Nearly a week after the polls closed, the Associated Press predicted that Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs would narrowly beat Lake to become the state’s first Democratic governor in 14 years. The result comes on the eve of Trump’s expected announcement that he will officially run for president in 2024 and amid widespread infighting among Republicans in Washington and across the country over where the party should take after a series of disappointing results in the interim. “Democracy is worth the wait,” Hobbs said Monday. “Thank you, Arizona. I am so honored and proud to be your next governor.” A former local news anchor in Phoenix, Lake burst onto the national stage with her gubernatorial campaign as the newest star of the MAGA movement. Lake has been one of Trump’s favorite candidates this cycle, in part because of her media savvy and her frequent insistence that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and “stolen” from him. During her campaign, Lake said she would not have certified in the 2020 election as governor and supported ending mail-in voting, actions that would threaten her command of the 2024 presidential election in a clear battleground state. Lake is far from the only election naysayer to lose his race in the midterms. Results in races up and down the ballot across the country showed state voters overwhelmingly rejected candidates seeking statewide office denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election. The call in the Arizona gubernatorial election came a day before Trump is widely expected to launch his 2024 bid for the White House in what his advisers described as a “special announcement” at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Republican lawmakers are grappling with a planned leadership election that will determine the political futures of both Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell and reveal Trump’s enduring influence over many in the party. While Republicans appear on track to win a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, they have failed to gain control of the Senate, falling short of an expected “red wave” that would strengthen the party’s legislative arm and make it a thorn in the side of the White House by Joe Biden. The results also hurt the political ambitions of McCarthy, the most senior House Republican who until recently was seen as a close contender to become Speaker of the House, taking over from Nancy Pelosi. But McCarthy is facing pressure from right-wing members of his party, who want assurances that the California lawmaker will bend to their legislative priorities. House Republican leadership elections are scheduled for Tuesday, but members of the Freedom Caucus want that election delayed until it’s clear Republicans have retaken the House. Recommended Meanwhile, Republican senators are scheduled to hold their own leadership election on Wednesday after failing to regain control of the upper chamber of Congress in the midterms. Democrats officially secured another Senate majority over the weekend, following wins in Arizona and Nevada for incumbents Mark Kelly and Kathryn Cortez Masto, respectively. Whether Democrats control an evenly divided House or hold a 51-49 majority will be determined next month in a runoff election in Georgia between incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker. McConnell, the longtime Republican leader in the Senate, has so far been unchallenged to lead his party in the upper chamber. But several Republican senators have suggested delaying the upper house leadership vote until the Georgia runoff, raising speculation that McConnell could face a challenge from a lawmaker such as Rick Scott, the Florida senator who led the of Republican midterm campaign efforts and has locked horns with McConnell in recent months. Trump, who is seeking to regain the political spotlight even after several of his high-profile handpicked candidates lost in the midterm elections, called on Scott to replace McConnell, who previously raised questions about the “quality ” of Trump’s endorsements. In a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump said the midterm results were “Mitch McConnell’s fault,” adding: “He threw the midterms and everybody despises him.”
