The estate of the late rock legend Tom Petty threatened legal action against failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake after she used his song in a video disputing the election results.
Ms Lake used Mr Petty’s 1989 song “Won’t Back Down” in her video refusing to concede the results of the Arizona governor’s race three days after the election had been called for her Democratic opponent Katie Hobbs. The original video has since been taken down.
Ms Lake called the loss “unforgivable” and claimed that a “broken election system” had “disenfranchised” her voters.
The Republican nominee regularly promoted lies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former president Donald Trump and called for the results to be decertified.
But the Petty estate criticised the use of his music, HuffPost reported. Mr Petty died in 2017.
“The Tom Petty estate and our partners were shocked to find out that Tom’s song “I Won’t Back Down” was stolen and used without permission or a license to promote Kari Lake’s failed campaign,” a statement said. “This is illegal. We are exploring all of our legal options to stop this unauthorized use and to prohibit future misappropriations of Tom’s beloved anthem.”
Ms Hobbs, the current secretary of state, became the first Democrat to win a governor’s race in Arizona since 2006. In addition, Democrats held the secretary of state’s office and Senator Mark Kelly won re-election to the United States Senate.
