凤凰城-而美国广播公司和其他公司还没有预测唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)在亚利桑那州共和党州长初选中挑选的前电视记者卡莉·莱克(Kari Lake)周三在凤凰城宣布获胜，而这位前总统支持的其他州候选人也在投票中庆祝胜利。
莱克回应了特朗普，称自己战胜了未经证实的错误行为，这些错误行为有时只是基于她所说的别人告诉她的话。
“我们投票否决了欺诈，”她坚持说。" MAGA运动的投票就像他们的生命取决于它."
当被问及她是否应该在正式宣布竞选之前宣布胜利时——她已经表示需要对选举进行调查——雷克微笑着说，她的团队预计将大幅领先，所以她有信心为自己宣布竞选。
“坦率地说，我今晚要和我丈夫一起吃饭，我不希望任何人打电话给我，问我对此有何评论，”莱克说，她是凤凰城的一名长期当地新闻主播，她于2021年辞去工作，参加竞选。“所以我们这么做有点早，因为我实际上想休息一个晚上。我已经很久没有休息一个晚上了。”
尽管投票仍在进行，但在渴望宣布和庆祝她的胜利的同时，莱克还继续指控初选过程中的违规行为——列举了皮纳尔县纸质选票的短缺，当地官员称这是由于某些选区“对亲自投票的需求前所未有”。
Kari Lake, Republican candidate for Arizona governor, speaks at a news conference in Phoenix, Aug. 3, 2022.
罗斯·富兰克林/美联社
“我对选举的运作方式不满意。我们有重大问题，”莱克说，没有向媒体提供证据，但坚持认为这是亚利桑那州人民告诉她的。“我们有很多违规和问题的证据，我们将解决这些问题。”
莱克还表示，在11月大选之前，她将继续谈论2020年大选被特朗普偷走的广泛反驳的说法。
“因为我赢了，并不意味着我现在就要转向并努力成为一名民主党人。绝对不是，”她说——不过，值得注意的是，她在竞选活动中承认，在转向特朗普的共和党之前，她过去确实支持过民主党的事业。“我们将继续谈论选举，因为我们想确保我们支持那些选举法。”
事实上，如果莱克最终被发现赢得了共和党提名，这可能是对民主党提名人凯蒂·霍布斯(Katie Hobbs)的大选的一个混乱的预览——当被问及如果美联社(Associated Press)称她的对手卡林·泰勒·罗布森(Karrin Taylor Robson)和泰勒·罗布森(Taylor Robson)宣布获胜，她会作何反应时，莱克明确表示，她打算根据她对结果的信念努力赢得胜利。
“好吧，让我们记住他们为乔·拜登召集选举，所以我们知道美联社是问题的一部分。我们要依靠选票，我们要依靠那些真正了解这次选举的人。
泰勒·罗布森(Taylor Robson)得到了川普前副总统迈克·彭斯的支持，他在初选前夕的一次集会上告诉美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)，莱克已经向她的支持者灌输了一个错误的想法，即任何损失都是由欺诈造成的，这是“错误的”，“应该取消她担任这个伟大州州长的资格”
在周二晚上的一场观看派对上，莱克三次登上斯科茨代尔双树酒店(Doubletree)的舞台，告诉数百名支持者，她赢了。当时，选票一点点地涌入，她还挥舞着一把大锤，她说这是为了电子投票机和民主党州长候选人。
“对我的对手来说，没有通往胜利的道路，而我们赢得了这场比赛。她第一次露面时说道，当时泰勒·罗布森的票数领先。“我不希望你们任何人不相信这一点。”
“我要感谢唐纳德·j·特朗普总统，”她对身着湖装和“不是我的总统”衬衫的兴奋人群补充道。"他是整件事的始作俑者。"
泰勒·罗布森(Taylor Robson)周二在豪华度假胜地阿斯托利亚·比尔特莫尔(Astoria Biltmore)发表的简短讲话中表达了她的信心，因为第一批结果使她在竞选中领先。泰勒罗布森被广泛视为建制派候选人，也呼应了共和党对选举诚信的普遍担忧，他的支持率也超过了莱克。
当晚的大部分时间气氛都很压抑，但当泰勒·罗布森走上台发言时，气氛变得活跃起来——当提到莱克指控选民欺诈时，台下响起了响亮的嘘声
“别让她让你失望。记住，空谈是廉价的，”泰勒·罗布森说。“她对现在正在进行的投票没有否决权，也没有亚利桑那州选民的意愿。”
亚利桑那州看到MAGA初选横扫
在周二的初选中，特朗普的其他支持者在亚利桑那州取得了胜利，这表明该州共和党可能正在从其特立独行的传统转向其“超级MAGA”时代。
