RECAP: Phoenix Women Hold Roundtable, Say Kari Lake Would “Disrupt Our Entire Lives”

Kari Lake’s agenda will be a “disgrace to our elders, to our service members who sacrifice their lives and well being,” make “women’s lives more difficult and more dangerous”

Thursday, September 19th, 2024

ARIZONA -– Yesterday in Phoenix on International Equal Pay Day, Arizona college students, mothers, seniors, health care professionals, and advocates held a roundtable discussion on how Kari Lake’s extreme anti-abortion and anti-women beliefs and proposal to cut the federal budget by 75% would “disrupt our entire lives.”

Kari Lake has repeatedly stated that men and women are not equal – saying “men and women aren’t equal. We aren’t equal” — a statement that has drawn criticism from Arizona women:

• Jacqueline Bussiere, a recent graduate from Arizona State University: “I think it’s disheartening for me, especially because she is running for a federal position. So I think that if we’re electing people who don’t think women are equal with men, and they bring that kind of mindset to our federal government, I feel like that could be very dangerous. It could also have a lot of implications on younger women, and it could make them think like ‘I’m not equal,’ thinking like ‘I should not pursue my dreams because I’m not equal to men.’”

• Paloma Greenwald, Registered Nurse with 25 years in healthcare, military spouse and mother: “We’ve got the military to thank for decades where they’ve proven that women are clearly competent and equal to men even in terms of combat service.”

• Francesca Martin, ASU student: “I think Gen Z as a whole, really knows that someone who is going to try to hinder women, especially women are going to college or even trade schools and secondary schools, they know that they won’t, don’t want to vote for someone that’s going to say that they’re already less than men at anything.”

Not only does Lake say men and women aren’t equal, she supports dangerous and extreme abortion bans without exceptions for rape or incest, banning medication abortion, and “doesn’t believe Congress should get involved” in protecting IVF. Here’s why Lake’s stances are too extreme for Arizona:

• Paloma Greenwald: “I personally need to trust and invest my vote in a candidate that recognizes empathy and compassion among us, and I have yet to find that quality in Kari Lake.”

• Brandy Reese, candidate for State House of Representatives in LD13, retired forensic scientist, and mother of two daughters: “I’ve talked to a lot of people, not just one political party or another, and this seems to be something that’s important to people of all political stripes. And so I feel that some of these people that are saying – like Kari Lake – that want to roll back the clock, I feel that they’re just very out of touch and not the right representation for Arizona.”

• Francesca Martin: “A doctor’s office doesn’t have room for Kari Lake to be there too.”

Kari Lake “defends big pharma’s ability to price-gouge” Arizonans and has proposed a 75% cut to the federal budget, a catastrophic proposal for veterans’ benefits and Medicare that would affect every Arizonan:

• Paloma Greenwald: “It feels like a gut punch […] I mentioned earlier, from a military family perspective, there are so many necessary, critically necessary government programs that impact social services, and they’re thin at best; and then to remove that minimal safety net is a disgrace to our elders, to our service members who sacrifice their lives and well being […] Talk about being out of touch. She doesn’t recognize the gravity of that statement.”

• Dora Vasquez, Executive Director of Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans: “As a senior, my concern is the setbacks it’ll have for Medicare. So we just recently got a cap on out-of-pocket expenses […] and then $35 cap on insulin for Medicare beneficiaries. You know, we need to expand that, and we won’t be able to keep it for Medicare and expand it if we have Kari Lake in office. So if there is anything else she’s going to do, she will just disrupt our entire lives.”

• Brandy Reese: “When you put it in actual perspective this means cutting education funding. This means cutting dollars to our industry. This means cutting access to fire fighting materials […] I mean, all over Arizona has benefited from all of those funds put into us from the federal government.”

A recording of the roundtable discussion is available here.