Kari Lake Silent as Arizona Ballot Drop Confirms Almost Certain Defeat
Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for governor in Arizona, has yet to respond after Katie Hobbs' team declared the Democrat is the "unequivocal favorite" to win the midterm election.
Lake, who was endorsed by Donald Trump, and is a 2020 election denier, is currently behind Hobbs by just over 26,000 votes with around 93 percent of the ballots accounted for, according to the Associated Press tally.
While Lake managed to cut Hobbs' lead by around 10,000 following a ballot count on Sunday, experts have suggested that Lake will not be able to overcome Hobbs' lead with around seven percent of votes left to count.
According to the Arizona Mirror's analysis, Lake will need to win just over 58 percent of the remaining votes to surpass Hobbs, something Lake has failed to do in any of the post-election counts.
"At this point, there's one play left in the game and Lake needs a Hail Mary," Republican pollster Paul Bentz told the Arizona Mirror. "I don't think she'll get it."
Dave Wasserman, the editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, tweeted on Sunday that it is "extremely tough to see" how Lake will now go on to win the Arizona gubernatorial race.
In a statement following the latest vote count, Hobbs' campaign team said that the Democrat is the clear favorite to win the election while stopping short of declaring victory.
"With the latest tabulation results from Maricopa, Pinal, and Pima counties, Katie Hobbs is the unequivocal favorite to become the next Governor of Arizona," said Nicole DeMont, Hobbs' campaign manager.
"Katie has led since the first round of ballots were counted, and after tonight's results, it's clear that this won't change."
Arizona officials have said the vote-counting process could still take a few more days, with the majority of those uncounted ballots coming from Maricopa county.
Lake, who could be the latest Trump-endorsed midterm candidate to go on to lose their race, has frequently cast doubt on the integrity of Arizona's election system.
In an interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo on Sunday morning, Lake said she is "waiting for the votes to be counted" while adding she would change how the election process in Arizona is run if she was elected 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," Lake said.
"I've 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. We can't be the laughingstock of elections anymore here in Arizona, and when I'm governor, I will not allow it."
Newsweek has reached out to Lake for comment.