Kari Lake

Kari Lake Halperin (née Lake; /ˈkɛəri/ KAIR-ee; born August 23, 1969) is an American political figure and former television news anchor who has served as the special advisor to the United States Agency for Global Media since 2025 under President Donald Trump. She was the unsuccessful Republican Party nominee in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election and the 2024 United States Senate election in Arizona.

Beginning her media career in the early 1990s, Lake was the anchor for the Phoenix television station KSAZ-TV from 1999 to 2021. She stepped down from her anchor role shortly before announcing her gubernatorial candidacy, winning the Republican nomination with the endorsement of former President Donald Trump. Her campaign was marked by various controversies, including promoting false claims of Trump winning the 2020 presidential election and calling for the imprisonment of those who accepted Trump's defeat, including her Democratic opponent, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. Lake narrowly lost the election to Hobbs in what was the closest gubernatorial race that year, but refused to concede. Her lawsuit challenging the results lasted nearly two years and was rejected by Arizona state courts.

In October 2023, Lake announced her candidacy for the 2024 United States Senate election in Arizona. She won the Republican nomination in July 2024, but lost the general election to Ruben Gallego. In December 2024, then President-elect Trump announced that he wanted Lake to be appointed as the next director of Voice of America, although the position is not legally appointed or nominated by the president. Lake was sworn in as a special advisor to the United States Agency for Global Media, which is the agency that oversees the Voice of America, on March 3, 2025.