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US electoral officials confirmed that Democrat Katie Hobbs won the governorship of Arizona after defeating her rival, Republican Kari Lake, supported during the campaign by former President Donald Trump, in the midterm elections. Hobbs will succeed Republican Gov. Doug Ducey.
The governorship of Arizona returns to the hands of the Democratic Party, after several years of Republican rule.
Katie Hobbs became the first Democrat to be elected governor of that state since Janet Napolitano in 2006. This was confirmed by election officials after they completed the vote count for the Nov. 8 midterm elections, which they included the election of governors in 36 states of the country.
“For the Arizonans who didn’t vote for me, I’ll work just as hard for you, because even in this divisive time, I think there’s so much more that unites us (…) It wasn’t just about an election, it was about to move forward in this state and meet the challenges of our generation,” Hobbs said in a statement celebrating his victory.
The progressive leader won after beating Republican and former TV host Kari Lake at the polls.
Lake, who falsely claimed the 2020 election was rigged and refused to say she would accept the results of her run this year, was endorsed during her campaign by controversial former President Donald Trump.
These results show a new failure for some of the candidates supported for this election by the former far-right president, who is preparing to announce the 2024 presidential candidacy.
For her part, Hobbs, who until now was Arizona’s secretary of state, gained notoriety on the political scene as a staunch defender of the legitimacy of the latest presidential election in 2020 and warned that her Republican rival would be an agent of chaos .
Katie Hobbs will succeed Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who was barred by term-limit laws from running for office.
Arizona, once a Republican stronghold where Democrats gained ground during the Trump era, has been the focus of efforts by the former right-wing head of state and his allies to question Biden’s presidential win two years ago , with allegations of false fraud.
Republicans are on the brink of winning a majority in the House of Representatives
A week after the midterm elections were held, the vote count shows that Republicans are closing in on majority control of the House of Representatives.
Conservatives have so far won 215 seats in the 435-member lower house, according to Edison Research, while progressives follow with 204 seats. 218 positions are needed to win a majority in that legislative body.
As vote counting continues, close races in states like California and Colorado are likely to allow Republicans to wrest control of the House from Democrats they held in the first two years of President Joe Biden’s administration.
It’s a halfway victory tempered by the progressives’ won majority in the Senate.
The agonizing scrutiny of this election showed that the anticipated “red tide” with which Republicans predicted they would sweep both houses of Congress did not materialize.
However, Donald Trump is preparing to announce his third presidential candidacy, in view of the upcoming 2024 elections. A pronouncement that is expected on the night of this Tuesday, November 15, from his home in Florida.
With Reuters and AP
