AZ Called for Democrat Hobbs
Another election denier loses.
Another member of the America First SOS slate of election deniers has lost, as the Arizona gubernatorial contest has been called for Democrat Katie Hobbs. The NYT reports: Katie Hobbs, who defied Trump in Arizona, tops Kari Lake for governor.
I continue to believe that the most important outcome of the 2022 mid-terms was to see as many election deniers defeated as possible, especially in governors and secretary of state offices in potential swing states. Having people like Lake lose is unequivocally good for American democracy.
More via WaPo: Inside Kari Lake’s war room, where Republicans are grappling with defeat.
Kari Lake, projected Monday night to have been defeated in the Arizona governor’s race, was being advised by GOP operatives and some of her closest aides to take a measured approach and not “storm the castle,” as one person present for the discussions described the sentiments.
The Republican nominee, who rose to national prominence as a chief exponent of former president Donald Trump’s false claims of 2020 election fraud, fell to Democrat Katie Hobbs, who oversaw that election and defended the process from baseless claims of wrongdoing.
Hopefully, Lake accepts defeat, but it would not surprise me if she engages Trump-like denialism.
My Secretary will cry tomorrow. I will secretly enjoy her tears 🙂
Now if only Boebert would lose, I could be relatively happy.
I will note that the two (of ten) Republican Representatives who voted to impeach Trump that were still on the November ballot had easy wins (Newhouse in WA, over 70%, the other was in CA and came in 4% over polls). The others retired or lost in the Primary (like Liz Cheney) to Trump supported candidates. There are still centrist non-Trump supporters in the Republican Party, just like AOC is not the voice of the Dems – but the media hypes up the crazies because it makes ratings. Take a breath, relax, repeat.
And on the “crazies,” who is going to run against in a safe district? The only chance of winning is a major scandal for the majority candidate so why would you want to subject yourself to opposition research? Maybe you’re a masochist. Maybe sense of duty.
In my state representatives, one is accused of being abusive to staff, under investigation. Does not matter, this is a Dem district, and only way she’ll leave is by a primary challenge from within her party and the party protects the incumbents. [I was split ticket, wow, it is allowed, for the Dem State Senator and against the State Rep (I know other stuff against her and she is not serving the community IMHO)] . But this is a + 8 D district. I could reverse this to a Republican area.
Checking Wikipedia, this will be the first time Dems have held the governorship as well as both Senate seats in AZ since 1951, when Gov. Dan Edward Garvey finished his term while the two Senators were Carl Hayden and Ernest MacFarland.
If I were Katie Hobbs or any Democrat being asked about any subsequent Lake squawks, the proper response should be a silent indifference. When asked about Lake conceding, the response should be “A concession is just good manners, I don’t expect one”. Or about election being stolen, just a “she’s welcome to demonstrate it” and then silence. On the other hand, I would not mind a hardworking election official just go, “Kari Lake can just go ef herself”. That would make me laugh.
And, right on cue, Trump has jumped in to say the election was stolen from Lake.
The attitude far too many politicians have (like Lake) when losing makes me wonder how many of them have personality disorders. Everyone knows that Trump is a malignant narc, and I have my suspicions about a lot of the other MAGAs.
For a bunch of people who claim to be “conservative” they certainly don’t demonstrate the grace of earlier politicians who accepted their losses without complaint (or at least more gracefully than these idiots).
@Kylopod:
So.Much.Winning.!
@grumpy realist:
For a while between 2006 and 2012, his majesty Manuel Andres pretty much claimed his party, then the PRD, really won every election at every level, but the other two parties, PRI and PAN, cheated and stole like 2/3 of them.
This never made any logical sense. By the end, even the news media reported such claim with a chuckle. It’s just the last refuge of the narcissist.
@Richard Gardner: I’m not sure that the real problem for the crazies is that they split their focus too much. In the Third District in Washington Herrera Beutler was running against 5 or 6 Republiqan opponents and in the 4th, Newhouse was running against 6. If the MAGAt/America Firsters hadn’t split their vote among so many candidates, it’s possible that the outcome in the 3rd would have been Herrera Beutler vs. Kemp and Newhouse (with only 25% of the vote) might have been out. Living in the third district, I can tell you that there’s no shortage of crazies here–at least as far as national races go. In local races, because the citizens need stuff done, it tones down the crazy.
@Richard Gardner: I should also note that Washington was 1/2 in Congresspeople surviving impeachment votes. Herrera Beutler also voted to impeach the second time and was out in the primary. (We don’t cotton to traitors much here.)
@CSK: Yesterday or the day before, he called for a whole new national election. He’s toning down some.