After days of ballot counting, Arizona Democrat Katie Hobbs has been elected governor in a hotly-contested race against election-denying Republican Kari Lake, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, according to a race call by The Associated Press.
The victory is a relief to Arizona Democrats, who spent much of the campaign wringing their hands over whether Hobbs — the current Secretary of State in Arizona — could defeat the made-for-TV Lake, who spent 22 years at a local Fox affiliate, much of it as a news anchor.
Most polls ahead of the elections showed Lake with a slight lead in the race. Lake showed a knack for garnering headlines while antagonizing reporters in her first-ever campaign. She ran on an unabashedly pro-Trump agenda – promising to declare an invasion along the southern border and voicing support for the state’s pre-statehood abortion ban – alongside a slate of Trump-endorsed candidates who won their primaries in the swing state of Arizona.
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