Trump news latest: Ex-president celebrates Arizona primary win as Kari Lake and Blake Masters take GOP nods
Donald Trump claimed credit after Kari Lake and Blake Masters won their Arizona Republican primaries, with Lake continuing to say she would not have certified the 2020 election result.
Former President Donald Trump celebrated a pair of wins in Arizona's Republican primary after Kari Lake secured the party's nomination for governor and Blake Masters won the nomination for U.S. Senate, both having campaigned with his endorsement. The Associated Press called Lake's race days after the August 2, 2022 primary, and Trump quickly claimed the outcome as vindication of his continued involvement in the state's Republican politics.
Trump posted on Truth Social following the call: "Kari Lake just declared WINNER of Republican Primary in Arizona. She will be a GREAT GOVERNOR!" Lake, a former local television news anchor, had built her campaign in part around false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and she said during the race that she would not have certified President Joe Biden's 2020 Arizona victory had she been in a position to do so at the time.
A primary fought over 2020 claims
Lake's nomination came after she defeated Karrin Taylor Robson, a rival Republican candidate who had been endorsed by former Vice President Mike Pence. The split endorsement reflected a broader divide inside the Arizona GOP between Trump-aligned candidates who continued to dispute the 2020 result and establishment Republicans who did not center their campaigns on those claims.
The race stayed too close to call for two days after the August 2, 2022 primary, with Lake, a former local television news anchor, and Robson, a real-estate developer and Arizona Board of Regents member, separated by fewer than 12,000 votes for much of the count. Newsweek reported Lake leading Robson 45.4% to 45.1% with 76% of votes counted around 1 a.m. the morning after the primary; other outlets' later tallies as the count continued put her lead at roughly three points. The Associated Press ultimately called the race for Lake days later, after she had taken and held an overnight lead once additional ballots were tabulated.
What came after the primary
Both Lake and Masters went on to lose their general-election races in November 2022, with Lake refusing to concede for a period after that loss as well. Separately, Arizona's state officials certified the 2022 general election results months later despite continued complaints from some Republicans in the state, a certification process that itself became a point of contention amid ongoing disputes over the state's vote-counting procedures.
In the November 2022 general election, Democrat Katie Hobbs defeated Lake by roughly 17,117 votes out of about 2.6 million cast, according to later reporting on the race. Lake did not concede, instead pursuing legal challenges alleging fraud and misconduct with ballot printers at some Maricopa County polling places on Election Day. A judge rejected her lawsuit, finding no clear and convincing evidence of the widespread misconduct she alleged, and a Maricopa County judge separately ordered Lake to pay Hobbs roughly $33,040.50 to cover some of the state's legal expert-witness costs from the litigation. Unlike many other Republican candidates who conceded their 2022 losses, Lake continued to maintain publicly -- and later reaffirmed under oath in subsequent litigation -- that she had not lost either that governor's race or her later 2024 Senate bid.
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by The Associated Press (via WHYY) and NBC News. It restores a story originally published on this site in August 2022; figures are as reported at the time.