Republican Senate candidate and MAGA darling Kari Lake is entering the 2024 campaign season at a massive financial disadvantage compared to her competitors.

To date, Lake has raised just $2 million to fund her U.S. Senate campaign, which immediately follows her failed 2022 bid to be the Grand Canyon State’s governor. Worse yet, she has just $1 million in the bank and owes over $300,000 in debt.

This compares most unfavorably to both independent incumbent Senator Krysten Sinema and Lake’s Democratic counterpart, Ruben Gallego, who have around $11 million and $7 million put away, respectively.

#AZSen Republican candidate Kari Lake’s campaign committee raised $2.1 million in Q4, burned $1.02 million, and had $1.08 million remaining and $307.8K in unpaid vendor invoices. pic.twitter.com/JvBTkrGkE2

— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) January 31, 2024

Lake’s fundraising being dwarfed by both of her opponents could be an especially ominous sign for her campaign given her claim to being among the leaders of an enthusiastic movement and her tendency to scare off independent voters. The disclosure of her financial struggles comes amid related reporting on her political ally Donald Trump’s own financial mismanagement of his funds.

According to Lake, she prevailed in her 2022 gubernatorial campaign but was denied the office by voter fraud and an unsecured electoral system. “We did everything right, and we saw the disaster of election day in Arizona,” declared Lake while announcing her bid for the upper chamber of Congress.

She has had no success in challenging the results of the election in court or GOP-led audits, but not for lack of trying.

Polls indicate that the 2024 race will be close, and is complicated by uncertainty over whether Sinema — who was elected as a Democrat — will run for reelection.

Lake advisor Garrett Ventry downplayed the importance of the Republican’s paltry fundraising numbers by telling Politico that “Kari Lake had one of the strongest fundraising quarters of any GOP challenger. She is consolidating support with Arizonans and has cleared the field in the primary.”

“Kari is well positioned to win in November, as she is beating her Democrat opponents in the last three polls,” he added.

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