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.
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.
