In 2022, I identified two rising stars who could redefine America’s political future: Wes Moore and Kari Lake.

I was half-right.

In 2022, Lake was the Republican candidate for governor in Arizona. She was a well-respected television journalist with high name identification, and great communication skills. She seemed poised to win, but her campaign violated a cardinal rule of politics: Campaigns are about addition, not subtraction.

Tying herself closely to Donald Trump, she demanded that any John McCain supporters “get the hell out.” That's hardly the right formula for a Republican candidate to win in Arizona.

In 2024, Lake ran another losing campaign — this time against Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), for an open U.S. Senate seat.

Today, the former journalist is Trump’s choice to supervise the dismantling of Voice of America.

So I was wrong about Lake. But I think I was right about Moore.

In 2022, Moore won a competitive Democratic primary to succeed two-term Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. Facing a Trump 2020 election-denier, Dan Cox, Moore won in a landslide.

There are three things a candidate needs to win the presidency. First, to hold the right office at the right time. In 2016, Trump did not hold any elective office, but he presented himself as a successful businessman who could fix Washington, D.C. around a time when fewer than one in five Americans trusted the government to do what was right. Right candidate, right........

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