Leading Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who left broadcast news after thirty years in the business, is set to release her first television commercial on Monday. The ad, aimed to air during the evening news hour criticizes those shows for their bias, and tells viewers to turn the shows off.
Lake told the Arizona Sun Times, “My first TV ad, titled ‘Rigged Elections Have Consequences,’ airs this Monday! And it will ONLY air during fake news programs. I am not a conventional, boring politician so it should surprise no one that I don’t have conventional, boring campaign ads. If the Fake News refuses to tell the truth, it’s up to us to do so. I am the only candidate with bold solutions to the problems we face and I lay many of them out in our first ad. Get ready!”
Lake said that the spot introducing herself as the Trump-endorsed Arizona gubernatorial candidate, says, “If you’re watching this ad right now, it means you’re watching a fake news program.”
She added the commercial adds, “You know how I know it’s fake? Because they won’t even cover the biggest story out there: the rigged election of 2020.” She explains how Americans are now experiencing the consequences of that election, with “soaring prices, a spike in homelessness, and an invasion on our border.”
Lake said she has a plan to fix those issues, and will finish building the wall on the southern border and send criminals back over it. Shown burning a mask, she said she will remove COVID-19 restrictions and mandates. Finally, she said she will end the “brainwashing” in schools.
At the very end, she grins while pointing a TV remote control at the camera, “Now let’s send the corrupt news a lesson and turn them off,” as the screen clicks off and goes black.
Lake’s ad is playing on the network where she was a former anchor, Fox 10, at 6 p.m. Monday night. Similar to Ronald Reagan, whom the candidate admires, Lake wasn’t always a conservative. But working in the “corrupt media,” as she refers to it, changed her mind. Now she frequently speaks out against the bias in her former profession.
The stations may have not want to play her ad, but legally they probably cannot refuse. FCC rules state that if a station allows state and local political candidates to run ads, they must accept them from all candidates. In fact, the local station 12 News, which airs Lake’s ad at 10 p.m. Monday night, published an article explaining these FCC requirements last month.
Lake often gets the best of the mainstream media due to her years of experience within the field. Earlier this month, she recorded an interview with 60 Minutes Australia where she pushed back on the reporter’s questions. She frequently records her own interviews so the public can hear the entirety of them, instead of just the clips her interviewers choose to air. The interview, which included the “lunatic journalist” continuing to badger her after it was over, went viral.
While Arizona Governor Doug Ducey and Arizona Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs certified the 2020 election results for Joe Biden, Lake’s dramatic rise in the governor’s race, combined with the results of the independent audit of the election ordered by the Arizona Senate, has called that certification into question.
Lake, who refers to herself as a “Trump Republican,” has wholeheartedly embraced the former president’s policies, and mentions him frequently. The former newscaster has raised almost three times as much money as pundits predicted, and remains the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to replace outgoing Governor Doug Ducey.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at the Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kari Lake” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
