Lake, who closely aligned herself with Trump, defeated Pence-endorsed Karrin Taylor Robson.
Kari Lake, endorsed by former President Donald Trump, won Arizona’s Republican gubernatorial primary on Thursday, dealing a blow to Vice President Mike Pence, who backed her opponent Karrin Taylor Robson.
The primary in the battleground Sun Belt state became a proxy battle between Trump and Pence. Though Pence once served as Trump’s second-in-command, their relations soured following the January 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol, when a mob of Trump supporters rioted in a failed attempt to force Congress to block the 2020 presidential election results based on unfounded claims of voter fraud.
At the time, Trump urged Pence to join his efforts to overturn the presidential election results, but Pence refused to do so.
The results and legitimacy of the election have become a divisive issue in the Republican Party—even though there is no substantial evidence that the election was stolen—as Trump attempts to hold his grip on power in the GOP.
The issue became central to Arizona’s primary race, as Lake, a former television news anchor, made the election central to her campaign.
