Arizona GOP boss quits after leaked tape shows him floating a job for Kari Lake to skip Senate race

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Republican Party Chairman Jeff DeWit resigned Wednesday after he could be heard in a leaked recording offering a job and asking U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake to name a price that would keep her out of politics.

DeWit’s departure shakes up the Republican Party in a battleground state that will feature prominently in the battle for control of the White House and the U.S. Senate in the November election.

At the time of the recording last March, Lake was waging an unsuccessful court fight challenging her loss in the 2022 race for Arizona governor and gearing up for a U.S. Senate campaign. Meanwhile, Republicans in Washington, bruised by a disappointing showing in the midterms, were talking openly about plans to seek GOP Senate nominees who would be more viable in general elections.

“There are very powerful people that want to keep you out,” DeWit tells Lake in what he described as a “selectively edited” recording. “But they’re willing to put their money where their mouth is in a big way.”

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