Corporate cash flows to Arizona extremist

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey (R) is term-limited, and voters will choose his replacement in November. Just three weeks ago, Ducey warned Arizona voters against selecting Republican Kari Lake, a former news anchor for a local Fox affiliate.

Lake secured the endorsement of Donald Trump by making the lie that Trump won the 2020 election the centerpiece of her campaign. “You know how to know [the news is] fake?” Lake said in her first TV ad. “Because they won’t even cover the biggest story out there: the rigged election of 2020.”

Kari Lake for AZ Governor @KariLake

Our FIRST TV Ad dropped today. I am ONLY airing this video in the middle of Corporate News programs. The best part? They cannot refuse my Ads thanks to FCC rules. If the Fake News is hell-bent on lying about the 2020 Election, I’ll force them to air some uncomfortable truths.

During a single campaign appearance in May, Lake "claimed nearly a dozen times in a single hour that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald J. Trump." She said she was running for Governor because "[w]e need some people with a backbone to stand up for this country — we had our election stolen."

In June, all the Republican candidates were asked to raise their hands if they thought the 2020 election was "corrupt" and "stolen." When one candidate declined to raise her hand, Lake tweeted that it was "disqualifying." 

Kari Lake for AZ Governor @KariLake

“Would you agree that we had a corrupt, stolen election? Raise your hand” Only one #AZGOV Candidate REFUSED to raise her hand: Karrin Taylor Robson. Disqualifying.

Lake said that if she were Governor, she would not have certified Biden's victory in Arizona. (Ducey did certify Biden's win, despite pressure from Trump allies, because Biden won the most votes in Arizona.) 

According to Ducey, Lake is fundamentally dishonest and inauthentic. "Kari Lake is misleading voters with no evidence," Ducey said during a July 17 interview on CNN. He said her campaign was "all an act" and she was simply "putting on a show" in an effort to win the Republican nomination. Ducey said the persona Lake adopted to attract support "bears no resemblance… to anything she's done over the past 30 years."

Ducey could not have been more clear: Lake is not a person who should be entrusted with Arizona's most powerful elected office. 

But then, on August 5, Lake was declared the winner of the Republican primary. The next day, Ducey endorsed Lake. But Ducey's abrupt reversal is not just a matter of his personal integrity. In addition to being the outgoing governor of Arizona, Ducey is also the co-chair of the Republican Governors Association (RGA). Ducey says the RGA, under his leadership, is already spending money on television ads supporting Lake. 

Doug Ducey @DougDucey

As co-chairman of the Republican Governors Association, our organization is already active on the airwaves supporting Kari Lake’s candidacy. Congratulations to Kari on a hard-fought victory and to all the candidates who will be carrying the GOP banner in November. 3/

The RGA is financed, in part, by large checks written by major corporations. These corporations, through the RGA, will now be financially supporting a candidate that has called for the jailing of journalists who reported that Biden's win in Arizona was legitimate. 

Lake supports enforcement of total abortion ban from 1901

The 2020 election is not the only issue where Lake has embraced an extremist position. In March 2022, Ducey signed a highly-restrictive new law that bans abortion after 15 weeks. Lake says that, as governor, she would instead enforce an abortion ban passed in 1901, 11 years before Arizona became a state. 

The 1901 law bans all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest. (The only exception is if the life of the woman is in jeopardy.) Under this law, "anyone who helps a pregnant woman obtain an abortion can be sentenced to two to five years in prison." 

In a June interview on Fox News, Lake said she supported closing all abortion clinics in Arizona and banning abortion pills. (Many pills used to induce abortion are also used for other purposes.)

Now, corporate dollars are being used to help Lake achieve her goal of stripping all reproductive rights from millions of Arizonans. 

Corporations that are supporting Lake's candidacy through the RGA

Major corporate contributors to RGA in 2022 include 3M ($50,000), Anheuser-Busch ($50,000), Anthem ($500,000), Boeing ($200,000), Chevron ($260,000), Cisco ($148,500), CVS ($280,000), Deloitte ($250,000), DoorDash ($455,000), Exxon Mobil ($60,000), Google ($120,000), Johnson & Johnson ($50,000), Koch Industries ($500,000), Pfizer ($250,000), Publix ($300,000), Sherwin Williams ($100,000), Toyota ($50,000), United Airlines ($50,000), United Healthcare ($600,000), Verizon ($50,000), and Visa ($50,000).

This money has helped create a war chest that is now being deployed by Ducey and the RGA to boost Lake's candidacy. Ducey has also not ruled out using these funds to support the Republican nominee for Governor of Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano. Like Lake, Mastriano enthusiastically promotes Trump's lies about the 2020 election and supports a total abortion ban.