stay on that message of looking down the highway versus the rearview mirror, I think they'll be a lot more successful — particularly in their appeal to independent voters, which usually decide elections."

Although Daines described Lake as "very gifted," he stressed that if she becomes the nominee, it will "be important for her to look to the future and not so much the past."