Another Difficult Week for the Lake Campaign

Arizona may be the most second amendment state in America. Many open carry proudly and many more conceal carry or have weapons in the home. As a result, membership to the National Rifle Association has become a campaign issue and a litmus test for candidates support for the second amendment. The National Rifle Association is the largest guns rights advocacy group in the world and provides lifetime membership opportunities. Most republican candidates are and have been lifetime members of the NRA.

That is probably why it has become a campaign issue in the Arizona gubernatorial race that Kari Lake, the Trump endorsed candidate, seems to have not joined the NRA until her campaign started last year. This has lead many to believe that Kari Lake only became a member of the NRA because she was running for election.

Politicos pushed the other candidates Steve Gaynor, Matt Salmon and Karrin Taylor Robson to disclose their membership dates. Gaynor joined in 2018, Salmon joined in 2006 and Robson in 2009. Salmon used the opportunity to go after Lake saying Lake's donations to Democrats including John Kerry and Barack Obama over a decade ago call into question her support of gun rights — a bedrock issue for the Republican party.

Membership to the NRA probably is not a deal breaker for republicans but this week's revelations come on the heels of Kari Lake's policy missteps, bad fundraising numbers and sinking polling results which could spell trouble for the candidate.