Kari Lake says God told her through 1 Timothy 1:6 to quit news job: 'I'm out'
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake called for the return of God in American culture Friday as she claimed at a Christian conservative summit that it was God's plan, not her own, that she run for public office.
Lake, a Republican who narrowly lost the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election to Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs and is currently running for an open U.S. Senate seat against Democrat Ruben Gallego, addressed a group of Christian conservative activists gathered at the Faith and Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority conference at the Washington Hilton.
Lake, a 54-year-old former television news anchor, issued a plea for unity, urging the audience to "work through" the division currently engulfing the Republican Party. She called for the party to work to "bring in independents and Democrats" to vote for her and bring "the whole country back."
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She proclaimed, "I want to bring Him back," as she pointed to Heaven, indicating that she was referring to God.
"We need to bring Him back into our culture, into our lives, into our hearts and souls."
Lake, who has received national attention for alleging voter fraud in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race, spoke about her faith and how it played a role in her decision to leave her job as a journalist and enter the political arena.
She said she felt "immoral" by working for an Arizona-based local news outlet because of the "half-truths" it was putting out, explaining: "What mattered more than a paycheck was the meeting I'm going to have someday with this guy," as she pointed to Heaven.
"I'm not super worried about being called names down here," she said. "I want to get a big old welcome and a hug when I go up to Heaven."
Lake said she experienced "a little moment of fear" when she quit her job, outlining how she was "praying at my desk in my office" and asked God to "give me some answers."
"At that time, I grabbed my Bible," she said. "I literally opened the Bible; I didn't know where I was opening it."
Lake opened to 1 Timothy 6:7, which declares, "You bring nothing into this world and it is for certain you take nothing out."
She asked the audience, "Can you believe that is the answer God gave me?"
"I said, 'Got it loud and clear. I'm out,'" Lake said.
Lake said before she felt called to run, she envisioned living a "quiet life" that was "out of the public eye" after having been in the public eye for 30 years.
"God said, 'No, no, no, I've got a few things I have planned for you before that quiet life,'" she recalled.
"'I'm going to throw you into the middle of politics. You're going to end up in the middle of the political world,'" He told her. "'You're going to help lead a movement in Arizona, you're going to fight for election integrity, you're going to be called every name in the book. The media's going to hate you, the media's going to write 100% negative coverage of you.'"
Lake continued to elaborate on God's plan for her: "You're going to run for an office, you're going to run for another office and you're going to actually win."
"I think sometimes we pray for what we want," she acknowledged. "I've stopped doing that because you know what I was doing? I was praying to God. … I was saying, 'I need strength, please give me strength.'"
Lake came to the realization that "God is amazing" because "He does give you what you ask for." She asked herself, "How do you get strength." She stated, "by difficult circumstances to strengthen you up."
"And then I realized I keep praying for strength, so I keep getting difficult circumstances," she added.
Lake urged the audience to "never lose the joy of being a child of God."
"Don't let this evil in this world take our joy away," she added.
The RealClearPolitics average of polls measuring voter intentions in the Arizona Senate race, based on surveys taken between April 28 and June 18, shows Gallego leading Lake by 5.9 percentage points.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
