Kari Lake could become the Sidney Powell of the Senate

As one MAGA star fades, another star may be burning brighter.

Lawyer Sidney Powell’s plea agreement to cooperate with prosecutors in Georgia’s election interference case could marginalize her as a MAGA world figure. 

Powell last week pleaded guilty to trying to interfere in the 2020 election. As part of her plea deal, she agreed to testify truthfully at related court proceedings and submit an apology letter to the citizens of Georgia.

At points following the 2020 election, Powell was one of the most prominent Donald Trump associates pushing baseless lies alleging fraudulent voting machines cost Trump the election in key swing states. She insisted a raft of election lawsuits would result in Trump’s being declared the true winner of states he lost in 2020. Obviously, she was very wrong. But nothing appears to have sunk her stardom in conservative circles quite like her involvement in the Georgia case. Ahead of her plea, Rolling Stone reported MAGA world figures were preparing to blame her for much of the election scheme, and Trump tried to distance himself from her after the plea was announced Friday.

But right-wing grifters are like weeds. Just when you think you’ve rid yourself of one, another pops right up. And if Powell’s popularity does, in fact, fade among MAGA faithful, U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake in Arizona seems set to assume the mantle as perhaps the most prominent MAGA ally peddling election lies.

And if Democrats don’t strategize effectively against her, she could become the Sidney Powell of the Senate — an election-denying conspiracy theorist who has Trump’s ear and uses her stature to voice his most deluded claims about voting systems. 

Powell has been name-checked by Trump and counted among his inner circle, but he’s trying to distance himself from her after her plea deal. Lake, in contrast, appears to have a much cozier relationship with Trump (who has endorsed her Senate bid). Lake offered a contrasting image to Powell last week. Just days before Powell seemed to undercut her election fraud claims with her plea deal, Lake was doubling down on her own failed election case. 

Last Monday, a federal appeals court tossed out a lawsuit Lake filed that alleged voter tabulation fraud led to her loss in Arizona’s 2022 gubernatorial race. It was the latest development in an ongoing saga that has seen Lake — and fellow Arizona Senate candidate Mark Finchem — lose repeatedly in court filings designed to sow doubt about Arizona’s voting systems. 

Nonetheless, Lake said she’d be “continuing along with my court cases” in an interview with conservative commentator Charlie Kirk last week. 

Lake appears to be filling a void that could be left by Powell. The thought of her claiming a Senate seat should be a strong motivator for Democrats to commit ample time and resources to the state ahead of next fall’s general election.