(The Center Square) – Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake turned in her petition signatures to qualify for the July 30 primary ballot on Friday morning.
“Frankly, we could keep collecting signatures – there’s so much support for our campaign and our candidacy – but we just wanted to get this part done and move on to the next phase of winning this election, taking back a U.S. Senate seat and taking back the majority in the United States Senate,” Lake told reporters after turning in the signatures.
Her petition filing happened the morning after her rally in Cave Creek, the first major rally she’s held since announcing her campaign in October. Lake estimates 10,120 signatures through E-QUAL, which checks that people are eligible before they sign. She also appeared to turn in a box of signatures on paper as well. Lake needs a minimum of 7,072 in order to qualify, but signatures do need to be verified before it becomes official, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s office.
In her speech, Lake said that she hopes to unite the party ahead of the general election.
“I’m ready to bring people in who weren’t with us the whole way,” said Lake, who ran for governor in 2022.
U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, who is the presumptive Democratic nominee for Senate, turned in an estimated 14,186 signatures on March 4, The Center Square reported. He needed 6,556 signatures to qualify for the Democratic primary.
“So I’m proud to turn in these signatures for us. This is a good example of Arizona grit, where we don’t back down, we stare at the fight and get into it,” Gallego said at the time.
Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb is also in the race for the Republican nomination, but polling suggests that Lake will win by a wide margin, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced earlier this month that she would not run for re-election, which was expected given that she would have needed to garner over 40,000 signatures by April 1 as an independent to get a spot on the ballot in November. Sinema left the Democratic Party in December 2022.