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Donald Trump has expressed the unsubstantiated belief that election irregularities cost Kari Lake the Arizona governor's race.
Lake, the latest Trump-endorsed 2020 election denier to have lost their midterm election, was defeated by Democrat Katie Hobbs nearly one week after the November 8 polls opened after mail-in ballots were slowly counted in the state.
Hobbs was declared the winner of the Arizona gubernatorial race on Monday night by The Associated Press. With 98 percent of votes now accounted for, the Democrat leads Lake by 20,000 votes (50.4 percent to 49.6 percent.)
In a post on Truth Social after the election was called, the former president decried the results while attempting to suggest there was something untoward in the vote-counting process.
"Wow! They just took the election away from Kari Lake. It's really bad out there!" Trump wrote.
This is not the first time that he has suggested the vote counting process in Arizona is somehow rigged against the candidate he backed in the race.
"I assume everyone is watching Arizona as the great Kari Lake's easy election win is slowly, yet systematically, being drained away from her, and from the American people," Trump wrote on Monday morning after tabulation results from Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties showed Hobbs to have a significant lead in the race.
"This is a very sad thing to watch. Mail in Ballots, long election counts, many day elections, machines that very few people understand, massive counting centers, and more, are an American disaster," Trump wrote. "Our elections have become an unreliable joke, and the whole world is watching!"
Lake, one of the staunchest of Trump supporters, who backs the false claim the 2020 election was "stolen" from him, has not confirmed if she would concede the Arizona gubernatorial race.
In a tweet Monday night after the election was declared, Lake also suggested the results were somehow marred.
"Arizonans know BS when they see it," Lake wrote.
While celebrating her win on Tuesday, Hobbs tweeted: "Democracy is worth the wait. Thank you, Arizona. I am so honored and so proud to be your next Governor."
Lake's defeat could have major implications for the 2024 election, as well as further damage Trump's reputation within the GOP.
Arizona's governor gives approval to the certification of the winner of the presidential election, as well the selection of the state's presidential electors.
Lake had vowed to completely overhaul Arizona's election process, with fears a far-right governor in the state may help push through plans to overturn election results in their candidate's favor, as was was attempted in the 2020 presidential race.
Trump, who is expected to run for president in 2024, has been widely blamed for the Republican Party's poor performances in the midterms, with a number of his MAGA and election-denying candidates losing across the country.
The GOP still has not managed to gain a majority of the House as predicted—although it is expected to scrape by the 218 threshold—and failed to retake control of the Senate from the Democrats.
Lake has been contacted for comment.
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, and Florida ... Read more