On primary eve, Donald Trump urges GOP voters to back 'fantastic' Kari Lake

Often citing his own political priorities and complaints, former President Donald Trump urged Arizona Republicans to make U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake his partner in a race against an “ultra-left” Democrat.

Speaking to listeners on a telephone call Monday for Lake’s campaign, Trump called President Joe Biden’s departure from the race a “coup” by Democrats, repeatedly mispronounced Vice President Kamala Harris’ name and said Lake would help him implement his plans for a second term.

“She’s fantastic. She will not let us down,” Trump said. “Kari Lake, I just think she’s going to be as good as you can get. There’s nobody going to be better.”

The call came as voting in Arizona’s primary election ends Tuesday and as Republican voters choose between Lake, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb and neuroscientist Elizabeth Jean Reye.

The winner will face Democratic contender Ruben Gallego, who is unopposed for his party’s nomination in the race to replace the retiring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz.

Lake is widely viewed as the GOP primary favorite, with Trump’s early endorsement, as well as the backing of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and most of the Republican senators she hopes to join.

Lamb has run a low-budget, low-profile campaign. It picked up nearly $350,000 in supportive spending from the conservative organizations American Encore and Secure Arizona’s Future.

By contrast, Lake-aligned groups have spent about $140,000 to help her in the primary and Democratic-aligned organizations have spent more than $800,000 against her so far.

Trump’s call, which lasted less than 15 minutes, served as a mini-rally of sorts for a candidate he backed from the October night she formally entered the race.

He mixed in complaints against the media, outlined his own agenda of “drill, baby drill” to bring about lower energy prices, eliminating income tax on tips and, of course, closing America’s borders.

“She’s fearless when it comes to being a champion for the common-sense, America-first policies. Kari will vote to seal the border,” he said. “We’re going to seal that border. It will stop them immediately, and that will stop, in turn, the invasion, the largest invasion in the history of probably any country. There’s never been anything like it.”

Trump ripped Gallego, calling the five-term member of Congress “an open-border zealot.”

Trump lingered over Harris ascending on the presidential ticket for a moment as well.

“It looks like they did a coup with respect to (President Joe) Biden. He got 14 million votes, and they threw him out,” Trump said of his former opponent.

“They said, ‘We’re getting you out. You’re either going to do it the nice way or you’re gonna do it the hard way.’ And he’s gone. It’s like a prize fight. … You have a fighter and he’s not doing well. They say, ‘That’s OK, let’s throw another fighter into the ring.'" Trump said. "That’s what they did with Kamala, but she’s actually worse. She’s actually worse than he is. But Kari is going to be a tremendous help and she’ll be voting with us all the way down the line on energy independence and everything else."

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Trump said Gallego, whose name he also mispronounced, “is an ultra-left, I mean this, is an ultra-left winger, radical Democrat extremist.

“He’s a guy that’s not respected. He’s not respected there. People don’t listen to him,” Trump continued. “They don’t take him seriously, and from what I understand, Kari, the polls are very good.”

Public polling in the race since Sinema quit the race in March generally show Gallego leading Lake by mid-single digits.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Trump urges GOP voters to back 'fantastic' Kari Lake on eve of primary