As initial Arizona voting began rolling Tuesday night and Kari Lake was behind, she and her MAGA allies used a familiar election night tactic: They wept. .
But overnight, Lake built the base that she lost to Karrin Taylor Robson, her main opponent for the GOP nomination for governor of Arizona. Now, on the cusp of winning the hotly contested primaries, Lake and her allies find themselves scrambling to explain how the election she’s running for. chasing to win is, somehow, still as corrupt and fraudulent as they claim to be.
“There was no path to victory for my opponent, and we won this race, this time,” Lake proudly announced to a group of supporters, but that didn’t stop her from warning them that fraud is happening.
“But there are a lot of problems with the system,” the candidate warned, before immediately predicting victory again.
“We will win this when the votes are counted,” the candidate said. “We’re not going to mess up our electoral system like this.”
Before Lake spoke, MAGAworld experts spread rumors without evidence that election misconduct was underway.
Rightmost blog, Gateway Pundit Written that something “suspicious” happened during the race, adding that “a [Brad] Special Raffensperger. “
As Lake watched Robson in the evening, the others revived a collection of conspiracy theories from November 2020.
One is involved in an allegation that poll workers knowingly distributed Sharpies to voters rendering their ballots invalid. For the second time, election officials allegedly printed the ballots on thinner than usual paper which resulted in MAGA loyalty ballots being thrown out due to ink bleed. Both were dropped shortly after it was raised following the 2020 election when Arizona’s Pima County tweeted: “No ballots will be discarded because of the method used to color in the ovals,” referring to “Sharpiegate.”
But that hasn’t stopped pro-Trump fire representative Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA contributor Drew Hernandez from launching “Sharpiegate 2.0”.
“I was furious today when my family called me and said they had to rerun their ballots multiple times,” pro-Trump fire representative Charlie Kirk speak. “Because Sharpie passed the vote.”
Similarly, Real America Voice reporter Ben Berquam from far right, citing an alleged voter he spoke to, claims that this time, the ballots are printed on “thicker paper.”
“Sharpiegate 2.0, here we are!” US Turning Point contributor Drew Hernandez.
MyPillow CEO Mike LindellAn early and outspoken supporter of Lake, tried to dispel ideas of voter fraud and the belief of a decisive Lake victory.
“She won, what are you talking about? Of course, there was election fraud,” he told The Daily Beast in an interview Wednesday. “She won despite the algorithm,” he added, trying to explain the apparent dissonance between the two ideas. So much corruption in Arizona! “
Campaign Lake did not return The Daily Beast’s request for comment and the race was not yet over on Wednesday night.
In keeping with fashion for one of the far-right’s highest-ranking culture warriors and 2020 election conspirators, Lake is now taking another major step toward the top office of a battleground state. importance.
In a competition that has turned into a costly and uncomfortable proxy war between the GOP factions, Lake’s victory is seen as a victory for the MAGA wing — and a blow to increasingly Republican Republicans. optimistic that the party can overcome Trump’s personality cult and his 2020 election obsession.
A popular local news anchor turned political brand, Lake is endorsed by Trump and a number of Trumpworld celebrities. In turn, she endorsed baseless claims and narratives about the 2020 election, while amplifying the Arizona Republicans’ sham attempts to prove that Trump really won the state.
Robson, meanwhile, has the support of much of the state’s GOP establishment – including incumbent Governor Doug Ducey, a Trump nemesis – along with former Vice President Mike Pence. Though she’s running for the presidency with a hardline conservative stance on hot issues, Robson specifically shied away from Trump’s 2020 rhetoric and said Republicans need to move on.
Robson’s camp focused on a strategy that saw Lake as a spoof, highlighting her former liberal views and past support of Barack Obama. At one point, Robson’s allies run an ad, narrated by a drag queen, attacking Lake for hanging out with drag queens before making them part of the MAGA culture war.
Although Lake took the lead in the race’s initial polls, Robson spent a staggering $15 million of her own on her campaign, funding a blitz ad that helped land her in the race. the incredible distance of the Lake.
While some Arizona Republican voters are baffled that Trump endorses Lake, because of her history, some find her story — a member of the media turned war veteran. anti-media — engaging, non-contradictory.
Also, many GOP voters in Arizona are clearly still craving red meat about the 2020 election.
The stage is now set in Arizona for one of the most competitive and most consequential governor races in recent memory. On Tuesday, Democrats nominated Katie Hobbs, the current secretary of state, whom Lake called for jail time over baseless fraud allegations.
