Senate hopeful Kari Lake courts Nikki Haley supporters while calling failed presidential bid a ‘vanity project’

Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake says she will court voters who backed GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley – and those who would have voted for independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema – even as she criticized Haley’s campaign as a “vanity project” in an interview with CNN Wednesday.

Lake, a former Arizona gubernatorial nominee, told CNN she will seek the support of “all Republicans” in the state – and independents, too – making a pitch that they should get behind her expected Senate campaign against Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego in what is now a two-way race after Sinema announced she will not run for reelection.

“I am actively trying to court all Republicans, whether they are, you know, MAGA Republicans, somewhere in the middle, or traditional Republicans,” Lake said. “I want everybody’s vote.”

Lake is seeking to moderate her positions in some areas, such as abortion, where she said Wednesday she did not support a federal abortion ban or a century-old Arizona statute that is a near total ban on abortion, despite previously expressing support for the law.

But Lake – a staunch supporter of Donald Trump who has backed his lies about the 2020 election and baselessly claimed her own 2022 loss was rigged as well – is not about to stop going after the former president’s perceived enemies. Following reports that Haley would drop out of the presidential race Tuesday, Lake tweeted: “Nimrata Haley will suspend her campaign today after more humiliating, landslide loses on Super Tuesday.”

In the interview with CNN, the GOP candidate criticized Haley for continuing her campaign against Trump through Super Tuesday and for not endorsing the former president.

“She’s stayed in all this time and hundreds of millions of