Kari Lake has won the Arizona Republican gubernatorial primary, according to an Associated Press projection.
Lake’s victory on Thursday came two days after Election Day, following delays in Arizona’s ballot reporting. Although Lake initially trailed her challenger, Karrin Taylor Robson, on Election Day, Lake eventually took the lead as more ballots were processed and reported.
The Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Arizona issued a joint statement on election night that blasted Arizona’s Pinal County for its poor handling of the election and called on the county elections director to resign.
The statement said:
During Arizona’s primary elections, the RNC and Republican Party of Arizona’s poll observer program documented and reported multiple failures by Pinal County’s Elections Administrator, including 63,000 mail-in ballots delivered to the wrong voters and multiple Republican- heavy precinct locations running out of ballots. This is a comprehensive failure that disenfranchises Arizonans and exemplifies why Republican-led efforts for transparency at the ballot box are so important. Pinal County Elections Director David Frisk should resign immediately.
At the time the race was called, Lake earned roughly 47 percent of the vote, with 93 percent reported. With more than 336,000 votes, Lake had an estimated 20,000 vote lead over Robson, who earned 44 percent of the vote.
Republican candidate Matt Salmon earned nearly four percent of the vote despite dropping out weeks before the primary was held.
Lake defeated Robson despite her being backed by establishment Republican politicians like former Vice President Mike Pence and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who cannot run again due to term limits.
Lake, a former local news anchor, won every Arizona county with the help of an endorsement by former President Donald Trump.
Lake will face Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the Democrat nominee for governor, in the November midterm election.
Lake criticized Hobbs for her role in the 2020 presidential election in a statement released shortly after the race was officially called for her. Lake said her victory sends a message that Arizona voters are “done with failed politicians like Katie Hobbs.
Lake said:
Though the results took longer than they should have, Arizonans who have been forgotten by the establishment just delivered a political earthquake. My opponent Katie Hobbs had one job in government, and that was to ensure an efficiently-processed election. She failed spectacularly, and yet just like every other failed establishment politician, now she wants a promotion. Arizona just sent a clear message: our state is done with failed politicians like Katie Hobbs.
Lake went on to lay out her plan for Arizona, if elected governor, which includes securing the southern border, getting woke indoctrination out of children’s classrooms, and defeating the radical left Democrats.
“This is more than an election – it is a beautiful movement by so many people across our beautiful state to finally put Arizona First,” Lake said.
She continued:
Our renewed Republican Party is now coming together to fight for a brighter and more prosperous future for every Arizonan. We will stop schools from indoctrinating our children and stop government bureaucrats from shutting down our businesses and livelihoods. We will get our homeless off the streets, invest in our families, and protect the quality of life in our neighborhoods. We will put an end to the fentanyl, human trafficking, and drugs flowing across our open border. Starting tonight, we fight to defeat the radical, corrupt, incompetent Democrats and put our government back into the hands of the great people of Arizona!
Lake’s victory on Thursday marks a clean sweep for Trump-backed candidates in the Arizona GOP primary. Trump’s picks for U.S. Senate and Arizona attorney general, Blake Masters and Abe Hamadeh, both won their primaries.
