Split-ticket voters tanked Kari Lake’s 2022 bid for governor: Analysis

Barnini Chakraborty

January 23, 01:59 PM January 23, 01:59 PM

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Arizona’s Kari Lake has long complained that her loss in the 2022 gubernatorial race against Gov. Katie Hobbs was the result of a rigged election — but a new analysis shows voters did vote for a Republican, just not her.

The Arizona Republic found that Lake, the self-described “Donald Trump with softer edges,” alienated 33,000 voters in Maricopa County who threw their weight behind Hobbs in the gubernatorial contest but sided with Republicans in other state races.

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Lake lost her election to Hobbs by 17,000 votes, which means the 33,000 she failed to get from Republicans in Arizona’s largest county cost her the election.

Lake has blamed everything from printing problems to voter fraud for her loss and has vowed to keep fighting. She has promised bombshell after bombshell that would allegedly expose widespread voter fraud and other nefarious activities but has failed to deliver every time.

“She just ran a terrible campaign,” Benny White, one of the authors of the election analysis, told the Arizona Republic. “It doesn’t help to call Republicans RINOs.”

White, along with his co-authors Larry Moore and Tim Halvorsen, also found that none of the state’s midterm races were affected by widespread voter fraud as Lake has repeatedly claimed.

“The conclusion that can be drawn from this data and the various analytical comments is that the election was conducted legally and the results are correct,” the study stated.

Lake has still refused to concede her race, even though Hobbs has been sworn in, and has led legal efforts to challenge the state’s election results.

Following the election, most political analysts the Washington Examiner spoke to expected Lake to leverage her newfound notoriety into a national television gig role on a conservative network.

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Lake’s name has also recently been floated as a possible 2024 contender for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s (I-AZ) Senate seat.

However, in order to become a nominee, she would have to admit defeat in her race against Hobbs first.