Kari Lake Says She's Raised Over $500,000 Since Cheney's 'Anti-Endorsement' Kari Lake (Getty Images)
By Peter Malbin | Tuesday, 01 November 2022 11:57 AM EDT
Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake claimed on Monday that her campaign has raised over $500,000 since outgoing Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., recently attempted to derail it in an "anti-endorsement" effort.
Cheney targeted Lake and Republican candidate for Arizona's secretary of state Rep. Mark Finchem in a 30-second ad in which she urged voters to reject the two candidates because "they'll only honor the results of an election if they agree with it," The Epoch Times reported.
Appearing on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Monday, Lake said Cheney has now officially become her "biggest fundraiser."
"We raised a half a million dollars since she did the anti-endorsement, and people are still flocking to our website, karilake.com, and donating. It has been an incredible boom for us in fundraising. So I have to extend a big thank you to Liz," Lake said, adding that her campaign should consider inviting Cheney "to our inaugural ball because we have to thank her for bringing in so much fundraising money for us."
Lake told Carlson that legacy media have been attacking her for "speaking the truth."
"You can't talk about [COVID-19] vaccines, you can't talk about elections, you can't talk about Paul Pelosi … and I am talking about all those things because I still believe we have a little bit of the First Amendment left," she said.
Cheney has said she would do everything in her power to defeat Lake because the candidate publicly questioned the legitimacy of President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election.
"If you care about the survival of our republic, we cannot give people power who will not honor elections," Cheney said in a statement on a multi-candidate political action committee attacking the GOP nominees for governor and secretary of state.
Lake, a former television anchor, leads Democrat Katie Hobbs by 9 percentage points in a recent FOX 10 InsiderAdvantage news poll, The Epoch Times reported.
"In fact, my team tells me your commercial should add another 10 points to our lead!" Lake said mockingly in a letter responding to Cheney's effort to derail her campaign. "I guess that's why they call the Cheney anti-endorsement the gift that keeps on giving."
In early September, Hobbs' campaign office announced that Hobbs won't participate in a debate against Lake because of the way the commission ran primary debates. Hobbs' campaign pointed to news articles that called the GOP primary debate "pure chaos" and having "near-constant interruptions."
The Washington Post recently wrote: "The Kari Lake campaign has become a phenomenon in Arizona. It spans multiple demographics. It draws huge crowds on a day's notice. People arrive in Lake gear, in Trump T-shirts, in cowboy hats. Lake works the crowd, and an eddy of staff and security circles the woman at its center. Before she faces the press, a posse of supporters appears as if out of nowhere, lining up behind the candidate to form a human backdrop. When the cameras roll, they grip their Kari Lake signs and smile. And here, Lake takes over."