Kari Lake does Kari Lake, while Senate Republicans reach for the Excedrin

Senate wannabe and MAGA Queen I-Just-Can't-Help-Myself Kari Lake says she’s not “all that confident” that the election this fall will be fair.

Translation: If she wins, the election was fair and if not, Arizona is in for more long years of more lawsuits, more character assassination and ever more Kari chaos.

I picture the National Republican Senatorial Committee with a palm slap to the forehead.

Rather than even considering her primary opponent, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb — a staunch conservative who is basically Lake but without a luggage cart packed to the brim with baggage — the NRSC threw in early on Lake.

Kari Lake was told to moderate. She didn't

As for U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who has thus far taken a pass on Lake? I can almost hear the I told you so’s.

Last October, Lake was advised by Republican senators hoping to regain a foothold in Arizona to move on from the far-fetched election conspiracy theories that have become her signature grievance.

So, naturally, a few weeks later she asked the Arizona Court of Appeals to invalidate the results of the 2022 election, claiming to have new evidence of Maricopa County sabotage in her race.

By spring, she was petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming to have new, new evidence of dastardly doings at the county.

Now, here comes Kari once more, appearing Sunday on Fox News to cast doubt on the results of an election that hasn’t even happened yet.

“If it were today, I wouldn’t be all that confident,” she said.

Lake peddles her latest election conspiracy

This, because she’s convinced that Democrats are engaged in a preposterous criminal scheme to usher immigrants into the country illegally so they can register for Medicare or Medicaid and then register to vote in the Nov. 5 election.

“What they want is to have a line in the voter rolls so that somebody can vote for that person,” she told Fox’s Maria Bartiromo.

“And that’s why they’re asking them to register to vote when they get set up for Medicare and Medicaid, because they’re giving them all of these services. They’re asking them to sign up to vote. Then they have a line in the voter roll, and somebody will vote under that name.”

Lake didn’t explain how these immigrants are able to register for public benefits, given that federal law forbids it. But she’s “absolutely, one thousand percent” sure it’s happening, with a goal of letting undocumented immigrants vote this fall.

It’s political gold, spun to delight and thrill her MAGA base.

But to more moderate Republicans and independent voters? The ones who in recent years have gifted Democrats with both of Arizona’s Senate seats and every key statewide office rather than handing over the state to the election conspiracy crowd?

The ones Lake must win over if she wants to defeat Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego?

Republicans aren't spending big in Arizona

Well, to date, she hasn’t scored so much as a single endorsement from the state’s leading business, community or political leaders, unless you count a smattering of state legislators from the party’s MAGA wing.

Democrats are, no doubt, as thrilled as Team MAGA with Lake’s continued obsession with outlandish election conspiracy theories.

Thrilled enough that they’ll be spending big on Gallego, a liberal who would not have had a prayer of winning a statewide race in Arizona before MAGA took control of the once-Grand Old Party.

Let's have an abortion debate: Kari Lake ('22) v. Lake ('24)

Outside of the NRSC, none of the deep pocketed conservative groups are as yet investing in Lake.

McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund is expected to drop big money on what he sees as winnable seats in Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. But not, as yet, in Arizona. (“Candidate quality,” is key, McConnell says.)

The conservative non-profit One Nation is dropping $70 million to defeat Democrats in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada. But not in Arizona.

Lake isn't confident in election? No wonder

Meanwhile, just as the NRSC is preparing to launch a joint $10 million TV ad buy with Lake ...

... she makes a return trip to crazyland with what may be her looniest, loopiest ever election conspiracy theory.

“If it were today,” she says of the Nov. 5 election, “I wouldn’t be all that confident.”

When it comes to GOP prospects in Arizona, I imagine there are a fair number of Republicans who might agree.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @LaurieRoberts or on Threads at laurierobertsaz.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake spews election conspiracy while Republicans bury their heads