Democrat Katie Hobbs leads Republican Kari Lake in Arizona’s governor’s race with just over half of the precincts reporting, and while much could change as polls are counted, the GOP candidate is already challenging the election results.   

  Lake won the GOP primary after reinforcing former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 presidential election, falsely insisting the election was rigged and stolen.  And while the current margins could change dramatically as votes are counted, Lake suggests without any evidence that there could be problems with Tuesday’s results.  (Hobbs, as secretary of state, rebuffed GOP efforts to overturn the results in the 2020 election.)   

  In a speech Tuesday night at her election night headquarters, Lake said she felt like it was “cliff day.”   

  “We had November 3, 2020, which was called incompetence 101,” Lake said.  She went on to say there was “incompetence” in both the August primary and Tuesday’s election — a not-so-subtle criticism of her opponent’s oversight of the election.  It was not immediately clear what he was referring to, but there is no evidence of widespread fraud.   

  “We need honest elections and we will bring them to you, Arizona, I assure you of that.  The system we have right now is not working,” Lake said.  She later told her supporters to be patient and said she was confident she would win.   

  Hobbs also addressed her supporters Tuesday night, saying the campaign feels good about what they’re seeing.   

  “I know we are all anxious to find out who won each of these incredibly important races, but we will need to be patient and wait for every vote to be counted,” she said in remarks as she prepared to deliver.  “We know that my opponent and her allies have sowed doubt and confusion throughout this campaign and it is unacceptable that they spread misinformation today while people were exercising their right to vote.”   

  All four GOP candidates at the top of the ticket in Arizona echo Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. And the right-wing media seized on tablet trouble in Maricopa County earlier Tuesday to raise the idea of ​​fraud — despite assurances of opposed by county officials — in a clear echo of repeated efforts by some conservatives to challenge Maricopa’s 2020 results.   

  Arizona is a key battleground this year for the governorship and the Senate and will likely be up for president again in 2024, sparking warnings from top Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, that the Republican has embraced Trump’s election lies and conspiracy theories. could put democracy at risk.  if they were to sweep into power.   

  Charlie Kirk, the founder and president of the right-wing group Turning Point USA, tweeted a false claim about two-hour wait times in Maricopa County, which was the site of repeated partisan “audits” in 2020. A Maricopa County judge on on Tuesday night rejected a Republican effort to extend polling hours by three hours, saying there was no evidence that voters were unable to cast their ballots.   

  Lake has repeatedly said she would not have endorsed Joe Biden to win Arizona in 2020.   

  The former Fox 10 news anchor in Phoenix has quickly risen to become one of the most prominent candidates in the 2022 cycle as she and Hobbs battle to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Doug Ducey.   

  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.

Watch Republican campaign official answer questions from skeptics about voting 03:36 – Source: CNN

  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”.   

  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, friendly 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.