Kari Lake still expects God (and the state Supreme Court) to make her governor

Failed Republican political candidate and former TV news reader Kari Lake wants – perhaps even expects – the Good Lord to do what the voters of Arizona would not do: Make her governor.

The latest prank in Lake’s ongoing Christian nationalist post-election publicity tour is what she described as a “prayer event” at a Mesa church Tuesday where, in a tweet, Lake said it was time to “pray together for the Supreme Court & praise God with great expectations!”

Expectations?

Lake has lost each of her many court challenges to the November 2022 election in which she was defeated by Gov. Katie Hobbs by 17,000 votes.

Most recently, her arguments before the Arizona appeals court were described by a judge as “quite simply, sheer speculation.”

The ruling against her also said, “Lake’s arguments highlight election day difficulties, but her request for relief fails because the evidence presented to the superior court ultimately supports the court’s conclusion that voters were able to cast their ballots, that votes were counted correctly, and that no other basis justifies setting aside the election results.”

A campaign that's more theatrical than theological

Not too long after that Lake took her case to the Arizona Supreme Court, tweeting, “Pray for our Attorneys. Pray for the Judges. Pray for Justice. Pray for America.”

I am not an expert in the ways of the Almighty, but it seems likely that her prayers already have been answered. Just not with the reply she’d hoped to receive.

Lake has been playing the Christian (small “c”) nationalist (capital “N”) card almost from the beginning of her campaign, a strategy that has seemed from the beginning to be more about praying for donations than for divine election intervention.

Along the way it has included a number of episodes that seem far more theatrical than theological.

Like when a group of evangelical supporters laid hands on and anointed Lake at an event in Scottsdale.

The walls of the elections center didn't tumble down

Or when she compared MAGA Republicans to Jesus and said God would help her and her supporters “take back our country and save this republic.”

Or after the election, when her followers marched around Maricopa County’s election center seven times while blowing horns, expecting the walls to come tumbling down as in the Bible story of the battle of Jericho.

Along the way Lake has described President Joe Biden and Democrats not as political opponents but as “demonic.”

The far-right Pentecostal website Charisma News published an article about Lake under the headline: “Is God Raising Up Kari Lake as a New Breed of Prophetic Politician?”  The story said Lake “doesn't just speak; she prophesies in almost everything she says.”

Noting a position for which Lake seems qualified

Except, so far, in regards to that whole reversing the election thing.

A while back an organization called Faithful America, a group of Christians who say they are speaking out against Christian nationalist politicians who have “hijacked” Jesus' message and “distort the Gospel for their agenda of hatred, power, and division.”

Kari Lake made the group’s list of “false prophets.”

Unlike Arizona governor, it is a position for which she appears to have the qualifications.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake still expects God to make her Arizona governor