Kari Lake's campaign boss, Caroline Wren, is a tremendous problem for Lake - and Trump
"Caroline Wren has ruined Kari Lake's political career. Period and end of story," says advisor to Lake's gubernatorial campaign. Is this a deliberate takedown of AZGOP and Trump's Arizona chances?
This report ties in with a much larger story.
Bigger Truth Media came into existence in January for a blockbuster story about Mike Labadie, Kristina Karamo’s handler, a California Democrat with self-professed ties to the intelligence community, who campaign insiders said they believed he intended for Karamo to lose her Michigan Secretary of State Campaign. Labadie also orchestrated a major campaign to take over the Michigan Republican Party (MIGOP) and used the Secretary of State campaign as a platform for Karamo’s two-year campaign for MIGOP Chair, where he led MIGOP into a state of complete destruction.
Bigger Truth then researched five states and found strikingly similar patterns in these states, where party leaders claim to be Christian Nationalists and their followers are marked primarily by irrational hatred of other Republicans. They impose purity tests, create orchestrated chaos at conventions, and focus their hateful attacks on the most established and effective leaders and donors within the party. One of their clear objectives is to drive the party as far to the right as possible in order to alienate independents and moderate Republicans and therefore ensure general election losses for the GOP.
In May, Bigger Truth reported on links between these insurgent leaders and General Mike Flynn, and revealed Flynn’s involvement in staining the 2016 Trump campaign with ties to Russia. The FBI’s codename for Mike Flynn during their Crossfire Hurricane operation was Crossfire Razor.
This report will focus on Caroline Wren, a Flynn-linked operator who got her political start as a “McCain groupie,” spent considerable time working with Senator Lindsay Graham, was involved in orchestrating the march on the Capitol on January 6 2021, and suddenly appeared at Kari Lake’s side just before the August 2022 primary election. She then seized the reigns of Lake’s campaign, drove out its most talented and well-connected workers, and influenced Lake even farther to the right in the run-up to the general election, deliberately slandering and alienating McCain’s voters, cementing her and fellow Republicans’ general election losses as over 300,000 Republican voters chose not to vote in November 2022.
For this report, Bigger Truth spoke with four members of the gubernatorial transition team, which was formed by Arizona business and civic leaders after the primary in anticipation of a general election victory. Bigger Truth also consulted with four campaign advisors and insiders, and two others with direct personal experience with Lake and Wren. All asked to be kept anonymous because of nondisclosure agreements and for fear of retaliation from Wren and others within Lake’s orbit.
Caroline Wren did not respond to a text message request for comment.
“We had a great big-tent strategy laid out for after the primary,” said one political advisor to the Lake gubernatorial campaign and member of the gubernatorial transition team. “Caroline Wren came in and blew it all up… There were several times I wondered, even then, if Caroline was trying to lose.”
Wren’s start in politics: “McCain groupie”
Wren attended Auburn University and graduated in 2010. She told Politico that, “In 2007 for Christmas I asked my parents for a flight to New Hampshire to go and campaign for John McCain. I showed up unannounced at the McCain New Hampshire HQ and luckily someone let me sleep on their floor and I spent a week waving McCain signs in the snow.” She took the following semester off school to work on McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. In this social media post she called herself a “McCain groupie.”
After she graduated from Auburn in 2010, she worked for John McCain and Lindsay Graham. In 2015, she founded Bluebonnet Fundraising and worked for Strength for America PAC, which supported Lindsay Graham’s 2016 campaign for President.
In this 2018 Politico blurb, Wren was asked, “What is a trend going on in the U.S. or abroad that doesn’t get enough attention?” Wren responded, “The ‘Lindsey Graham for President 2024’ campaign :)”
Lindsay Graham has a history of working against President Trump and MAGA. Most notably, in September 2022, Graham authored a radical, national 15-week abortion ban that obviously would never be signed into law but clearly harmed Republicans’ general election chances nationwide. Graham’s bill had a noteworthy impact on repelling independent and moderate voters, making the anticipated Red Wave into a trickle.
After Trump won in 2016, Wren worked a few times for Trump Victory. Records show she was paid over $890,000 by Trump Victory through the 2020 election. In 2021 she was allegedly fired from the campaign and asked to cease and desist. One Trump advisor told RawStory about Wren, “She was causing a lot of chaos and not raising money.”
Fighting for Ali Alexander and Alex Jones: Wren’s strange involvement in J6
In the weeks before January 6, 2021, Wren raised $3M from donors for the event. The money was used to pay for the Ellipse stage, advertising, and various organizations. $1M was split between Turning Point Action and Turning Point USA and $200,000 went directly to Alex Jones. Text messages show how Wren inserted herself into the helm of the planning for the event starting right after Christmas 2020.
Wren was listed as one of four points of contact for VIPs for the event and numerous witnesses who were deposed by the J6 Commission, including Jones and Ali Alexander, testified that they believed Wren was the point of contact for the White House.
Text messages obtained by the J6 Commission also show Wren indicating she was booking private planes for a “couple folks” for the January 4 rally in Georgia.
