Farewell, Kari Lake

Reason and sanity have broken out across Arizona as voters rejected the chaos and conspiracy theories that for two years have rocked the country.

In short, they sent Kari Lake to the showers.

Lake joined Blake Masters and Mark Finchem in an absolute downpour of rejection from moderate Republicans and right-leaning independents — the ones Lake told to “get the hell out” of one of her final campaign rallies.

The ones who now are key to rescuing Republican prospects after two years of the hard right’s allegiance to Donald Trump and his grievances over the 2020 election.

The “party of McCain,” it seems, is not yet dead, despite Lake’s best efforts with her now-famous infamous stake to the heart. In fact, it may be rising once again.

All that is left now is Abe Hamadeh, the 31-year-old lightly experienced attorney general candidate who bested far better qualified Republican candidates, based entirely on the singular qualification of Trump’s endorsement. He is still hanging on with 49.9% of the vote. A recount seems likely.

But Arizona has sent a message, loud and clear, to the country and it is this:

Donald Trump is so yesterday. Katie Hobbs, meanwhile, is today in Arizona. Not so much because she’s Katie Hobbs but because she’s Katie Not Lake.

With cascading losses across the state, Lake needed 65% of Monday night’s Maricopa County vote. She got not quite 57%.

And so Hobbs, the quiet Democrat who was almost an afterthought during the campaign, will be Arizona’s next governor. Hobbs, who didn’t debate her opponents and yet won anyway, based on the fact that she’s rooted in reality ... and she’s not Kari Lake.

Gov.-elect Hobbs won’t transform Arizona politics. But she’ll serve as a valuable check on a state Legislature that will be run by the MAGA machine.

That’s no small thing, given the anti-democratic bills the angry America First crowd is planning to spring on the state.

For those who are calling Arizona a purple state, I’m not sure that’s quite true (though certainly, we are headed that way).

I think we are more black-and-blue from two years of Cyber Ninjas and Kari Lake and Kelli Ward and Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar and Wendy Rogers and Senate President Karen Fann and Turning Point USA’s Tyler Bowyer and all of the far-right fanatics who have sold their supporters a bill of goods.

That the 2020 election was stolen even though there’s not even a shred of evidence that such a thing is true.

Fortunately, voters saw through the lie in 2022 and sent a message to the country.

Of course, it’s not over.

Next comes the parade of Trump loyalists, opportunists like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller and Christina Bobb. Next comes the gnashing of teeth and the filing of lawsuits and soliciting of cash from the Republican faithful to try to stop certification of the election. (Heavy emphasis on the soliciting of cash.) Expect Steve Bannon and those mules people to descend upon our state.

And Lake, who in response to Monday’s vote drop and the will of “we the people,” tweeted this: “Arizonans know BS when they see it.”

It goes without saying that the Arizona Republican Party needs a reboot – that is, if mainstream Republicans want to run Arizona again.

At this point in time, however, that’s still a big if. Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts @arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.