US presidential opponent Kari Lake loses in Arizona gubernatorial election

Article content

Kari Lake, the most high-profile Republican candidate to embrace false allegations of former President Donald Trump’s voter fraud in the 2020 midterm elections, has lost her bid to become Arizona’s next governor. Edison Research predicted on Monday.

Arizona is a battleground state and likely to play a pivotal role in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, making the hotly contested gubernatorial race between Lake and Democrat Katie Hobbs the most important general election. It was one of the toughest elections.

Article content

Lake’s loss is the latest in a string of candidates Trump backs, and Trump is expected to announce another White House bid on Tuesday.

After the Arizona gubernatorial election was called, Hobbes wrote on Twitter: “Democracy is worth the wait.” Lake disparaged the election call, tweeting, “Arizonans know BS if they see it.”

Article content

Lake vowed to ban mail-in ballots in the state, which conspiracy theorists falsely claim is vulnerable to fraud, and voters question the safety of the voting method used by hundreds of thousands of Americans. There is growing distrust among

Her loss capped a week of Democrat victories against Republican hopes for a “red wave” in the midterm elections.

Democrats retained control of the U.S. Senate after Vice President Kamala Harris tied the ballot after holding seats in the battleground states of Arizona and Nevada. If Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock defeats Republican challenger Herschel Walker in Georgia’s runoff election on December 6, increasing Democrat influence over committees, legislation, and judicial nominations, the party’s may obtain a full majority control.

Article content

The Democrats’ victories in gubernatorial, legislative, and state legislative elections have disappointed hopes voters would punish them for record inflation, including high gas and food prices. Instead, Democrats were able to limit their losses by mobilizing voters angry at the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion.

Still, Republicans continued to make strides toward control of the House. Control of the House of Representatives allows Republicans to interfere with President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.

It could be days before the results of the House of Representatives elections are known enough to determine which party controls the 435-seat House of Representatives.

Article content

Mr. Lake, a former TV news anchor, was one of a string of Republican candidates to lose in battleground states. Voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin also rejected election naysayers in their campaigns for gubernatorial and other electoral posts statewide.

Biden narrowly defeated Trump in Arizona in the 2020 election. Hobbs, Arizona’s current secretary of state, rose to national prominence when he defended the state’s election results against Trump’s allegations of voter fraud.

On Monday, she won the seat currently held by Republican Governor Doug Ducey, who could not seek re-election due to term restrictions.

The counting of votes in Arizona lasted almost a week after the Nov. 8 election. Arizona requires early voting voter signatures to be verified before they are processed. Hundreds of thousands of early votes were cast on Election Day this year, delaying the tally, officials said.

Article content

Lake and Trump pointed to a temporary problem with Maricopa County’s electronic ballot counters as evidence of Republican vote suppression.

The judge denied a request to extend polling place hours, saying Republicans had not provided evidence that voters were disenfranchised by the issue.

Speaking on Fox News on Sunday, Lake said the lengthy tallying process “tramples” voter rights and is further evidence of why Arizona’s election administration needs to be reformed.

“Here in Arizona, I can’t be the laughingstock of the election anymore. If I’m governor, I won’t let that happen,” she said.