Kari Lake’s Worst Enemy Is a Republican

“I refuse to sort of cede the Republican Party to crackpots and conspiracy theorists.”

I have not been good about sharing my work here lately. That’s because by the time a new story drops, I’m usually curled up on my couch waiting for death to take me. But last weekend I attended a cousin’s wedding where an aunt, who’s not on social media, pressed me to send her my latest. And then I remembered, yep this is what Contra Post for. I promise I will be better here.

On Wednesday, New York Magazine ran a new story I wrote about the defamation lawsuit against Kari Lake, a Republican Senate candidate in Arizona and one of the leading election deniers in the country. As readers may recall, I spent a lot of time in Arizona in 2020, which became ground zero for election conspiracy. I have been fascinated and perplexed by the way election denialism has metastasized since then. So I was immediately interested when I heard about Stephen Richer, the recorder of Maricopa County, which is the fourth largest in the country. Lake has repeatedly accused Richer, a lifelong Republican, of rigging the 2022 election against her, which has turned his life upside down. So he sued her—a lawsuit that could harm her candidacy for a high stakes Senate seat. This is the story of a guy who stood up against election denialism. For that, the GOP turned on him.

“I refuse to sort of cede the Republican Party to crackpots and conspiracy theorists,” said Richer.

In December, I also profiled Pussy Riot, the Russian dissident group, during their first American tour. I really stumbled upon this one. I was attending the launch of a new book by Hong Kong friends and journalists (Among the Braves—go read!) in NYC where I ran into an HK activist who was touring with Pussy Riot. He suggested I do a story on them. Initially I was skeptical. I had actually written a story about them for Time several years ago in Hong Kong when they partnered with local democracy activists, but then they totally fell off my radar. Indeed, they fell off many people’s radars. As it turns out, they’ve been active this whole time. Few have just been listening. Now, since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the dissidents have been forced to flee and fight Putin from abroad, imploring the West to keep supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia and stand against authoritarianism. This was a thrill to write, and dovetails with other reporting from Ukraine that I hope to share soon.

“This story can happen anywhere,” said founding member Masha Alyokhina. “This is not just a war in Ukraine.”

More TK.