Democrat Katie Hobbs was elected governor of Arizona on Monday, the latest presidential battleground to reject a prominent election-denier candidate.
Hobbs, 52, defeated Republican Kari Lake, who embraced former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, in a narrow victory, according to NBC and CNN.
Voters in the midterm election resoundingly rejected election deniers for positions that would oversee the 2024 presidential race in the crucial battlegrounds of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin. And in Georgia, they reelected Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who stood up to Trump’s demands to overturn his 2020 loss in the state.
Hobbs, who as secretary of state garnered national attention in 2020 for defending Arizona’s voting procedures after President Joe Biden’s narrow victory, had refused to debate Lake. She called the Republican candidate “seriously dangerous” to the health and safety of Arizona residents, and highlighted her restrictive views on abortion.
Hobbs’ win prevents another critical swing state from being led by an election denier ahead of the 2024 presidential race, when Trump is likely to run again.
Arizona was at the center of Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 loss, and it’s been a hotbed of election denial ever since, ranging from a controversial recount by the private firm CyberNinjas in Maricopa County to the 270 bills filed in the state Legislature to change election rules over the past two years.
Lake, 53, a former television news anchor endorsed by the former president, appeared to be a rising star in the Republican Party and found strong support among those who believe his false claims.
Hobbs was bolstered by support from Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, who said that if she lived in Arizona she would vote for her. Cheney’s political action committee launched ads targeting Lake and the Republican candidate for secretary of state. The congresswoman appealed to voters saying, “And if you care about the survival of our Republic, we cannot give people power who will not honor elections.”
Polls in the race had been close since August, with Lake pulling slightly ahead in recent weeks.
