Even though over a week has passed since Election Day, the Arizona governor’s race between Republican Kari Lake and Democrat Katie Hobbs remains tight and uncertain. Hobbs’s advantage against Lake, though, is exceedingly slim.
The Arizona Republic reported on Sunday evening that Hobbs led Lake by barely 1 percentage point. On Sunday, the gap between the two candidates shrunk throughout the day until only 26,000 votes separated them.
Evening updates that included the tally of 97,000 ballots from Maricopa County revealed that Lake had won 54 percent, as reported by the Republic.
Politico reported late Sunday night that Lake received 49.5% of the vote while Hobbs received 50.5%.
An estimated 93 percent of votes have been counted.
Even though the Sunday evening update indicated that Lake was still in the lead, the Republic stated that the race is still tight and there are still ballots to tally.
The Republic stated that despite the tightness of the race, Hobbs’ campaign manager, Nicole DeMont, said in a statement that she anticipated Hobbs would win with her modest advantage.
“With the latest tabulation results from Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties, Katie Hobbs is the unequivocal favorite to become the next governor of Arizona,” DeMont’s statement read.
But the Lake campaign has kept an air of confidence, too.
“We’re not in the business of spreading false hope. Our confidence hasn’t wavered & we haven’t moved an inch since election day. @KariLake
will be the next Governor of Arizona,” the Kari Lake War Room Twitter account posted on Saturday.
We're not in the business of spreading false hope.
Our confidence hasn't wavered & we haven't moved an inch since election day.@KariLake will be the next Governor of Arizona. pic.twitter.com/zU8mp0MFTX
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) November 12, 2022
Lake exudes confidence in her own abilities. She told Fox News on Thursday that she was confident in the final result.
“I am 100 percent going to win. I have absolute 100 percent confidence that I will be the next governor of Arizona,” Lake said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Lake also said on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo” that she was determined to see that Arizona’s elections would not be a “laughingstock” “when I’m governor.”
“I consider someone’s vote their voice. I think of it as a sacred vote. And it’s being trampled the way we run our elections in Arizona. I have been sounding the alarm for two years. Nothing got done. Very little got done last legislative session. And we need to get in there and restore faith in our elections,” Lake said.
“We can’t be the laughingstock of elections anymore here in Arizona. And, when I’m governor, I will not allow it. I just won’t,” she added.
In the meanwhile, the remainder of Arizona’s elections have been scheduled.
270towin reported that Democrat Mark Kelly defeated Republican Blake Masters for the Senate seat.
However, six of the nine House seats went to the GOP.