According to the Associated Press and other news sites, Democrat Katie Hobbs is the winner of Arizona’s governor’s race against Republican Kari Lake.
The Associated Press (AP) declared Hobbs the winner at 9:20 p.m. Eastern time, over a week after Election Day. According to the New York Times, Hobbs received 1,265,331 votes (50.41 percent) of the statewide vote, while Lake received 1,244,850 votes (49.59 percent). Hobbs has a 20,481-vote lead.
The results from Maricopa County on Monday night prompted the call for Hobbs, as Lake fell short of the margin required to keep the race going. Lake needed enormous margins of hundreds of thousands of Election Day drop-off votes in purple Maricopa County to go her way after falling behind in early ballots dropped off just before Election Day. The race was first called by NBC News.
While Lake acquired a late surge after winning the batches on Sunday and Monday night, that were heavily weighted with pro-Republican Election Day drop-off votes, her advantages over Hobbs were insufficient to win the race. During a Live Video just before results came in, ABC 15 Research Analyst Garret Archer stated that she needed to capture at minimum 62 percent of Monday’s Maricopa votes. She received 56.82 percentage of the votes cast.
Maricopa’s Monday results comprised 72,523 ballots, and the nation believes that 98.6 percent of its overall vote has been processed.
Hobbs, who is currently Arizona’s secretary of state, declined to debate Lake under no circumstances, drawing criticism from both sides of the political spectrum. Hobbs looks to have won in the end with her dodging Lake plan.
The secretary of state will succeed outgoing Governor Doug Ducey (R-AZ) as the Grand Canyon State’s first Democrat since Governor Janet Napolitano from 2003 to 2009.
Lake, a previous Fox 10 Phoenix host for 22 years who was sponsored by previous President Donald Trump, appeared to be considered one of the top Republican contenders in the country due to her great communication skills and passion among her supporters. Her defeat comes despite leading in the vast majority of surveys posted to FiveThirtyEight’s website in the run-up to the election.
The pair had been in a close race in the polls in previous months, but Lake seemed to be pulling away in the closing weeks.
