Projections: Democrat Katie Hobbs Wins Arizona Governor’s Race

Democrat Katie Hobbs is the projected winner of Arizona’s gubernatorial race over Republican Kari Lake, according to the Associated Press and other outlets.

The Associated Press (AP) called the race for Hobbs at 9:20 p.m. Eastern, nearly a week after Election Day. With more than 95 percent of the statewide vote reported, Hobbs garnered 1,265,331 (50.41 percent), while 1,244,850 percent (49.59 percent) voted for Lake, according to the New York Times. Hobbs leads by 20,481 votes.

Monday night’s results from Maricopa County led to the call for Hobbs as Lake failed to hit the margin she needed to keep the race alive. After falling behind in the early votes that were dropped off before Election Day, Lake needed large margins of the hundreds of thousands of Election Day drop-off ballots in purple Maricopa County to break her way. NBC News was the first to call the race. 

While Lake received a late boost after winning Sunday and Monday night’s batches, which were heavy with pro-Republican Election Day drop-off ballots, her margins over Hobbs were not enough to win the election. She needed to take at least 62 percent of Monday’s Maricopa results, said ABC 15 Data Analyst Garret Archer during a Facebook Live before the results came in. She garnered 56.82 percent of the votes.