PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — Kari Lake took the stage Wednesday morning and declared herself the winner of the Republican gubernatorial primary, despite no network or news organization predicting a winner in the race . Lake took the lead for the night against Karrin Taylor Robson, with 46% to 44% of the vote. As of midday Wednesday, he held a lead of just over 11,000 votes.
“We beat the fraud. We didn’t listen to what the fake news was saying. The MAGA movement stood up,” Lake told a crowd of supporters outside his campaign headquarters in Phoenix that morning.
Lake, a former news anchor, was endorsed by former President Donald Trump in the Arizona primary against Karrin Taylor Robson, a development advocate backed by several establishment Republicans, including former Vice President Mike Pence and current governor of Arizona Doug Ducey.
Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake gave a late night speech to supporters as updated results showed her taking the lead overnight.
Last night around 2 a.m., Lake took to Twitter to challenge Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs, who won the Democratic nomination in a landslide against former Nogales Mayor Marco Lopez, who was a primarily grassroots campaign. Those tweets came after a confident Lake said his campaign had enough polling data to clear a clear path to victory.
Ahead of his confirmed lead, Lake told a crowd at a campaign rally that he is “winning this 100%” and that “there is no path to victory for my opponent.” We won this race.” Some of his supporters were seen praying in a circle around 10 p.m. Hours later, he took the stage thanking the support that stood by his side throughout the night as the count of votes changed in his favor.
Lake has had numerous notable endorsements in recent months with most of his support from the Trump-era wing of the party. In early July, Lake announced on Twitter that former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio had endorsed her with three weeks left in the race. “Sheriff Joe knows the damage that out-of-control crime and immigration can do to this state. I will not back down in my fight to secure our border and defend Arizona. They called Joe, ‘America’s Toughest Sheriff’ . I will be their toughest governor,” Lake tweeted.
Around the same time, Robson was endorsed by Governor Doug Ducey. She announced her support via a Twitter video saying, “No surprises with Karrin. She is a lifelong conservative Republican who got her start working for President Ronald Reagan.” She also supported Robson’s policies that she is “Pro-Life, Pro-Gun and Pro-Wall”. A few months later, former Vice President Mike Pence joined in supporting Robson in the primary.
Votes are still being counted and no official winner has been declared yet.
Arizona Family is following this story and will continue to bring you updates on Tuesday’s primary.
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