Monday night, Kari Lake, one of the most prominent Republican candidates to endorse Donald Trump’s phony claims of voter fraud in 2020, claimed she had been robbed of the opportunity to become the next governor of Arizona and hinted her own defeat was dubious.
As soon as the contest was called for Democrat Katie Hobbs, Lake turned to Twitter instead of gracefully conceding: “Arizonans know BS when they see it.”
This indicates that Lake, who worked with former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, is unable to accept defeat.
Lake made denying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election a central element of her campaign and stated that she would not have recognized his victory if she had been governor at the time.
Her vicious attacks on media and election officials, particularly Republican department heads in fiercely contested Maricopa County, gained her praise from the Republican grassroots.
But they also prompted worries that she was stirring up conflict in a nation still suffering from the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters in January 2021.
Arizona is a battleground state and is anticipated to play a major role in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, making the governor’s contest between Lake and Hobbs one of the most significant in the general election.
Even though Lake’s vote margins in Maricopa County had been growing, she was not winning a substantial enough share of the vote to surpass Hobbs and was running out of votes.
Since Tuesday’s election, officials proceeded to count enormous volumes of late-arriving ballots, prolonging the vote count by days.
Lake had sworn to outlaw the state’s mail-in voting, which conspiracy theorists wrongly believe is susceptible to fraud, creating voter skepticism regarding the security of a voting technique utilized by hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Her defeat ended a successful week for Democrats, who rejected Republicans’ predictions for a midterm election’red wave’
Kari Lake did not appear to accept the results of Arizona’s governor election, as seen by her tweet, ‘Arizonans know BS when they see it.’
Hobbs, the current secretary of state of Arizona, managed to defeat Lake, a former television news anchor and staunch ally of former President Donald Trump.
The triumph of Hobbs is another indication that Trump is weighing down his allies in a vital battleground state as the former president prepares to announce his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election.
The Democrats kept control of the U.S. Senate by retaining seats in the swing states of Arizona and Nevada, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the deciding vote in the event of a tie
If Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock defeats Republican candidate Herschel Walker in a Georgia runoff on December 6, the party could win complete majority control, bolstering Democratic influence over committees, bills, and judicial appointments.
Liz Cheney, a Republican colleague, quickly took to Twitter to criticize Lake.
Last month, Lake sarcastically thanked Ms. Cheney for launching an ad against her on television, claiming that the campaign had actually galvanized support.
“Again, many thanks for the tremendous boost to our campaign!” Ms. Lake said, “Enjoy your forced retirement from politics.”
Monday evening, Cheney reacted on Twitter: “Thank you, @KariLake.”
Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, will succeed Kari Lake, a Republican, as governor of Arizona.
Hobbs won 50.4% of the votes cast in a razor-thin contest out of around 2.5 million votes counted approximately one week after Election Day.
Liz Cheney tweeted in retaliation after Kari Lake lost the Arizona governor’s race: You’re really welcome.
Hobbs, the secretary of state for Arizona, gained to prominence as a fierce defender of the legality of the most recent election, and she warned that her Republican opponent, former television news presenter Kari Lake, would be a source of turmoil.
Since 2006, when Janet Napolitano was elected governor, she is the first Democrat to be elected in Arizona.
Hobbs said in a victory statement, “For the Arizonans who did not vote for me, I will work just as hard for you, because even in this moment of separation, I believe there is so much more that unites us.”
It was about pushing this state ahead and tackling the challenges of our generation, not just winning an election.
Prior to entering politics, Hobbs worked as a social worker with homeless adolescents and as an executive with a big Phoenix-area domestic violence shelter. In 2010, she was elected to the state legislature, where she served one term in the House and three terms in the Senate, eventually becoming the minority leader.
The Democratic successes in a number of gubernatorial, congressional, and statehouse elections confounded predictions that voters would punish them for record inflation, particularly rising food and gas costs. In contrast, the Democrats were able to limit their losses, in part by mobilizing people angered by the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court to eliminate the constitutional right to abortion.
Nonetheless, Republicans continued to gain ground in the House of Representatives.
