PHOENIX (AP) — Democrat Katie Hobbs elected governor of arizona On Monday, she knocked out an ally of Donald Trump who falsely claimed the 2020 election was rigged and refused to say she would accept the outcome of this year’s race.
Hobbs, Arizona’s secretary of state, rose to prominence as a staunch defender of the legitimacy of the last election and warned against her Republican rival, former TV news anchor Carrie Lake., will be a proxy for chaos. Hobbs’ victory is further evidence that Trump is crushing his allies in key battleground states as the former president prepares to announce a 2024 presidential bid.
She will succeed the Republican governor. Term limit laws bar Doug Ducey from running again. She is the first Democrat to be elected governor of Arizona since Janet Napolitano in 2006.
In a statement announcing his victory, Hobbs said: “To the Arizonans who didn’t vote for me, I will work hard for you — because even in this divisive moment, I believe there is more that binds us together. “It’s not just about the election — it’s about moving this state forward and facing the challenges of our generation.”
Lake tweeted after the call, “Arizonians know bullshit when they see it.”
Associated Press says gubernatorial race For Hobbs, the results of the latest round of voting gave her a lead big enough that the AP decided she wouldn’t give up. The Associated Press concluded that despite Lake’s growing advantage in the Maricopa County ballot update, she did not gain enough shares to overtake Hobbs and that the remaining ballots had been used up.
Counting has been going on for days Officials have continued to count a large number of late ballots since Tuesday’s election.
Arizona, once a Republican stronghold as Democrats gained ground in the Trump era, has been at the heart of efforts by Trump and his allies to cast doubt on Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential bid with false fraud allegations. Many Trump-backed candidates have faltered in battleground state elections this year, though Republican Joe Lombardo, his pick for governor in Nevada,Defeat the incumbent Democrat.
Before entering politics, Hobbs was a social worker working with homeless youth and an executive at a large domestic violence shelter in the Phoenix area. Elected to the state legislature in 2010, she served one term in the House of Representatives and three terms in the Senate, rising to Minority Leader.
Hobbs narrowly won as secretary of state in 2018 Arizona has been thrust into the center of a political storm as the state becomes at the center of efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost. She appears frequently on cable news, defending the integrity of the vote count.
This attention has allowed her to raise millions of dollars and increase her popularity. When she announced her run for governor, other prominent Democrats declined to run, and Hobbs easily won her primary.
She ran a cautious campaign, sticking mostly to scripted and choreographed public appearances. She refused to participate in the debate with Lake, believing that Lake would turn the debate into a spectacle by spreading conspiracy theories and false accusations.
Instead, she bet that voters would turn against Lake, who opted for a verbal fight with reporters as the cameras rolled and struck a combative tone against Democrats and even the Republican establishment that has long dominated state government.
Polls before the election pointed to a close race, but Hobbs’ victory still came as a surprise to many Democrats, who feared her timidity would turn off voters. She has outperformed expectations in Maricopa and Pima counties, where the vast majority of Arizona voters live, and in the Phoenix and Tucson areas. She also spent considerable time in rural areas, hoping to minimize her losses in areas that traditionally support the Republican Party.
After anchoring the evening news in Phoenix for more than two decades, Lake is well known throughout much of the state. She campaigned as a fierce critic of mainstream media, which she said was unfair to Republicans. Her strong commitment to questioning the results of the 2020 election won Trump’s admiration, and she never wavered from that position even after winning the Republican primary.
She baselessly accused election officials of slowing down the counting of votes this year and trailing Hobbs by a narrow margin just days after the election, thus prioritizing Democratic votes.
Lake mentions issues with printers At about one-third of Maricopa County voting centers, it resulted in some ballots being rejected by live tabulators. Election officials told voters to put their ballots in a separate box to be counted later, but Republican leaders told their supporters to ignore the instruction and set up backup ballots in some places.
The issue affected about 7 percent of in-person voting on Election Day and about 1 percent of the county’s overall vote count.
Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone said he stepped up security around the election center on Monday in anticipation of the race and that emotions could run high, though he said there was no specific threat. Demonstrators had gathered outside the building for several days but had remained peaceful, he said.
“I think we’re close to the end, so I want to make sure we’re ready,” Penzone told reporters at a news conference hours before the race.
The sheriff’s office was caught off guard when angry armed protesters flooded the election building two years ago In central Phoenix after Fox News, AP call Arizona for Bidenthe first time a Democrat has won the state in more than two decades.
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