Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake said Sunday she plans to spend the next eight years as the state’s governor, dismissing growing speculation that she might be picked to be former President Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate if he runs again.
When asked by Jon Karl, the host of ABC’s This Week, if she would commit to serving all four years as governor if elected next month, Lake responded, “I’m going to serve eight years as governor of Arizona.”
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The Republican gubernatorial nominee is locked in a tight race against Democratic opponent Katie Hobbs, the current secretary of state in Arizona.
Lake has run a full Trumpist campaign, saying she wouldn’t have certified President Joe Biden’s 2020 Arizona win due to allegations of fraud — assertions election officials and the courts have roundly dismissed.
She claimed Sunday that 2,000 mail-in ballots were accepted by Maricopa County after Election Day in 2020. Maricopa County officials have denied those claims and said no ballots were accepted after the 7 p.m. deadline on Nov. 3, 2020. Some ballots were scanned the following morning but they all had been turned in on Election Day and had a corresponding time stamp.
Arizona’s election was among the most scrutinized in the country. A deep dive into Maricopa County’s election found that there were fewer than 100 questionable ballots cast out of 2.1 million.
Lake, who was a local television news anchor for 22 years before last year, has said in the past that she would only accept the election results if she won. Karl tried to press her on the matter Sunday.
“I will accept the results of this election if we have a fair, honest, and transparent election, absolutely, 100%,” she said.
Karl responded, “If you were to lose — and you’re ahead — but if you were to lose, and you had all your appeals; they went through …”
Lake said, “As long as it’s fair, honest, and transparent.”
Last week, CNN’s Dana Bash pushed back on Lake’s claims that there was “plenty of evidence” to prove the 2020 election was stolen during an interview with the candidate.
“We had 740,000 ballots with no chain of custody. Those ballots shouldn’t have been counted,” Lake responded before Bash asked for evidence.
“Dana, there’s plenty of evidence. You can find it. I’m happy to send it to your team. The problem is the media won’t cover it,” Lake said.
Bash shot back, “We covered this extensively, and what you just said has been debunked.”
Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes.
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Trump has repeatedly claimed that he was the true victor. He has headlined rallies for Lake and Senate hopeful Blake Masters.
