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Former Vice President Mike Pence is supporting Arizona Gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson, a developer who has long been involved in Republican politics, instead of former President-elect Donald Trump’s candidate Kari Lake, a former TV presenter who continues to falsely claim that the 2020 election. was stolen. “
The endorsement illustrates the division in the party between Trump supporters who value loyalty to him above all else and those who want to go from litigation to non-stop the 2020 elections, including those who appreciate that Pence and others Republicans have blocked Trump’s attempts to revoke the results. . Trump and Pence, who are considering running for president in 2024, are both scheduled to be in Arizona on Friday to campaign for their chosen candidates ahead of the Aug. 2 primary.
Pence described Taylor Robson as “the best option for Arizona’s future” in a statement provided to The Washington Post. “As Arizona Democrats pursue the reckless Biden-Harris agenda, Karrin Taylor Robson is the only candidate for governor who will keep Arizona’s border and streets safe, empower parents and create great schools and promote conservative values, ”he said.
Taylor Robson praised Pence’s conservative credentials and said she did he wants to lead as he has done.
“Modern politics is full of charlatans and fakes, but Vice President Pence is the genuine article,” he said in a statement to The Post. “He has never wavered in his conservative beliefs and commitment to our Constitution, and he left a solid legacy as the governor I will aspire to.”
The endorsement comes two months after Pence and other prominent Republicans lined up behind Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (right), whom Trump aimed to certify the 2020 election. Kemp won by a landslide. But Arizona’s governor primaries seem much tighter, increasing the stakes for Pence. Split-screen campaign events on Friday will highlight Pence’s breakups with the former president, as he also defied pressure to undo Trump’s 2020 loss.
Taylor Robson also has the support of Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (dr), a longtime friend and ally of Pence, who co-chairs the Association of Republican Governors and similarly provoked Trump’s anger by claiming the results of the last election.
Analysis: Republicans become bolder in endorsing Trump
Lake and Taylor Robson do not offer dramatically different views on issues such as economics and water conservation. They both want the state to take a more muscular stance on border security, for example, and they want to end Trump’s border wall. But they diverge on the 2020 election.
Lake described the electoral system as “rotten to the core” and stated, without evidence, that thousands of fraudulent votes were cast in 2020: “I refuse to stop talking about it until our elected official rises and “We want people to be arrested, prosecuted and thrown in jail.”
On a television in the June debate, Lake reiterated the falsehood of widespread election fraud and said Joe Biden “lost the election and should not be in the White House.” He said he would not have certified the results of the Arizona election.
During the debate, Taylor Robson, who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 and helped raise $ 1.3 million for his two presidential campaigns, agreed that the 2020 election “was not absolutely fair,” but he did not say they were fraudulent.
He cited the new voting rules and laws introduced by some jurisdictions amid the pandemic and the so-called suppression by major technologies and the media of information harmful to Democrats.
“All of these things together made 78 percent of Arizona Republicans think something was wrong with the election,” he said during the debate. “But I’m focused on 2022 because the left is 10 steps ahead of us and I don’t have time to explain what they’re doing.”
Taylor Robson said she will accept the results of the gubernatorial election. Lake said at a recent campaign event that Taylor Robson’s rivals “could be trying to set the stage for another robbery.”
Emily Ryan, an Arizona Conservative political consultant, said the governor’s career shows a national struggle for GOP identity, with two main candidates sharing many of the same conservative stances on politics but representing different styles of government.
“There’s a part of the Republican Party that doesn’t feel comfortable with the direction Trump has taken the party and this brand of politics and is trying to regain some control,” Ryan said.
In a statement last week, a Lake spokesman denigrated Taylor Robson’s supporters as “name-only Republicans,” one of Trump’s favorite insults. “The RINO establishment is lining up behind Karrin Taylor Robson,” spokesman Ross Trumble wrote in an email.
A Pence adviser said the former vice president will visit the border on Friday, along with Taylor Robson and Brandon Judd, who is chairman of the National Border Patrol Council and has endorsed it. Pence will also head to Phoenix, said the adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak of the endorsement more frankly.
