Election denier and Trump-backed candidate for Arizona’s governor Kari Lake prematurely declared victory in the GOP primary despite only holding a narrow lead in the uncalled race.
The former local news anchor addressed supporters around 1 a.m. on Wednesday and declared that “there is no path to victory for my opponent and we won this race,” with less than 70% of the vote counted at the time. Lake was leading her opponent Karrin Robson by less than 2 points as of 7 a.m. on Wednesday.
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“I wanted to come out here tonight. I wanted to say, ‘Wow, we already have the final results,'” Lake told her supporters. “But we know how our election systems work, and they don’t work well. And that’s one of the reasons why I’m standing here.”
The race between Lake and Robson revealed an intraparty divide, as former President Donald Trump ardently backed the former, whereas his former second-in-command Mike Pence threw his support behind the latter.
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Trump endorsed Lake early in September, and the firebrand candidate leaned on that support as she focused her campaign on claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. The race became a proxy war when the former vice president endorsed Robson in July, marking only the second time Pence publicly backed a top challenger to Trump’s chosen candidate.
The winner of the GOP primary will face off against Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs, who is the secretary of state for Arizona. Hobbs has made herself somewhat of a target for Trump’s allies, as she has staunchly defended the integrity of the 2020 election in the state.
