Kellen Browning
Kari Lake won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Arizona on Tuesday, according to The , setting up a high-stakes contest in the fall for the seat of Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who is retiring.
Her victory over Mark Lamb, the Pinal County sheriff, extends her three-year transformation into a fierce pro-Trump firebrand. A former news anchor, she will now face Representative Ruben Gallego, a Phoenix-area former Marine who had no opposition in the Democratic primary.
Ms. Lake celebrated her victory in front of supporters at a Phoenix hotel, telling them she would be former President Donald J. Trump’s “backup” in Washington after defeating Mr. Gallego. She brought out a thick binder, saying it was a tally of Mr. Gallego’s “destructive voting record that is destroying Arizona.”
Though she made overtures to building a broader coalition — calling for “disaffected Democrats” and moderate Republicans to join her — she framed the election in stark terms.
“This is a battle between good and evil,” she said. “This is a battle between the who want to destroy this country and the who want to save America.”
Ms. Lake led Mr. Lamb 53.4 percent to 40.6 percent, with 67 percent of the vote reporting.
Ms. Lake and Mr. Gallego have already spent months attacking each other. The race has been essentially set — Mr. Lamb’s spoiler potential was the only question mark — since March, when Ms. Sinema, who left the Democratic Party in 2022 to become an independent, declared that she would not seek re-election.
