Trump-Backed Kari Lake Calls 'BS' After US Media Declares Katie Hobbs Winner in AZ Governor's Race

With the ballot count incomplete on Monday evening, US media began declaring Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs the victor over Republican Kari Lake in the race for Governor of Arizona.

According to local media, the call was made after Maricopa County, which includes the state’s central metropolis of Phoenix, finally submitted the results of its 94,000 outstanding ballots. While 56.8% of them went for Lake, it wasn’t enough for the Republican candidate to make up the gap between her and Hobbs.

However, some 27,000 ballots have not yet been counted, with at least 10,000 of them from the border counties in which Lake has performed well. The gap between Lake and Hobbs is roughly 20,000 votes.

After media informally called the race for Hobbs, who is presently Arizona’s Secretary of State, she tweeted out a statement saying that “democracy was worth the wait.” The race is among the last from the November 8 election to remain undecided.

However, Lake has so far refused to concede the race, and tweeted “Arizonans know BS when they see it” on Monday night. She did not provide evidence or context for the claim.

Arizonans know BS when they see it.

— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 15, 2022

Arizona doesn’t have a unified Board of Elections, but rather a decentralized network of election boards for each of its 15 counties. The Secretary of State - Hobbs - is responsible for the final certification of the state’s ballot counts. Prior to the election, Lake demanded Hobbs recuse herself from this position.

Arizona Democratic candidate for Governor Katie Hobbs speaks to the media before dropping off her primary election ballot Tuesday, July 21, 2022, in Scottsdale, Ariz.

© AP Photo / Ross D. Franklin

Lake, a former TV news anchor in Phoenix, won an endorsement from former US President Donald Trump in the gubernatorial race. Her politics closely mirror his, including pushing COVID-19 misinformation and denying the results of the 2020 US presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden.

The Grand Canyon State played a prominent role in Trump’s rejection of the 2020 election results, with Trump claiming that Biden’s victory there was the result of fraud, and numerous Republican politicians in and from Arizona openly challenging the legitimacy of the results. Trump afterward sued Hobbs, the Arizona Secretary of State, claiming that some incorrectly-filled-out ballots had been wrongly discarded, but withdrew the suit a few days later, when it became apparent that the ballots in question could not give him a majority.

Kari Lake, Arizona Republican candidate for governor, speaks to supporters at the Republican watch party in Scottsdale, Ariz., Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022.

© AP Photo / Ross D. Franklin

In the 2022 campaign, Hobbs ran on a ticket of continuity and stability, casting Lake as an agent of chaos. Lake ran on a campaign of challenging federal government authority and a defender of election legitimacy.

Lake’s apparent defeat is the latest in a string of losses by Trump-backed candidates in last week’s election. Democrats have celebrated the “red trickle” that manifested instead of the “red wave” of conservative victories predicted by much of the press, but with other close races still undecided, it’s not clear if the Democrats will retain control over the US House of Representatives.