Kari Lake

Kari Lake
Born	Kari Lake 8/23/1969
Birthplace	Rock Island, Illinois, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Political figure, former television news anchor
Known for	2022 Arizona gubernatorial candidacy, 2024 Arizona Senate candidacy, Senior Advisor to USAGM
Education	University of Iowa (BA)
Spouse(s)	Jeff Halperin
Children	2
Awards	Emmy Award (regional)

Kari Lake Halperin (née Lake; born August 23, 1969), known professionally as Kari Lake, is an American political figure and former television news anchor who has served as senior advisor to the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) since March 2025. Before entering politics, Lake spent more than two decades as a prominent television news anchor in Phoenix, Arizona, most notably at KSAZ-TV (Fox 10 Phoenix), where she anchored from 1999 to 2021. She departed her broadcasting career to enter Republican politics, running unsuccessfully as the Republican nominee for governor of Arizona in 2022 and for the United States Senate in 2024. Both campaigns were closely associated with Donald Trump, who endorsed her candidacies and later sought to install her as director of the Voice of America. In March 2025, Lake was sworn in as a special advisor to USAGM, the federal agency overseeing the Voice of America and other U.S. international broadcasting operations. Her tenure at the agency became the subject of legal challenges, and in March 2026, a federal judge ruled that Lake's appointment and actions as acting chief executive of USAGM were illegal, voiding her official acts in that capacity.

Early Life

Kari Lake was born on August 23, 1969, in Rock Island, Illinois, a city in the Quad Cities metropolitan area along the Mississippi River. Lake grew up in Iowa, where she was raised before pursuing higher education at the state's flagship public university.

Details about Lake's childhood and family background prior to her college years remain limited in publicly available sources. Her upbringing in the rural Midwest would later contrast with her long career in the Phoenix, Arizona, media market, where she became one of the most recognized television personalities in the state.

Education

Lake attended the University of Iowa, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. The University of Iowa is home to one of the nation's well-known journalism and mass communication programs, and Lake's education there provided the foundation for her subsequent career in broadcast journalism. After completing her degree, she entered the television news industry in the early 1990s.

Career

Television News Career

Lake began her career in broadcast journalism in the early 1990s, working at television stations before arriving in the Phoenix, Arizona, market. She joined KSAZ-TV (Fox 10 Phoenix) in 1999 and became one of the station's primary news anchors, a role she held for more than two decades. During her tenure at the station, Lake became a well-known media personality in Arizona and conducted interviews with prominent figures, including a one-on-one interview with President Barack Obama.

Over the course of her broadcasting career, Lake received regional Emmy Awards for her work in television journalism. She was featured in local media profiles, including a 2010 profile in Haute Living that highlighted her prominence in the Phoenix media landscape.

In 2018, Lake drew attention for tweets regarding the Red for Ed teacher movement in Arizona, in which she suggested the movement was linked to efforts to legalize marijuana, a claim that generated public criticism.

Lake announced her departure from Fox 10 Phoenix in March 2021, ending a 22-year tenure at the station. Her departure came amid increasing public statements on political matters and preceded her formal entry into electoral politics. In the months before and after leaving her anchor role, Lake participated in anti-mask rallies, including one at Arizona State University, signaling her shift toward political activism.

Political Party Affiliation

Lake's political party registration has shifted over time. She was registered as a Republican before 2006, then registered as a Democrat, and re-registered as a Republican in 2012. During the period in which she was registered as a Democrat, Lake made donations to Democratic presidential candidates, a fact that drew scrutiny during her later Republican campaigns. Lake defended these donations when questioned about them during her gubernatorial campaign.

2022 Arizona Gubernatorial Campaign

In June 2021, Lake formally announced her candidacy for the Republican nomination for governor of Arizona. Her candidacy attracted national attention due to her media background and her vocal alignment with Donald Trump's political positions. In September 2021, Trump formally endorsed Lake's gubernatorial bid, providing a significant boost to her primary campaign.

A central element of Lake's campaign was her promotion of false claims that Trump had won the 2020 presidential election, a stance that aligned her with a broader movement within the Republican Party to contest the results of the 2020 race. Lake called for the imprisonment of individuals who accepted the results of the 2020 election, including her Democratic opponent, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.

