Kari Lake to campaign for Donald Trump in Iowa, days ahead of presidential caucuses

Kari Lake will appear in Iowa to campaign for former President Donald Trump just days before the state’s first-in-the-nation Republican presidential caucuses.

Lake, the former TV news anchor who grew up in Iowa and is now running for Arizona's U.S. Senate seat, has become a prominent surrogate for the former president’s 2024 campaign. She on Friday will address a pro-Trump crowd in Iowa’s Marion County.

Trump has reportedly considered Lake, who unsuccessfully ran for Arizona governor in 2022, as his vice presidential pick, though her Senate campaign has denied that she is pursuing that role.

Before Lake formally announced her Senate campaign, her travels around the country on behalf of Trump made some national Republicans question how committed she would be to an Arizona Senate campaign, according to past Arizona Republic reporting.

She has continued to make appearances outside of Arizona since launching her Senate bid, including in Texas, Florida, and New Hampshire, the second state on the Republicans’ presidential primary calendar.

Lake’s out-of-state travel has driven speculation that she has political aspirations beyond Arizona, a narrative that Democrats have been eager to seize.

“Kari Lake’s first public event of 2024 isn’t in Arizona– it’s a book signing stop in Omaha, Nebraska. Instead of focusing on earning the votes of Arizonans, Lake continues to criss-cross the country to sell books and spread conspiracy theories,” Olivia Taylor-Puckett, an Arizona Democratic Party spokesperson, said last week in a written statement.

Alex Nichol, a spokesperson for Lake’s campaign, disputed that idea.

“Kari Lake has been laser focused on Arizona, doing multiple events since declaring her candidacy and talking about the big issues Arizonans care about: fighting inflation and securing the border. She is also helping making sure President Trump wins the nomination,” Nichol said in a statement.

Candidates’ performances in the Iowa caucuses are often, though not always, predictive of the future of their campaign. According to an NPR analysis, since 1976, seven of the eight Republican presidential nominees, and eight of the last 10 Democratic nominees, finished in the top three in Iowa.

Sidetracked by court appearances as he battles a growing list of legal challenges, Trump has deployed a web of surrogates to appear in Iowa this month on his behalf. Others who have campaigned for Trump in the Hawkeye State include Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.; Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.; and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.

Polling consistently shows Trump with a strong lead in Iowa, according to the political analysis website FiveThirtyEight. The caucuses will take place Monday, January 15.

Laura Gersony is a national politics reporter for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Contact her at 480-372-0389, or by email at lgersony@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @lauragersony.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake Iowa rally: Arizona Senate candidate supporting Donald Trump