A former talking head for the local Faux 10 outlet thinks she can convince Arizona voters to let her be the next Governor. There’s a big problem though. The race hasn’t even started yet and Kari Lake has already been outed as a RINO. Arizona has one of those for governor now and can’t wait to get rid of him.
RINO kiss of death
Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is upset. She freaked out when local scoop reporter Dennis Welch “grilled her about past donations to Democrats John Kerry and Barack Obama,” Mediaite relates.
She talks like a republican but has Democrat skeletons in her closet. Any hint of a RINO tendency is the kiss of death in Arizona politics these days, just ask Martha McSally.
Lake thinks she can trick Republicans into voting for her by saying things like Democrats “force” Covid Vaccines on people. She’s right. There are a lot of gullible moderate Republican’s who will take any RINO at face value simply because they have an “R” after their name. Jeff the Flake as an example.
The problem with that is, in Arizona the real conservatives aren’t registered as Republican. Many don’t bother to declare for any team in particular and like to take the wider overview. In the Grand Canyon State, independents can pick which primary to vote in. Some conservatives use that option as a way to infiltrate, divide and conquer the Democrats. Then, there are the ultra-far-right Libertarians.
Between the independents and the Libertarians, Arizona conservatives have united in solidarity for several election cycles to send the No RINO message.
If the GOP wants Arizona to elect a Democrat, by making it a choice between a declared Democrat and one in the closet, voters will go with the one who admits it. DINOs Kyrstin Sinema and Mark Kelly will agree on that. They were more conservative than alleged Republican McSally, so both were sworn in as senators.
Supported Kerry and Obama
Welch started the fireworks as soon as they got Kari Lake on camera, demanding to know why, since she’s allegedly a Republican, she donated to John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008. While trying to push blame for the Obama donation on her husband, she practically admitted that she would have written the check if she was at the desk that day.
They tried to cover the donations from the public by using her private married name of Halperin. So What? Lake shrugs. She insisted “there was nothing wrong with a Republican having once donated to Democrats.” Maybe not but the Arizona voters will hold it against the RINO anyway.
The only thing certain about the 2022 Arizona election for governor is double crossing Doug Ducey won’t be on the ballot. He had his two terms and is out.
Most voters in the state don’t realize it yet but there is a qualified conservative standing in the wings and about to make an appearance in the race. All the Republicans and independents who are horrified with the way the GOP has shoved one RINO after another down their throats are starting to notice the Libertarian candidate.
Libertarian Barry Hess isn’t a RINO and never will be because he’s more conservative than most Republicans to start with. He also has skills and qualifications with a career in Libertarian politics which started with his Political Science major in college. Even though he’s been an “active pro-liberty Libertarian since 1987” and made several bids for governor, senator, even president, Barry is so low key that most folks don’t even know he’s running.
Hess hasn’t officially declared his intentions for governor in 2022 but has expressed interest. Conservatives are ready to draft him if they have to. Not only did he serve multiple terms as vice-chair of the Arizona Libertarian Party, Barry was once the “single vote, from a body of 20 Citizens from each of 50 states, ‘against’ instituting electronic voting to replace the verifiability of simple paper ballots.”