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An Arizona judge threw out the final lawsuit filed by Republican Kari Lake, declaring that Democrat Katie Hobbs won the 2022 gubernatorial election.
In a decision On Monday evening, after a three-day trial last week, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson found that Lake’s team failed to present “clear and convincing evidence or a preponderance of evidence” that misconduct was committed in last fall’s Arizona election.
Lake, who has amplified former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, has continued to spread falsehoods after the 2022 gubernatorial election, denying that Hobbs defeated him by approximately 17,000 votes.
Arizona was a key battleground for governor and Senate in 2022, and will likely be again in next year’s presidential race. A former news anchor at Fox 10 in Phoenix, Lake was one of the most prominent candidates in the 2022 cycle as she and Hobbs competed to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Doug Ducey.
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Clint Hickman, a Republican, called the ruling “justice.”
“Wild claims of rigged elections may generate media attention and fundraising appeals, but they don’t win court cases,” Hickman said in a statement. “When ‘bombs’ and ‘smoking guns’ are not supported by facts, they fail in court.”
In what Lake’s team had billed as a “BIG announcement,” the Republican told reporters Tuesday that he plans to raise money for his legal team to push a challenge to the 2022 gubernatorial outcome at the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We’re going to keep going,” she said, surrounded by her 2022 campaign signs. “The people of this great state want me to stay in this fight.”
Lake also said he would support a multibillion-dollar effort to register voters and seek mail-in ballots, a tactic Republicans had excelled at until party leaders like Lake and Trump questioned the legitimacy of absentee voting.
“If something goes, everything goes. And we’re going to make sure we push the envelope, the legal envelope, as far as we can,” Lake said. “We’re going to flood them with so many mail-in ballots that it’s going to make their heads spin.”
Lake did not say whether he will seek the 2024 GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by independent Kyrsten Sinema.
Asked if he was announcing a Senate run, Lake said, “Well, not today.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
