Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake called on Garrett Archer, a political analyst for KNXV-TV in Phoenix who uses the Twitter handle “Data Guru,” to accept a debate challenge from pollster Rich Barris regarding the legitimacy of the recent midterm elections in the state.
Barris tweeted Saturday, “The 2022 Arizona midterm elections were not conducted legitimately. I have no problem extending invites to PUBLICLY debate me over that fact. All fake ‘gurus’ … are welcome to apply.”
“A word of caution. You’re not as smart as you think you are and I’m going to embarrass you,” he added.
The 2022 Arizona midterm elections were not conducted legitimately. I have no problem extending invites to PUBLICLY debate me over that fact. All fake "gurus" and are welcome to apply.
A word of caution. You're not as smart as you think you are and I'm going to embarrass you.
4— Rich Baris "The People's Pundit" (@Peoples_Pundit) December 11, 2022
Lake’s campaign Twitter account replied, “We’d pay to watch @Garrett_Archer actually consider evidence of election fraud.”
Archer responded, “Me too. Do you have any?”
We'd pay to watch @Garrett_Archer actually consider evidence of election fraud for once.
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) December 11, 2022
The campaign followed up by posting a poll on Twitter asking, “Does @Garrett_Archer have the courage to debate @Peoples_Pundit about the 2022 election in Arizona?”
Ninety percent of responders to the survey felt he did not.
Lake tweeted, “Come on, @Garrett_Archer. Let’s see if you’re as tough in a debate as you are behind your keyboard. What’d ya say? @Peoples_Pundit has agreed!”
Does @Garrett_Archer have the courage to debate @Peoples_Pundit about the 2022 election in Arizona?
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) December 12, 2022
Lake served as a news anchor for KSAZ-TV in Phoenix for for two decades, resigning in the spring of 2021 and launching her candidacy for governor a few months later.
She filed a lawsuit on Friday disputing the results of the governor’s election, in which Katie Hobbs, the Democratic Secretary of State, was proclaimed the winner by a margin of almost 17,000 votes over Lake.
Lake’s filing in state court cites major ballot printer and tabulator failures impacting 131 Maricopa County polling places (59 percent of the total) as the reason the election did not comply with Arizona law.
According to the county, 71 sites were affected, or around one-third of the total.
Lake contended that because Republicans outvoted Democrats three to one on Election Day, there was widespread suppression of her supporters’ votes.
Archer tweeted last week that Maricopa County (the Phoenix metropolitan region) voters on Election Day heavily preferred Republicans over Democrats.
2022 Maricopa voters by party and ballot type:
Total: 1.56M
By Mail
REP: 482k – 38%
DEM: 450k – 36%
OTH: 332k – 26%Polling Place
REP: 129k – 51%
DEM: 43.6k – 17%
OTH: 78.6k – 31%Early In Person
REP: 21.7k – 49%
DEM: 9.5k – 21%
OTH: 13.6k – 30%— The AZ – abc15 – Data Guru (@Garrett_Archer) December 7, 2022
More on this story via The Western Journal:
Lake told Real America’s Voice host Charlie Kirk on Monday, “Seventy-five percent of people voting on Election Day were voting for me. And then you basically shut down or make it impossible to vote or very difficult to vote at roughly 60 percent of the locations to vote, you’re going to cut into our lead. This is the disenfranchisement of voters in Arizona.” CONTINUE READING…