The Democratic candidate for governor in Arizona has defeated her far-right, Trump-endorsed opponent and staved off a major threat to voting rights in the state.
Katie Hobbs, who is Arizona’s outgoing secretary of state, defeated Kari Lake, a former TV anchor who denies the 2020 election results.
Ms Lake has refused to say if she would accept defeat this time around but tweeted “Arizonans know BS when they see it” after Monday’s result emerged. The Associated Press projected Hobbs as the winner on Monday evening with more than 95 per cent of votes reported.
Ms Hobbs celebrated her win on Twitter with the message: “Democracy is worth the wait.”
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She rose to prominence as a staunch defender of the legitimacy of the last election and warned that Ms Lake would be an agent of chaos.
Ms Lake’s loss adds further evidence that Mr Trump is weighing down his allies in a crucial battleground state as the former president gears up for an announcement of a 2024 presidential run.
Mr Trump, meanwhile, is scheduled to make a “big announcement” on Tuesday amid intense speculation that he is about to launch a new bid for the presidency.
On Monday former vice-president Mike Pence said that Americans would have “better choices” than Mr Trump in the future. In a television interview Mr Pence said he and his family were reflecting on whether he should run for the White House in 2024.
Ms Lake was the latest of several Republican candidates who backed Mr Trump’s claims about being cheated out of a second White House term due to fraud in 2020 to lose in last week’s midterm elections.
Various US media organisations projected Ms Hobbs would win the governorship of Arizona after a large batch of election results were released by authorities on Monday.
Counting is continuing in nearly 20 seats in the House of Representatives, but Republicans are now within striking distance of securing 218 seats to take control of the chamber after strong results in Arizona and California on Monday.
Democrats did far better in the election overall than had been anticipated. However, the prospects of the party retaining its majority – a long-shot but theoretically possible – appeared to be slipping away.
Mr Biden said on Tuesday: “I think we’re going to get very close in the House. But I don’t – I think it’s going to be very close, but I don’t think we’re going to make it.”
Mr Pence said in an interview on ABC television that he had not heard from either Mr Trump or the White House while supporters of the former president attacked the Capitol building in Washington on January 6th last year. Mr Pence, at that time, was presiding over the ceremonial counting of the votes of the states in the presidential election. His wife and daughter were with him at the time.
Mr Pence said the president’s comments on January 6th endangered him and his family at the Capitol.
Some of the rioters at the Capitol were chanting: “Hang Mike Pence.” Mr Pence said that Mr Trump’s comments and actions on January 6th were “reckless” and that Mr Trump had decided to become “part of the problem”.
Mr Pence said he was “angered” at a tweet from Mr Trump while the riot was unfolding that the vice-president would not reject votes from some states for Mr Biden as president.
The tweet said Mr Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done”.
“I turned to my daughter, who was standing nearby, and I said, ‘It doesn’t take courage to break the law. It takes courage to uphold the law,’” he said.
Mr Pence said he and the president did not speak for five days after the January 6th attack on the Capitol. He said when he finally met Mr Trump, the former president asked about the wellbeing of his family as he had just learned they had been at the Capitol during the attack.
“He asked if I was scared, I said I was angry. I sensed genuine remorse on the part of the president.”
Mr Pence said Mr Trump did not apologise for what had happened at the Capitol in so many words but rather in sentiment.
Mr Pence said he had not spoken to Mr Trump in more than a year. He said when he heard Mr Trump going back to the rhetoric he used before the attack on the Capitol and defending those who assaulted police, he decided it would be better for them to go their separate ways.
