PHOENIX –
Kari Lake, a former news anchor who walked away from her journalism career and was embraced by Donald Trump and his loyal supporters, won Arizona’s Republican gubernatorial primary on Thursday.
Lake’s victory was a blow to the Republican establishment that has lined up behind lawyer and businesswoman Karrin Taylor Robson in an attempt to push her party beyond the chaotic Trump era. Lake said she would not have certified President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020 or put false claims of voter fraud at the center of her campaign.
“Arizonians who have been forgotten by the establishment have just caused a political earthquake,” Lake said in a statement after the race was called.
Republicans now enter the general election sprint with a slate of nominees closely allied with Trump who deny that Biden was legitimately elected president. Lake will face Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs in the November election.
“This race for governor is not about Democrats or Republicans. It’s a choice between sanity and chaos,” Hobbs said Thursday night in a statement about Lake’s victory.
Early election results showing only mail-in ballots received before Election Day gave Robson a solid lead, but that narrowed as votes from polling places were added to the count. Lake’s victory became clear Thursday when Maricopa County released the results of thousands of mail-in ballots that were delivered to the polls on Tuesday.
“The voters of Arizona have spoken,” Robson said in a statement conceding to Lake Thursday night. “I accept the results, I trust the process and the people who manage it.”
In a midterm primary season with mixed results for Trump’s favorite candidates, the former president prevailed in Arizona, a state that has been central to his efforts to annul the 2020 presidential election and cast doubt on Biden’s victory. In addition to Lake, Trump’s picks for the US Senate, Secretary of State, Attorney General, US House of Representatives, and state Legislature all won their Republican primaries.
If they win in November, Trump’s allies will dominate election administration in a crucial battleground state as he considers another White House bid in 2024. The results also show Trump remains a powerful figure in the GOP. as a party stalwart for a long time. become increasingly bold in his efforts to reassert control before the next presidential campaign.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie campaigned for Robson in the days leading up to the election.
Robson, who is married to one of the richest men in Arizona, heavily financed her campaign. She called the 2020 election “unfair” but stopped short of calling it fraudulent and pushed for the GOP to look to the future.
Lake now faces the daunting task of uniting the GOP after a painful primary. On Wednesday, as Lake prematurely declared victory, he attempted to reach out to Robson and others he fiercely criticized as RINOs, or Republicans in name only, who do not side with Trump on key issues.
“Frankly, this party needs her to come together, and I welcome her,” Lake said of Robson. “And I hope she comes for this.”
Robson said he has spent his life supporting Republicans, “and I look forward to seeing our Republican candidates succeed in November.”
Like Trump, Lake courts controversy and confrontation. She berates the journalists and dodges questions. She burned masks during the surge of COVID-19 in the summer of 2021 and attacked Republicans like Ducey who allowed restrictions on businesses, even though as a news anchor she encouraged people to follow public health guidelines.
Lake spent the days leading up to his own election claiming there were indications of fraud, but he refused to provide any proof. Once he was assured of his victory, he said voters should trust that his victory is legitimate.
“We outvoted fraud,” Lake said. She pointed to problems in Pinal County, which ran out of ballots at some precincts and had to print more, but she and her attorney, Tim La Sota, refused to provide evidence to support her claims of fraud.
He said he has no plans to stop talking about voter fraud, even as he needs to broaden his appeal beyond the loyalists he boosted his primary victory.
Federal and state election officials and Trump’s own attorney general have said there is no credible evidence that the 2020 election was tainted. Trump’s fraud allegations were also roundly rejected by the courts, including the judges he appointed. A manual recount by Trump supporters in Maricopa County, Arizona’s largest, found no evidence of a stolen election and concluded that Biden’s margin of victory was higher than the official count.
Hobbs, Lake’s opponent in November, went after the candidate for her opposition to abortion rights and gun control and a proposal she introduced to put cameras in every classroom to monitor teachers.
Republicans, moving into November as a divided party in Arizona, should appeal to independent voters who decide close races, said Chuck Coughlin, a longtime GOP strategist who left the party during the Trump era.
“I look at it as a challenge that Republicans are going to have: how do they tell unaffiliated voters?” Coughlin said.