Drag queen claims Arizona GOP candidate Kari Lake is trying to ‘pander’ to Republicans

An Arizona drag queen says his friendship with Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake made him think she was a liberal — until she tweeted about rainbow flags and pro-LGBTQ+ messaging in schools.

“Obviously, I’d seen Kari move to the right and still maintained my friendship with her… that wasn’t a disqualified for me,” Rick Stevens, who also goes by the drag name Barbra Seville, said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “But when I saw that tweet, obviously it hurt my feelings. And it wasn’t the Kari like that I know.”

Lake, who is one of six candidates seeking the GOP nomination for Arizona governor, tweeted last week about education declining with the acceptance of drag queens.

“They kicked God out of schools and welcomed the Drag Queens. They took down our Flag and replaced it with a rainbow. They seek to disarm Americans and militarize our Enemies,” Lake tweeted last week. “Let’s bring back the basic: Gods, Guns & Glory.”

MICHIGAN AG SAYS ‘DRAG QUEENS MAKE EVERYTHING BETTER,’ SUGGESTS ‘DRAG QUEEN FOR EVERY SCHOOL’: REPORT

After the tweet, Stevens said he tried to contact Lake — whom he said had been to drag shows and invited him to her house twice. Stevens said he tried to call, but it wouldn’t go through, and tried Facebook, which is when he found out Lake had blocked him.

Stevens, who said he’s known Lake since the late 1990s, told Fox he viewed Lake as a liberal, but saw a shift in recent years. 

“Obviously, she came to a drag show. Obviously, she maintained a friendship with an openly gay man. So I definitely thought she was on the liberal spectrum. But I mean, her actions show that, you know, she’s moved, that, you know, you can’t — you can’t deny that,” he said. 

Still, he thinks Lake is at heart not against drag queens like him but is pandering to a conservative audience. 

“I still think this is to pander to a very specific audience… I don’t think that’s who she really is. I really, really don’t,” he added.

CALIFORNIA POLICE PROBE ‘DRAG QUEEN STORY HOUR’ DISTURBANCE AS POSSIBLE HATE CRIME

Lake denied Stevens’ claim to have performed at her house and said that it was a drag show in a statement last weekend. 

“Richard’s accusations are full of lies. The event in question was a party at someone else’s house and the performer was there as a Marilyn Monroe impersonator. It wasn’t a drag show…