Kari Lake Showing No Signs of Slowing Down

On Monday, Katie Hobbs was sworn in as Arizona's 24th governor. Despite what many would see as the natural end to a gubernatorial election, her Republican adversary, Kari Lake, continues to claim that the election was stolen from her.

Lake is now appealing to the state's Supreme Court to take up the matter, and in the past few days has made media appearances and social media posts that suggest she has no interest in giving up the fight.

However, both Republican officials and experts believe that, even though Lake may not have realized it yet, there is very little chance of the Arizona election being overturned.

The Arizona gubernatorial election was one of several polls in the November midterms in which a Trump-endorsed, populist candidate lost to their Democrat rival. When all the votes were tallied, Hobbs had 50.3 percent of the vote to Lake's 49.7 percent—a difference of just under 18,000 ballots.

Lake has refused to concede, and even after Hobbs' January 2 swearing-in ceremony has continued to claim that the election was "botched" and "rigged."

In a tweet yesterday, she claimed the "Uniparty"—a far-right buzzword that suggests both major parties are somehow in cahoots—"stole the Arizona election."

"The political elite despise We The People and can't stand the fact that they work FOR us," the former news anchor tweeted. "They want us to give up this most important fight and go back to sleep. WE WON'T QUIT."

Phoning in to Real America's Voice the same day, Lake said: "Right now [Katie] Hobbs has not been duly elected and this must be resolved as quickly as possible. This case is eventually going to make it to the Arizona Supreme Court no matter what. So there's really nothing to be gained by waiting to take this to the Supreme Court. They should just, we believe, grant us that request."

According to an excerpt Lake retweeted, her appeal to the Supreme Court states: "A significant majority of voters no longer trust the outcomes of elections in Arizona. A functioning republic cannot exist for long under these circumstances."

This may be a less-than-veiled reference to the 2020 presidential election tally in Arizona, which also faced claims from local Republicans of election fraud, and which Hobbs, as Arizona's then-Secretary of State, defended. A GOP-funded audit in 2021 found no evidence of fraud.

"To the best of my knowledge, no real evidence of fraud has been found, so I don't think she has a very good chance of overturning anything at this point," Dr. Colin Provost, a senior lecturer in U.S. politics at University College London, said of Lake's bid. "It doesn't look that good for her on that front."

Referencing the midterm candidates "that were espousing election denial and election fraud [who] did so poorly at the polls," he told Newsweek: "I think [Lake's] trying to tap into a segment of the Arizona electorate that is disgruntled and unhappy with politics, and believes in conspiracy theories and believes in election fraud, believes that it's there, but it seems that at this point she's maybe a little too late there."

"Maybe that vote is sailing away," he added.

It seems that Lake's optimism about her own chances, even after the governor's seat is warm again, is not shared by officials in her own party.

"It's done in Arizona," Chuck Coughlin, the GOP consultant for the state, told The Hill on December 30. "I think the enormous amount of ill will that she's going to create as a result of the appeal. I mean, it's OK to file a case, but then some of the stuff she's been saying on media and posts and just the degradation of the Arizona institutions—I think is really going to hurt her out here, and I don't really think she's got a future in terms of her own electoral space here in Arizona."

A "revote" rally of Lake supporters outside the State Capitol building in Arizona last month saw around 30 people turn up and led to a confrontation when a man arrived toting a confederate flag.

Provost played down the notion that Lake's election-denial rhetoric might lead to a January 6-style uprising.

"The midterm elections showed that a lot of people seemed to be a little bit tired of Trump's narrative about stolen elections," he said. "It still has an audience, and the existing protesters are evidence of that, but I would be surprised if the number of protesters grew substantially, and I feel that's what you'd need for it to become violent at all."

Newsweek reached out to Governor Katie Hobbs for comment.