Lake won the Republican primary, securing the nomination. In the November 2022 general election, she faced Hobbs, who had chosen not to participate in a traditional debate with Lake. The race was the closest gubernatorial contest in the country that year, with Lake narrowly losing to Hobbs. Lake refused to concede the election and filed a lawsuit challenging the results. The legal challenge lasted nearly two years before being rejected by Arizona state courts at every level.

ABC15 noted during the campaign that Lake's transition from television news to politics represented a notable shift, examining whether her media skills would translate to electoral success.

2024 Arizona Senate Campaign

In October 2023, Lake announced her candidacy for the 2024 United States Senate election in Arizona, seeking the seat being vacated by the retiring independent senator Kyrsten Sinema. Lake again secured Trump's endorsement and won the Republican nomination in July 2024. In the general election, she faced Democratic nominee Ruben Gallego, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Lake lost the general election to Gallego, marking her second consecutive defeat in a statewide race in Arizona.

Role at USAGM and Voice of America

In December 2024, then President-elect Trump announced his intention for Lake to serve as the next director of the Voice of America (VOA), the U.S. government's largest international broadcaster. The position of VOA director is not legally appointed or nominated by the president; rather, the director is selected by the chief executive officer of the United States Agency for Global Media, the independent federal agency that oversees VOA and other U.S. international media outlets.

On March 3, 2025, Lake was sworn in as a special advisor to USAGM, beginning her involvement with the agency. Lake subsequently served as deputy chief executive and then acting chief executive of USAGM from approximately July to November 2025. During her tenure, Lake undertook significant restructuring efforts at USAGM and VOA, including staff reductions and organizational changes that generated substantial controversy and legal challenges.

Reports emerged in early 2026 that USAGM under Lake's oversight had rebuffed auditors conducting a required annual financial examination. According to The New York Times, the lack of information provided to auditors was so "pervasive" that auditors declined to issue an opinion on the agency's financial statements. The Arizona Republic similarly reported that key data for the agency was not made available to auditors, noting signs of accounting trouble compounded by upheaval and stonewalling.

In March 2026, a federal judge ruled that Lake's appointment and tenure as acting chief executive of USAGM were illegal and voided all of her official actions taken in that capacity. The ruling raised questions about the future of VOA and the status of journalists who had been laid off during Lake's tenure at the agency. The Deseret News reported on the ruling and questioned whether it marked the end of Lake's involvement with VOA.

Following the ruling, the Department of Justice informed the federal court that there was no succession plan in place for the position of acting CEO at USAGM, further complicating the leadership situation at the agency.

The Daily Beast reported that staff reductions carried out under Lake's oversight had operational consequences for USAGM's broadcasting mission, noting that firings during her tenure affected the agency's capacity to fulfill its international broadcasting functions during a period of heightened geopolitical tension.

Personal Life

Lake is married to Jeff Halperin, and the couple has two children. Lake uses her maiden name professionally. The family has been based in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area, where Lake spent the majority of her broadcasting career.

Lake's political party registration changed over the years. She was initially registered as a Republican, switched to the Democratic Party in 2006, and re-registered as a Republican in 2012. During her time as a registered Democrat, she made donations to Democratic presidential candidates, which became a subject of public discussion during her subsequent Republican campaigns.

Recognition

During her long career in television broadcasting, Lake received regional Emmy Awards for her work as a news anchor at KSAZ-TV in Phoenix. She was recognized as one of the most prominent television news personalities in the Phoenix market during her more than two decades at the station.

Lake's 2022 gubernatorial campaign attracted significant national media attention, both for her status as a former television anchor entering politics and for her close alignment with Donald Trump's political movement. Her refusal to concede the 2022 gubernatorial race and subsequent legal challenges to the election results made her a nationally prominent figure in debates over election integrity and the acceptance of election outcomes.

Her appointment to USAGM in 2025 and the subsequent federal court ruling in March 2026 declaring her actions as acting CEO illegal drew extensive national and international media coverage, further elevating her public profile, particularly in discussions about the independence of U.S. government-funded media organizations and the legal limits of presidential appointments.