Kari Lake is scrambling to call Arizona lawmakers after abortion ban ruling

Senate hopeful Kari Lake is personally lobbying Arizona state lawmakers to repeal a Civil War-era law effectively outlawing abortion — the clearest sign yet that she fears the GOP's hardline stance on the issue will hurt her campaign in the fall.

Lake, a former TV anchor turned MAGA darling, has spent months trying to project a more moderate position as she runs for Senate, particularly on abortion, which has dogged Republicans across the country. On Tuesday, the state Supreme Court made her job much more difficult when it ruled that the 1864 ban on abortion could be enforced, further igniting an already smoldering political issue.

Within a day, Lake was calling lawmakers in the GOP-controlled state House and Senate, urging them to repeal the law and offering her support, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss them.

Her effort to whip votes is a stark example of how eager Republicans are to neutralize abortion ahead of a close election in the state. Abortion has helped fuel Democratic down-ballot victories since the fall of Roe v. Wade, and Lake — who once praised the 1864 law — has now struck a different tone as she seeks to win an increasingly blue state.

Former President Donald Trump also said the ruling went too far, just days after suggesting abortion access be left to states. But the court ruling underscored the peril for Republicans of doing so and forced both Trump and Lake to play defense on an issue they’d rather not discuss.

The Lake campaign did not respond to a request for comment. But on Thursday, Lake released an over five-minute video, stressing her opposition to “this total ban on abortion” and urging “pro-life” people to be involved in crafting a new abortion policy.

“Right now we’re in that part where we’re deciding the issue,” she said in the video. “This is the difficult part. I didn’t get into politics because I thought it was going to be easy.”

Arizona state Rep. David Cook, a Republican who has indicated openness to supporting a repeal, said Lake did not reach out to him but did talk to one of his House colleagues.

“In the 1860s, we weren’t even a state. We used to hang people who were stealing horses and cattle. We don’t do that anymore. They didn’t have the medical expertise, we didn’t have the research and women couldn’t even vote. Slavery was still legal in the United States,” Cook said. “We need to modernize this law for people today.”

Democrats, meanwhile, are working to remind voters that Lake previously said she was supportive of the 1864 ban, which she called a “great law” at a 2022 forum. Democrats are eager to cast Lake as untrustworthy on the issue and as someone who was previously unequivocal about opposing abortion rights.

“I don’t believe in abortion,” Lake said in a 2022 video that Democrats have been promoting on social media. Lake said in the video that she believes “life begins at conception” and doesn’t “think abortion pills should be legal.”

Lake will face Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) in a marquee Senate race that will help determine control of the chamber. Gallego is a strong supporter of abortion rights.

“Anytime we're talking about something from the mid-19th century, it's problematic,” said a GOP strategist in the West who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the campaign. “It reflects poorly on Arizona, and it distracts from the issues that are beneficial to Republicans.”

Only a handful of Republicans in the legislature have signaled support for undoing the law, and it’s unclear whether Democrats would join them. State Rep. Matt Gress, a Republican representing a Phoenix-based swing seat, attempted to start a vote on such a repeal on Wednesday but was rebuffed by his GOP colleagues.