The Associated Press called the Arizona governor’s race for Democrat Katie Hobbs on Monday after the latest round of vote releases gave her a 20,000-vote lead that AP determined she would not relinquish.
The AP concluded that, even though Republican Kari Lake had been posting increasingly larger margins in vote updates from Maricopa County, she was not gaining a big enough share to overtake Hobbs, and was running out of remaining votes.
Vote counting had gone on for days since the Tuesday election, as officials continued to tally massive amounts of late-arriving ballots.
Hobbs gained prominence defending the state's elections work after Joe Biden's contentious win there over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential race. Lake, a former TV broadcaster, cast doubts on the outcome of that election, without evidence.
___
Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP
___
Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections.
Follow AP’s coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections
