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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 senior advisor to the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) since March 2025 and deputy CEO and acting CEO of USAGM since July 2025, under President Donald Trump. She was the unsuccessful Republican Party nominee in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election and in 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 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.
Kari Lake was born in 1969, in Rock Island, Illinois, to Larry and Sheila Lake, who were natives of the Wisconsin communities of Richland and Appleton. Larry taught social studies and was a basketball and football coach at North Scott High School, while Sheila was a nurse. Kari is the youngest of nine children.
Lake grew up in Iowa. She graduated from North Scott Senior High School in Eldridge, Iowa, and then received a BA in communications and journalism from the University of Iowa.
In May 1991, Lake began working as an intern at KWQC-TV in Davenport, Iowa, while attending the University of Iowa. She later became production assistant before joining WHBF-TV in Rock Island to be a daily reporter and weekend weathercaster in 1992. In August 1994, Lake was hired by KPNX in Phoenix, Arizona, to be the weekend weather anchor; her sister was working in Phoenix at the time, and her parents had retired there. She later became evening anchor at KPNX before relocating to work for WNYT in Albany, New York in the summer of 1998 when she replaced Chris Kapostasy.
Lake returned to Arizona in 1999 and became an evening anchor for KSAZ-TV (Fox 10 Phoenix). While at KSAZ, Lake interviewed President Barack Obama in 2016 and President Donald Trump in 2020.
In her last years working in the media, Lake shared false and unverified information on social media, prompting criticism and acquiring a reputation as a provocateur. In 2018, she opposed the Red for Ed movement, which sought more funding for education through strikes and protests, claiming that movement was a "big push to legalize pot"; she later apologized for the statement (saying that she "made an incorrect conclusion") and, according to the station's regional human resources director, subsequently took an unexpected month-long leave from her position at the station. In July 2019, Lake was caught on "hot mic" footage promoting her account on the web platform Parler. She shared COVID-19 misinformation on Twitter and Facebook in April 2020. Lake's statements and actions made her a divisive figure among colleagues in her last years at the station.
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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 senior advisor to the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) since March 2025 and deputy CEO and acting CEO of USAGM since July 2025, under President Donald Trump. She was the unsuccessful Republican Party nominee in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election and in 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 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.
Kari Lake was born in 1969, in Rock Island, Illinois, to Larry and Sheila Lake, who were natives of the Wisconsin communities of Richland and Appleton. Larry taught social studies and was a basketball and football coach at North Scott High School, while Sheila was a nurse. Kari is the youngest of nine children.
Lake grew up in Iowa. She graduated from North Scott Senior High School in Eldridge, Iowa, and then received a BA in communications and journalism from the University of Iowa.
In May 1991, Lake began working as an intern at KWQC-TV in Davenport, Iowa, while attending the University of Iowa. She later became production assistant before joining WHBF-TV in Rock Island to be a daily reporter and weekend weathercaster in 1992. In August 1994, Lake was hired by KPNX in Phoenix, Arizona, to be the weekend weather anchor; her sister was working in Phoenix at the time, and her parents had retired there. She later became evening anchor at KPNX before relocating to work for WNYT in Albany, New York in the summer of 1998 when she replaced Chris Kapostasy.
Lake returned to Arizona in 1999 and became an evening anchor for KSAZ-TV (Fox 10 Phoenix). While at KSAZ, Lake interviewed President Barack Obama in 2016 and President Donald Trump in 2020.
In her last years working in the media, Lake shared false and unverified information on social media, prompting criticism and acquiring a reputation as a provocateur. In 2018, she opposed the Red for Ed movement, which sought more funding for education through strikes and protests, claiming that movement was a "big push to legalize pot"; she later apologized for the statement (saying that she "made an incorrect conclusion") and, according to the station's regional human resources director, subsequently took an unexpected month-long leave from her position at the station. In July 2019, Lake was caught on "hot mic" footage promoting her account on the web platform Parler. She shared COVID-19 misinformation on Twitter and Facebook in April 2020. Lake's statements and actions made her a divisive figure among colleagues in her last years at the station.
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