Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has said she will not concede the governor's race "with dignity" because she didn't actually lose her November contest against Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs.
Lake made the remarks on Friday while speaking to Scott County Republicans in Bettendorf, Iowa amid her ongoing appeal against a court decision to dismiss her challenge to the election.
That appeal was expedited and a hearing of the Arizona Court of Appeals took place on February 1, though it may be some time before the court issues a ruling on the matter.
Lake told the audience on Friday about her father who "said, 'Stay in the fight, but if you lose, you lose with dignity, you shake the other person's hand and you walk away.'"
"I didn't lose, so I'm not doing that," Lake added.
A video clip of the comments shared to Twitter by attorney and former Republican Ron Filipkowski has been viewed more than 400,000 times as of early Saturday morning.
While speaking in Iowa, Lake also said: "We've got great candidates on the Republican Party and on our side. We've got so many great candidates that if our elections were really fair, I believe the ranks of Congress, the Senate, I think a White House, I think all the state governorships would be Republican if elections were fair."
Lake lost the November 8 gubernatorial election in Arizona to Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes. Since then she has consistently claimed the election was fraudulent and that she is the rightful winner.
Maricopa County superior court judge Peter Thompson agreed to hear two of the 10 counts challenging the election brought by Lake.
Those related to to allegations of ballot printer malfunctions, with the first count claiming that malfunctions in ballot-on-demand (BOD) printers on election day were not certified.
The second count alleges that there were violations of the County Election Manual with regard to ballots' chain of custody.
Following an initial two-day trial, Judge Thompson rejected Lake's claim that there had been problems with ballot printers at polling stations and she appealed to both the Arizona Court of Appeals and the Arizona Supreme Court. The Supreme Court denied the petition and asked that the Court of Appeals hear Lake's case first.
Governor Hobbs was sworn in on January 2 and Lake's appeal is still before the courts. The Republican has said she will take the matter to the state Supreme Court if necessary.
Alexis Danneman, an attorney for Hobbs, dismissed Lake's lawsuit as "rank speculation" in a court filing in December.
"Kari Lake lost the Governor's race to Katie Hobbs by 17,117 votes," Danneman wrote.
Newsweek has reached out to Kari Lake's team for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Darragh Roche is a U.S. News Reporter based in Limerick, Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. politics. He has ... Read more
