Democrat Katie Hobbs will win the Arizona governor’s race, CNN projects, defeating one of the most prominent defenders of former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election lies.
Calling the 2020 election rigged, Republican Carrie Lake had repeatedly said she would not have certified Joe Biden to win Arizona in 2020. Hobbs, as Arizona’s secretary of state, had rejected the Democratic Party’s lies about the election.
Lake’s loss follows the defeats of two other high-profile caucuses in the state – Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters and Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem.
Lake had already begun to cast doubt on the 2022 results. During an appearance on right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s talk show on Thursday, she said: “I hate that they’re delaying and dragging their feet and delaying the inevitable. They don’t want to reveal the truth, which is that we won.”
There is no evidence that election officials delayed reporting the results. At a news conference Thursday, Bill Gates, chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, called out Lake’s comments. “It’s insulting for Cary Lake to say these people behind me are doing it late when they work 14-18 hours,” Gates, a Republican, said, gesturing to the poll workers counting ballots behind him. through a glass window.
Lake, a former Fox 10 news anchor in Phoenix, quickly rose to become one of the most prominent Republicans in the 2022 cycle as she and Hobbs battled to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Doug Ducey. The outgoing governor had endorsed Lake’s primary opponent, but then endorsed Lake in the general election.
Hobbs, a former social worker who worked with victims of domestic violence before becoming a state legislator, ran a much more low-key and low-key campaign, limiting her access to reporters and holding small, in-person events with supporters. She made democracy and abortion rights her focus, portraying Lake as an “extreme” and “dangerous” figure who could jeopardize the sanctity of the 2024 presidential election, refusing to certify the results.
Lake has been closely involved in Trump’s drive for more than just the 2020 election. He has promised to declare an “invasion” on the border — in what he described as an effort to garner more power for the governor’s office to deal with the immigration crisis — and called for the arrest of both Dr. Anthony Fauci and her Democratic opponent.
Before announcing her bid, Lake left the anchor job in 2021 — saying she didn’t like the direction journalism was going — after becoming a household name in Phoenix. In one of her campaign videos, she said she was taking a sledgehammer to “left-wing lies and propaganda” as she smashed televisions with the tool in stiletto boots.
She dispatched her primary opponents with her strong denunciations of Democratic leaders’ handling of the Covid-19 pandemic — casting restrictions like the mask as unnecessary and harmful to children. She welcomed comparisons to Trump until the end of the campaign – saying at an event that she was delighted when a fan called her “Trump in a dress”.
Lake had painted Hobbs as a coward after Hobbs refused to debate her opponent this fall. The Hobbs campaign argued that a discussion with Lake “would only lead to constant interruptions, pointless distractions and childish name-calling”.
Hobbs noted in an interview with CNN that Lake had repeatedly called for her arrest and said her rhetoric had led to “violent threats and harassment against me.” Lake, in turn, portrayed her opponent’s responses as weakness, arguing that if Hobbs wouldn’t talk to her, she “can’t stand against the cartels.”