Two “folks” that both Wren and Mike Flynn were close to at that time were Alexander and Jones, who are seen here at that Georgia rally flanking overtly racist and anti-Semite Nick Fuentes.
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Both Jones and Alexander led rallies across the country between November 14 2020 and January 6 2021. They frequently appeared on stage at these rallies with Fuentes. The militia organization, First Amendment Praetorian, was very closely linked to Mike Flynn and provided Alexander with security services beginning with his first Stop the Steal rally on November 14 2020.
Some of the money Wren raised went towards targeted national robo-calls that said, “At 1:00 p.m., we will march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal.”
This was strange as other organizations, including Ali Alexander’s (formerly Ali Akbar) Stop the Steal, had paid for other event stages that were set up around the Capitol with various scheduled speakers, set to begin after Trump finished speaking at the Ellipse. Many people who attended the event did not know there would be a march to the Capitol until President Trump announced at the end of his speech, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
As early as January 2, Wren began pushing hard for Alexander, Jones and Roger Stone to be allowed to join Trump on the stage at the Ellipse. She continued arguing for Alexander’s and Jones’ inclusion to the point that organizers texted White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and eventually called the park police on the morning of January 6. Police came but took no action. Wren agreed to let it go and instructed Alexander to begin organizing the march to the Capitol. Wren said in her J6 Committee deposition that Jones elected to wait for Roger Stone. Also noted in the deposition was a message in which Mike Flynn’s brother, Joe Flynn, requested VIP passes from Wren because he wanted to lead the march to the Capitol with Jones and Stone.
Wren’s motive to demand Trump include Alexander, Jones and Stone on the Ellipse stage raises the obvious question of who was directing her to make that a priority.
Fired from one Arizona campaign, Wren joins Lake
Caroline Wren came to Arizona in early 2022 to work as a fundraiser for General Mick McGuire’s Senate run. Several of Lake’s campaign insiders told Bigger Truth that they believed that Wren was fired by McGuire with cause. McGuire did not respond to requests for comment.
Wren worked her way into the Kari Lake campaign just days before the August 2022 primary. One member of Lake’s transition team said, “Caroline parlayed whatever Trump connections she had and her involvement in January 6th. She was able to parlay her - at least at one point - close relationship with Trump and Mar-a-Lago to get Kari to trust her.” It worked. Another advisor said, “Kari often described herself as ‘Donald Trump in a woman’s body.’”
Once she was on board, Wren immediately set her sights on becoming the campaign boss. Billy Grant of Arsenal Media Group was working as her campaign manager when Wren joined the campaign. Several of the sources for this story praised Grant’s work for Lake’s campaign as highly effective and a factor in Lake’s primary victory. Grant declined to comment for this story.
One political advisor said, “Caroline Wren saw an opportunity to pray on Kari's paranoia of political consultants. Kari liked how brash Caroline was. Caroline was adept at sowing doubt and driving a wedge between Kari and everyone else. It wasn’t long before Kari elevated Caroline to campaign manager.”
Many members of the campaign and transition team approached Lake privately to warn her about Wren. When Wren found out about it, retribution was severe.
One transition team member said, “I like Kari - she's dynamic, charismatic, can think on her feet. But because of her inexperience in the political realm, she decided to trust the wrong person. Instead of trusting a group of people, she trusted one person, and it was the absolute wrong person.”
The campaign and transition team were separate entities comprised of mostly volunteer political consultants and top business leaders from around the state. Wren blocked all of them out. Another transition team member said, “Kari truly had an all-star team around her. But Caroline would never let Kari listen to the solid advice of all the people around her who had done this for 10, 20, or 30 years and been successful in Arizona politics. It was a tragedy.”
Another transition team member said, “To a person, none of us had any use for her and we feel that she cost Kari Lake the governorship. No question about it, it's black and white. She had a stranglehold on the campaign. She's a Svengali, a Rasputin.”
If only Lake had not done one thing…
Just two weeks after the primary election, when politicians who want to win the general election are making amends with their primary opponents and their supporters, Lake and Wren went to Dallas, Texas for the CPAC conference, where Lake famously said, “We drove a stake through the heart of the McCain machine.”
Several people in and surrounding her campaign, each with decades of experience, pleaded with Lake to make amends with her primary opponent, Karrin Taylor Robson, with Governor Doug Ducey, and even Megan McCain. They pleaded with her just to leave the McCain voters alone. In Arizona, there are hundreds of thousands of moderate Republicans who still support McCain, tend to be members of the Latter Day Saints church, and value politeness and manners. It is common knowledge in Arizona that a Republican cannot win without their support.
But Lake, under Wren’s commanding guidance, rejected their sage advice. In fact, just days before the election, Lake started flinging the hatchet instead of burying it. She said at a campaign event, “We don’t have any McCain Republicans in here, do we? Get the hell out! It was the party of McCain. It was bad. Arizona has delivered some losers, haven’t they?”
Sure enough, over 300,000 normally faithful Republican voters did not vote in 2022.
One member of the transition team summed it up, “Pikers, amateurs, amateur hour. I don't know what else to say about it. It was the worst experience of my political career.”
