Kari Lake responds after report says she’s on Trump’s shortlist for running mate

Carey Lake says her focus remains on running for governor of Arizona, not running for vice president in 2024.

The Republican nominee nearly won her contest against Democrat Kathy Hobbs last fall and went to the Arizona Supreme Court in her fight to have Maricopa County’s election results invalidated due to misconduct.

Lake has been talked about as a potential running mate for former President Donald Trump, who is running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. She won the straw poll at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference and was on one news site’s list of four Trump women. can choose if he wins the GOP primary.

But Lake said that despite her strong commitment to supporting Trump, her focus is on Arizona.

“I am 100 percent committed to my job as Governor of Arizona. I will also work to ensure that President Trump returns to the White House as soon as possible,” she said in a statement to the British Daily Mail, the publication reported on Tuesday.

“Anything that goes beyond those two goals is nothing more than a distraction,” Lake said.

Lake said that America’s change of course should not only take place in Washington.

“Our best days are ahead, and it all starts with the election of America First candidates across the country,” she said.

We have been honored to have some of the strongest leaders in our movement, including @KariLakeperform at CPAC this year!

WATCH Kari’s full performance on Day 3 here

— CPAC (@CPAC) March 8, 2023

In her campaign account, the nominee issue was treated with a touch of humor after a CPAC straw poll.

“We are flattered, but unfortunately our legal team says the constitution does not allow her to serve as governor and vice president at the same time,” Carey Lake wrote to the military headquarters on Saturday.

TIME: out of 30 applicants @KariLake wins @CPAC straw poll for the vice president.

We’re flattered, but unfortunately our legal team says the constitution doesn’t allow her to be governor and vice president at the same time. pic.twitter.com/gFV3z3wtxB

— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) March 4, 2023

On Tuesday, Axios reported that Trump is considering Lake “as a model for his running mate” if he wins the nomination.

The site also lists former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and South Dakota Gov. Christy Noem as possible candidates.

Haley, who is a contender for the 2024 Republican Party nomination, served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration, and Sanders was Trump’s White House press secretary.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheng dismissed the report, telling Axios, “Anyone who thinks they know what President Trump is going to do is seriously misinformed and is trying to curry favor with ‘potential’ vice presidential candidates.”

A speculative NPR report on Wednesday suggested that Noem could be a potential presidential candidate, but added that a vice presidential role would be more likely if she decides to take her political career to the national stage.

“I’m focused on doing my job here in South Dakota,” Noem said earlier this year when Fox News asked her about the 2024 presidential campaign.

“I’m focused here, but I’m going to keep telling the stories of South Dakota,” she said.

Speculation about 2024 comes amid a fight between Haley and would-be presidential candidate and former Trump administration secretary of state Mike Pompeo over the 2020 race.

As the Washington Examiner notes, Pompeo’s new book, Never Back Down: Fighting for the America I Love, claims that Haley hoped to become Trump’s running mate in 2020. Hailey denied this claim.

“Firstly, Pompeo wrote about what he heard from someone else. Can we just start with this?” Hailey said Tuesday on the Ruthless podcast.

“The second thing I’ll tell you is that I was a damn good ambassador to the UN and every secretary of state hated it.”

This article originally appeared in The Western Journal.

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