As of Monday, the Republicans have 212 seats and the Democrats 206, with a majority of 218 required. Republicans would be able to thwart President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda if they held the House.
It could be many days before enough House elections have concluded to decide which party will control the 435-member chamber.
Arizona is a battleground state and is anticipated to play a major role in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, making the governor’s contest between Republican Jeff Lake and Democrat Katie Hobbs one of the most significant in the general election.
A former television news anchor, Lake was among a line of Trump-aligned Republican candidates who fell in battleground state elections. Additionally, voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin rejected election deniers in gubernatorial and other statewide elections.
In Arizona, Biden narrowly defeated Trump in the 2020 election. Hobbs gained global recognition when she defended Arizona’s election results against Trump’s allegations of voting fraud.
Her victory on Monday marks a pickup for the Democrats of a governorship now held by the Republican Doug Ducey.
Arizona began counting votes for nearly a week after the November 8 election.
Arizona mandates the verification of early ballot signatures before to processing.
The loss of Kari Lake concluded a successful week for Democrats, who thwarted Republican predictions for a midterm’red wave’
The counting was delayed this year due to the fact that hundreds of thousands of early ballots were cast on Election Day at drop boxes, according to officials.
Republican votes were suppressed, according to Lake and Trump, because of brief issues with electronic vote-counting devices in Maricopa County on Election Day.
A judge refused a plea to extend polling place hours, stating that Republicans had failed to produce proof that the issue disenfranchised voters.
During a Sunday appearance on Fox News, Lake stated that the lengthy counting process was “trampling” the rights of voters and was more proof that Arizona’s election administration need improvement.
She stated, “We can no longer be the punchline of elections in Arizona, and as governor I will not permit it.”
Arizonans are shown waiting in line to vote in Phoenix, Arizona on Tuesday, amid pandemonium created by malfunctioning voting equipment that caused enormous delays.
General election ballots are packed at the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office in Phoenix.
Hobbs won a close victory as secretary of state in 2018 and was forced into the heart of a political tempest when Arizona became the focal point of Trump and his allies’ efforts to alter the results of the 2020 election he lost. She frequently appeared on cable television to defend the validity of the vote count.
She was able to raise millions of dollars and gain prominence due to the attention she received. When she declared her candidacy for governor, several famous Democrats declined to run, and Hobbs won her primary with relative ease.
She generally adhered to scripted and choreographed public appearances during her campaign. She declined to engage in a dispute with Lake because she believed he would turn it into a spectacle by spreading conspiracy theories and making false charges.
She banked instead that voters would reject Lake, who engaged in verbal battles with journalists while cameras rolled and adopted a confrontational stance toward Democrats and even the Republican establishment, which has long dominated state government.
In spite of the fact that pre-election surveys indicated that the race was tight, Hobbs’ victory was a shock to many Democrats who worried her timidity would turn off voters. She exceeded expectations in Maricopa and Pima counties, where the vast majority of Arizona voters reside in the Phoenix and Tucson metropolitan areas. She also spent much time in rural areas in an effort to minimize her losses in historically Republican strongholds.
After more than two decades of anchoring the evening news in Phoenix, Lake is well-known throughout the majority of the state.
She campaigned as a fervent opponent of the mainstream media, which she claimed was biased against Republicans. She won Trump’s appreciation for her unwavering dedication to challenging the 2020 election results, a stance she maintained even after winning the Republican primary.
Lake had sworn to prohibit the state’s mail-in voting system, which conspiracy theorists mistakenly assert is susceptible to fraud.
She falsely claimed election authorities of slowing down the vote count this year and favoring Democratic ballots when she trailed Hobbs by a close margin in the days following the election.
Sheriff Paul Penzone of Maricopa County stated that he enhanced security around the elections center on Monday in anticipation that the race would be called and that passions could run high, despite the absence of a specific danger.
He stated that demonstrators have congregated outside the building for several days while remaining peaceful.
Penzone told reporters at a news conference hours before the race was called, “I think we’re getting near to the conclusion of the game, so I want to make sure we’re ready.”
Former congressional candidate Jerone Davison preaches to a group of right wing demonstrators protesting the election process outside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix, Arizona while ballots are tabulated.