Arizona Republican Party boss tried to keep Kari Lake out of Senate race by dangling job

U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake was reportedly offered what she viewed as a bribe by the chair of the Arizona Republican Party in an effort to keep her from running for the next two years.

Citing a 10-minute recording it had obtained and authenticated, London’s Daily Mail said Jeff DeWit told Lake, “There are very powerful people who want to keep you out.”

The conversation, which purportedly happened in March, would seem to bolster Lake’s claims that there were forces trying to derail her latest political run. It also adds to the controversies swirling around the state GOP.

Neither Lake, DeWit, nor the Arizona GOP responded Tuesday to a request for comment.

DeWit allegedly said he thinks former President Donald Trump would lose his reelection campaign and “it is time to make way for someone else,” according to the Daily Mail’s account.

Arizona GOP Chairman Jeff DeWit speaks on April 17, 2023, during a Legislative District 13 meeting to nominate three candidates to replace Liz Harris, the expelled state House of Representatives member.

“So the ask I got today from back east was: ‘Is there any companies out there or something that could just put her on the payroll to keep her out?’” DeWit asked Lake.

Lake is said to have responded: “This is about defeating Trump and I think that’s a bad, bad thing for our country.”

DeWit went on to ask Lake “is there a number at which” when she interjected “I can be bought?”

Lake allegedly told DeWit, “This is not about money. It’s about our country.”

DeWit suggested that Lake could “take a pause for a couple of years. You can go right back to what you’re doing.” He said the offer was not about control, but borne of concern that she could not “raise money to win.”

DeWit was the chief operating officer for Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns and was the chief financial officer of NASA in the Trump administration. He took over the Arizona GOP in January 2023.

In the early going of the 2022 U.S. Senate race in Arizona, DeWit chaired the campaign for Jim Lamon, a business executive who lavished cash on the state GOP under a different leader and aggressively sought Trump’s endorsement for his own race.

DeWit also served as chief investment officer for Depcom Power, which Lamon headed at the time. He sold his stake in the company in late 2021.

The Trump endorsement in 2022 went to Blake Masters, who easily won the GOP nomination but whose cash-strapped campaign lost to Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.

Lamon was one of the Arizona Republican electors falsely claiming Trump won the state in 2020, but he lost his appetite for Trump after his failed Senate run.

Last year Lamon was identified as the sole backer of a political action committee supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that aired several anti-Trump ads. DeSantis this week ended his bid for the GOP presidential nomination.

A March conversation with Lake would have come at a time when Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb was gearing up for his Senate run, which began in April.

Lake, meanwhile, maintained high public visibility after her narrow gubernatorial loss. She continued to fruitlessly claim in a lawsuit that the election was stolen, she was mentioned as a vice-presidential pick for Trump and long considered the Senate race.

She formally entered the Senate race in October with Trump’s endorsement on the first day.

The Arizona Republican Party, however, has faced significant financial pressures.

The Washington Post reported in November that DeWit was “begging the Republican National Committee for a financial bailout.”

Earlier this month, the state GOP reported that its latest fundraising numbers show that compared to recent periods under the leadership of former chair Kelli Ward and without RNC money the party has taken in record sums from a broader base of individual donors.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake news: Did Jeff DeWit tried to steer her out of Senate race?