Kari Lake’s failed campaign featured plenty of Donald Trump rhetoric, earning her comparisons with the former president. Lake was an election denialist, echoing Trump’s claims that the 2020 elections were rigged. After losing the 2022 race for Governor of Arizona to Katie Hobbs, Lake didn’t concede defeat, tweeting, “Arizonans know BS when they see it.”
Lake was popular in Arizona following her decades-long career as a news anchor in the state; her fame won her the Republican primaries. Many expected Lake to win as part of the predicted ‘Red Wave’ of Republican midterm victories. However, the wave never arrived, with many Republican losses tied to endorsements by Donald Trump, Kari’s ally.
Kari was raised by her father following her parents’ divorce
Kari Lake was born in 1969 to Sheila and Larry Lake in Rock Island, Illinois. She grew up in eastern Iowa alongside eight older siblings: seven sisters and one brother.
When Kari was seven, her parents divorced, and her father won custody. Larry was a high school teacher and football coach who often brought Kari to practice. Kari attended North Scott Senior High, where Larry taught; Lake got a B in a social studies class taught by Lari.
Kari described Sheila, a nurse, as an ‘amazing human’ but said she’s glad Larry raised her. Lake told Time:
“Obviously, a mother’s really important in those first few years of a child’s life, in that nurturing phase, and then after that, I believe fathers are actually almost more important.”
“When you have a strong father in your life as a girl, you don’t need somebody else to define you. Your father helped define you.”
Lake’s ethnicity remains unclear, though some netizens claim she is black
Kari Lake’s ethnicity remains unclear. She hasn’t addressed it, and her appearance doesn’t provide conclusive answers.
Some assume she’s white because a large population of the MAGA crowd is white. However, others point to her skin tone as evidence that she’s black. @ayooooomatt tweeted:
“I find it funny that Kari Lake is very obviously biracial but has scrubbed the internet clean of mention of that. Kari lake is black but doesn’t want her MAGA fans to know.”