Trump is scheduled to appear at a rally in northern Arizona the same day to campaign for Lake and a list of his favorite candidates across the state. I originally planned to visit him this past weekend, though rescheduled for Friday after the death of his ex-wife, Ivana Trump.
The adviser said Pence sees Taylor Robson as “the most conservative candidate of the race” and was considering a endorsement before Ducey announced his support on July 7th. Pence and Ducey came together during Ducey’s candidacy for governor in 2014, and Pence wants to help. Ducey in his final year as governor and president of the RGA, said the next two men.
A Pence adviser also pointed to Lake’s attacks on Pence last month after visiting the Arizona border. Lake told Newsmax that he does not believe Pence has a “chance to win a snowball in Phoenix” if he runs for president in 2024 and said many people are “disappointed” with him for his actions in January 6, 2021, when he helped certify the election after pro-Trump rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol.
“I think that was something that frustrated us as advisors, and it certainly refocused our attention on that career,” Pence’s advisor said of Lake’s criticisms.
Lake, who was a Democrat during the early years of President Barack Obama’s first term, presents himself as the first U.S. populist in the Trump mold. She got her endorsement about a year ago and has spent the intervening time building a passionate base energized by her embrace of baseless conspiracy theories and divisive cultural warfare issues. including accusing drag queens of being dangerous to children and advocating for putting cameras in classrooms to make sure teachers don’t teach a critical curriculum related to race theory.
Taylor Robson campaigns as a more traditional conservative, with low taxes and less government, focused on business-friendly policies. She fell far behind Lake in polls for much of the race, but has recently moved beyond Lake spending, breaking statewide campaign spending records.
With early voting already underway, Pence’s endorsement could help influence moderate Republicans and independent voters who have applied for GOP ballots, especially in the remote suburbs of Phoenix who have helped resolve the contests closed in the last few years. The former vice president has also been very popular with Christian conservatives. Republicans Scott Neely and Paola Tulliani Zen also compete for the Republican nomination.
Some see a risky Pence endorsement for Taylor Robson as it will highlight the national currents that shape the race.
“Do you really want to take on Trump or do you just want to keep telling your own story?” Chuck Coughlin, an Arizona political strategist whose firm works with Republican candidates, said among the reports Pence might opine. “And my feeling is that a Pence endorsement makes it more about Trump.”
But for Pence, Coughlin said, the Arizona governor’s career is an opportunity to send a message and possibly share a victory.
“You’re thinking about Iowa,” he said, referring to the state that traditionally begins the presidential primary season. “You’re thinking about the next two years.”
With a possible campaign of its own on the horizon, Pence has been for Republican candidates across the country and has a foundation, Advancing American Freedom, which advocates conservative causes such as restrictions on abortion. Pence’s Advancing American Freedom Foundation recently made a six-figure contribution to an advertising campaign by anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which will support statewide anti-abortion legislation, according to Pence’s advisor.
Pence’s loose rope on Jan. 6: owning his role while courting Trump voters
Pence’s support for Taylor Robson marks his most prominent support since he campaigned in Georgia with Kemp, who easily defeated Trump’s chosen rival, former Sen. David Perdue. Pence framed the race as a referendum on GOP leadership.
“When you say yes to Gov. Brian Kemp tomorrow, you’re going to send a deafening message across America that the Republican Party is the party of the future,” he told a crowd in the Atlanta area on the eve of the primaries. Republican governors across the country, including Ducey, had come together to protect the incumbents of Trump’s backed major rivals amid what a former governor called a “personal revenge tour.”
Trump’s gubernatorial elections in Idaho and Nebraska also suffered defeats this year. But the former president’s endorsement remains coveted in Republican primaries and has given major boosts to candidates in the House and Senate.
Pence and Trump have also supported Sarah Sanders, the former White House press secretary, as governor of Arkansas. And finally …