Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake refuses to say whether she lost 2022 election for governor
(CNN) — Arizona Republican Senate nominee Kari Lake on Monday repeatedly refused to answer whether she lost the 2022 gubernatorial race to Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs.
“Why are we looking backward? I’m looking forward,” Lake said during an interview on CNN’s “The Source with Kaitlan Collins” when asked if she lost the 2022 governor’s race.
“I’m looking forward to what is coming up. I’m looking forward to November 5 and this huge election, and the people of our state are caring about what’s coming up, what’s going forward. How are we going to make sure we secure the border? What can we as Republicans do to make sure we bring back that thriving economy, where we had record low unemployment,” Lake added.
Pressed again by Collins, Lake said, “You’ve seen thousands of interviews from me. I’ve answered that a million times.”
When Collins raised that Lake has not directly answered the question, Lake replied, “Well, I want to make sure our elections are run properly, and I’m still in litigation, so I don’t want to speak to that. But I do want to look forward.”
Lake, a former local news anchor who lost the 2022 governor’s race in her first bid for political office, is a strident ally of former President Donald Trump. She is best known nationally for pushing lies about widespread election fraud – backing an audit of the 2020 presidential race and fighting in court to overturn her 2022 loss to Hobbs, a Democrat.
Many GOP donors and strategists have expressed doubts over Lake’s chances of winning this fall, citing her feuds with fellow Republicans, including the family of the late Arizona Sen. John McCain, and her refusal to accept past election results.
Lake is locked in a race against Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego to replace retiring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.
Gallego, a retired Marine who represents a deep-blue Phoenix-area seat, launched his campaign in early 2023, long before Sinema announced her retirement. Sinema was elected to the seat in 2018 as a Democrat – the first from the party to win a Senate contest in Arizona in decades.
Arizona has long been a Republican stronghold, but President Joe Biden narrowly carried the state in 2020, and Democrats have won the last three US Senate elections there. The state GOP is also reeling after losing key statewide races in recent years, including the key offices of governor and secretary of state.
Election deniers like Lake who have parroted Trump’s election lies have largely taken command of the GOP in Arizona, with several Trump-aligned candidates defeating more establishment contenders in recent primaries before losing general elections. Republicans, though, still control most statewide executive offices and the state legislature.
CNN’s Eric Bradner contributed to this report.
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