Most Arizona Republicans don’t think election was stolen from Kari Lake, poll finds

PHOENIX – A majority of Arizona Republican voters don’t agree with Kari Lake’s charges that she was cheated out of the 2022 governor’s race, according to poll results released Thursday.

In a survey conducted Jan. 31-Feb. 9, Phoenix-based research firm OH Predictive Insights asked a sample of registered voters in the state which of these statements they agreed with most:

• “While the election was not run perfectly, there is no credible evidence of voter fraud that was widespread enough to have changed the outcome of the election.”
• “Evidence has been uncovered which shows that the election was stolen from Kari Lake when the media and election officials called the election for Katie Hobbs.”

Three-quarters of all respondents, including 58% of the Republican participants, chose the first statement. More than 90% of Democrats and about three-quarters of independents agreed that the election wasn’t stolen.

“Regardless of the narrative of a stolen gubernatorial election coming from Kari Lake, the acceptance of Katie Hobbs’ win is shared in majorities across party lines,” Mike Noble, OH Predictive Insights chief of research, said in a press release.

Hobbs, who was sworn in Jan. 2 as Arizona’s first Democratic governor since 2009, beat Lake by more than 17,000 votes statewide in the November 2022 election.

Lake has refused to accept defeat and has faced a series of losses in court, too. On Wednesday, the Republican asked the state Supreme Court to weigh in on her challenge.

Lower courts ruled that Lake provided no evidence of voters being unable to cast ballots because of problems with printers at some Maricopa County vote centers, a key element of her legal argument.

In rejecting her case two weeks ago, the state Court of Appeals said the only thing Lake had in backing up her claims was “sheer speculation.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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