But was this an honest, amateurish mistake? Several of those close to the gubernatorial campaign told Bigger Truth that they believed the cause was Wren’s ignorance of Arizona. “She just doesn’t understand how this state works” was a common refrain. One advisor, when told that Wren got her political start working with McCain, found that information unsettling. “If she worked for McCain then she knew [what would be the impact of slandering McCain and his voters]… Maybe this was part of a larger plan.”
The victory party that succeeded at only one thing
Wren used her power and influence over Kari Lake to persuade Kelli Ward and the Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP) to help her campaign with two major - and completely unnecessary - expenses that brought the state party’s and Lake’s campaign account balances to nearly zero.
In the final weeks before the election, Wren insisted on renting a wrapped luxury bus to be shared by the Lake, Abe Hammadeh, Mark Finchem, and Blake Masters campaigns and hire an out of state production company to shoot a film featuring the bus and candidates in the last week of the election. AZGOP spent about $200,000 on the bus and production company.
They also planned a lavish election night victory party that cost AZGOP about $400,000. “Caroline made it clear that the party would be Kari’s emergence onto the national stage,” said one advisor.
Those two major expenses left the state party with near-zero financial resources when Jeff DeWit was elected AZGOP Chair a couple months later.
Meanwhile, Wren makes bank
One of Lake’s gubernatorial race advisors said, “From what I can tell Caroline Wren has gotten very rich off of Kari Lake - she's made millions - and it's obscene.”
Another said, “Truly, anyone could have raised money for Kari in August 2022. But Caroline made at least 10%, maybe more, off of everything that came to the Lake campaign.”
A member of the business community said, “Wren is a shockingly rude person. Someone would offer to host a fundraising event in their home and she would treat them with demands and rudeness. How can someone treat people that are trying to help you like that?”
Intraparty endorsements with tragic consequences
In January 2023, Lake endorsed a slate of candidates for the Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC) Executive Committee that included Craig Berland for Chair, Flynn-linked Shelby Busch as Vice Chair, and others. All but two of her endorsed candidates won, and several party insiders have told Bigger Truth that they believe they would not have taken power without Lake’s endorsements.
As Bigger Truth has reported at length, the Lake-endorsed MCRC leadership has wreaked complete havoc on AZGOP. They have engaged in a barrage of censures against party members Busch and Berland cannot control. They have passed a resolution allowing them to hold tribunals to remove members at will. They have orchestrated shoddy elections within legislative districts (LDs) to force the outcome they wanted (this from the people who claim to be the “election integrity experts”). They have an official chaplain, Susan Cheatham, who leads revolting prayers in official meetings to exorcise “the demons from the room” meaning the people they do not have complete control over. The Flynn-linked Shelby Busch leadership of MCRC is leading AZGOP to, as one Arizona blogger writes, “Let’s all jump off a cliff together.”
One party member told Bigger Truth under condition of anonymity that the persecution and character assassination levied against her coupled with deliberate misuse of her talents in this critical election cycle was one of the most painful experiences of her career.
“Kari Lake was responsible for all of it,” she said.
The senate race
The impact of Wren on Lake’s political career continues to appear to be barreling towards a tragic demise. While she continues to hold on to a diminishing lead over Sheriff Mark Lamb in the primary, Lake has fallen to a 13 point deficit behind Democrat Ruben Gallego in polls for the general election.
President Trump is up by 5% in the same polls, which indicates Lake is polling 18% worse than Trump. This means a substantial percentage of people who plan to vote for Trump will not vote for Lake.
Wren has succeeded at making Kari Lake very unpopular. Every political insider who spoke with Bigger Truth said that Lake has very little chance against Gallego. She currently has a $6M ad budget compared to Gallego’s $38M ad budget. Could she reverse that 18% deficit and ride a massive Trump-inspired red wave to victory?
One of Lake’s former advisors said, “It is possible - only if she ignores Wren’s advice. I don’t know if she can do that, but she would have to humble herself, change her tone, and apologize to those voters.”
Almost all of the advisors speak favorably about Lake and her potential but believe she is responsible for her decision to stick with Wren. Most believe she is so entrenched with Wren that she will follower her to the end. All expressed various degrees confusion, frustration, anger and sadness about what Wren has done to Lake’s career. Most would likely agree with one advisor who said, “Caroline Wren has ruined Kari Lake's political career. Period and end of story.”
Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb is gaining momentum, despite being completely ignored by most media. He has solid conservative credentials by every measure, has a solid understanding of the law through his law enforcement background, and he polls substantially better than Lake in the general.
Insiders told Bigger Truth that those 300,000 voters who stayed home in 2022 are very likely to come out for Lamb. They believe that if Lake is on the general election ballot, They might not turn out for Trump. But if Lamb is on the ballot, they would turn out for Lamb and would probably vote for Trump also.
A primary win for Lamb could therefore cement a general win in Arizona for Trump.
Mark Lamb is losing because he announced the election was NOT rigged or stolen. He said it again a couple of days ago after so many reports of election fraud have come out from across the country Especially here in AZ. Richer the country recorder who is an R but is really a Marxist /Dem is despised.
Great piece though. There aren't a lot of folks who I read on here, but you and Elizabeth do top notch research.