Republican Kari Lake rehashes the racist, antisemitic 'great replacement theory'

I feel bad (almost) for the Republican Party puppet masters attempting to inject sanity into the campaign of former news reader, failed governor candidate and current Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake.

It appears that Lake is fresh out of new conspiracy theories to peddle, so she’s going with a re-run. An oldie that is anything but a goodie.

The Arizona Republic’s Ron Hansen reported over the weekend about how Lake is regurgitating (it’s actually the appropriate word) a version of the “great replacement theory.”

You may recall that back in 2017, during a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. — an event Donald Trump described as having “very fine people on both sides” — a parade of tiki torch-carrying white supremacists chanted, “Jews will not replace us.”

'Great replacement theory' is an ugly lie

That awful chant is the not-so-great essence of the “great replacement theory,” an old, rehashed racist, xenophobic, antisemitic load of BS currently espoused by many MAGA candidates that is rooted in their belief that “leftists” and Jewish elites are trying to replace white voters with non-white immigrants.

Just last month, Elon Musk reposted a ridiculous (and totally incorrect) post on X, formerly Twitter, suggesting that 220,731 illegal immigrants had registered to vote in Arizona. Musk called it “extremely concerning.”

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer ever so politely gutted that idiotic claim.

He pointed out that only 39,653 new voters have registered in Maricopa County in 2024. And that for all of Arizona, the number is about 60,000. Total.

It's dangerous with antisemitism on the rise

Richer outlined as well the identification procedures used to check on proof of identity, and described how nothing in Musk’s post was true.

Still, politicians like Lake, lacking ideas and desperate for attention, choose the ugliest of the many ugly conspiracy theories out there to rile up perspective voters.

Kari Lake is proving wildly popular: In Florida

It seems particularly repugnant to do so at a time when the Anti-Defamation League says there has been a nearly 400% increase in antisemitism in America since Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise attack in Israel that killed more than 1,400.

“Antisemitism has been intensifying and increasing,” ADL Director and CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said. “We’ve seen it normalized, and from the far-right and from the hard left.”

With Kari Lake, conspiracies never end

Politicians like Lake try to disguise the hate and antisemitism behind the “great replacement theory” now by saying it’s “Democrats” who want to replace white voters with non-citizens.

But all during her campaign for governor, Lake time and again spoke of the powers that opposed her as being under the thumb of Jewish-born billionaire George Soros, which she knows is a dog whistle for antisemites.

Now she’s even saying on social media that the “pro-Hamas protests are being funded by the Soros machine.”

Conspiracies never end with her. Constructive ideas … never begin.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake rehashes antisemitic 'great replacement theory'