不久前，已故的约翰·麦凯恩和退休的杰夫·弗雷克是该州的两位共和党参议员。但随着特朗普和乔·拜登(Joe Biden)随后赢得总统大选(这是近30年来民主党人在亚利桑那州的第一次胜利)，这些席位发生了变化，特朗普的候选人在国会和全州范围内的竞选中获胜，这是衡量该党如何在11月中期选举中成为该国真正的领头羊的一个指标。
亚利桑那州共和党策略师布莱恩·塞奇克(Brian Seitchik)表示，凭借他的基础，初选证明是“特朗普的彻底胜利”。
“总统一直与亚利桑那州有着不解之缘，这在昨晚再次得到了证实，”塞奇克周三告诉美国广播公司新闻。“这在很大程度上仍然是特朗普的国家。”
在参议院竞选中，35岁的风险投资家布莱克·马斯特斯将在11月面对民主党参议员马克·凯利，他曾是宇航员和海军上校，在初选期间推动了关于2020年大选的虚假主张，并在6月的拥挤竞选中获得了特朗普的支持。在7月份与川普的一次集会上，马斯特斯攻击凯利的民主党记录，并表示他将试图弹劾拜登、国土安全部长亚历杭德罗·马约卡斯和安东尼·福奇博士。
对于亚利桑那州的国务卿，特朗普支持极右翼的州议员马克·芬奇姆(Mark Finchem)，他此前曾被认定为誓言守护者(Oath Keeper)，这是一个民兵组织，其他成员因涉嫌参与1月6日的美国国会大厦袭击事件而面临指控。Finchem月6日在华盛顿，尽管他一再表示他没有进入国会大厦，并且是亚利桑那州30名共和党议员之一，他们签署了一项决议，呼吁国会接受“备用”选举人票。
Finchem击败了州长Doug Ducey的选择，广告执行官Beau Lane，他承认拜登的胜利，并为亚利桑那州的早期投票系统辩护，这是一种在该州流行的方法，该州共和党认为2020年后是违宪的。
如果在11月当选国务卿，芬奇姆将在管理该州选举方面拥有广泛的权力。他说，他不会认证拜登的胜利，并希望禁止提前投票和限制邮寄选票的选择。
马里科帕县前检察官兼军队情报官员阿贝·哈马德(Abe Hamadeh)通过将自己标榜为“亚利桑那州第一保守派”赢得了州司法部长提名，在支持共和党支持的马里科帕投票审计后，他在6月获得了特朗普梦寐以求的支持，现任共和党司法部长本周表示，他的办公室无法证实对死亡选民的指控。
像特朗普的大多数选择一样，哈马德将选举诚信和边境安全称为他的首要竞选问题。
“MAGA度过了自2016年11月8日以来最好的一个晚上，”支持泰勒·罗布森的亚利桑那州共和党策略师巴雷特·马森告诉美国广播公司新闻。
“毫无疑问，特朗普的支持对这些竞选活动来说是一个重大的推动，”马森说。“如果唐纳德·特朗普在亚利桑那州任命你，你很有可能会进入11月。”
特朗普甚至进入了州议会，这对于前总统来说有点罕见，目标是众议院议长拉斯蒂·鲍尔斯，他在1月6日的众议院听证会上就他面临的干预2020年选举的压力作证。鲍尔斯在州参议员竞选中输给了特朗普支持的前亚利桑那州参议员大卫·法恩斯沃思(David Farnsworth)，他声称2020年的选举被盗，“由魔鬼亲自领导”。
虽然候选人正在庆祝他们的胜利，但亚利桑那州的一些共和党人表示，他们担心特朗普的影响力将使共和党提名人更难在11月击败民主党人。
“就卡莉·莱克而言，我喜欢特朗普的政策，但我担心有很多人会因为特朗普支持她而投票反对她，”亚利桑那州的安娜斯塔西娅·凯勒(Anastasia Keller)告诉美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)，她在周二进入投票站之前一直犹豫不决。“我希望有人能击败民主党，就像人们对特朗普的分歧一样。”
正如支持泰勒罗布森的策略师马森所说:“这将取决于他们(特朗普候选人)是否温和，或者至少开始吸引更广泛的观众。我只是不明白，告诉你的选民，你想要的选举中存在欺诈，然后指望他们继续出来投票给你。”
“因为莱克、芬奇姆、马斯特尔和哈马德一直在用选举否认主义攻击右翼，他们正在开放竞争，使竞争更加激烈，”马森说，他认为泰勒·罗布森和其他候选人对在大选中倾向于共和党的温和派和无党派人士更有吸引力。
皮纳尔县存在问题
在初选日的一个重要举措中，共和党全国委员会主席罗娜·麦克丹尼尔加入了亚利桑那州共和党主席凯利·沃德的行列，呼吁皮纳尔县选举主任大卫·弗里斯克辞职，因为该县在投票结束前几个小时用完了纸质选票。这个问题出现在数周前，该州第三大县的数千张邮寄选票上印有不正确的当地种族，共和党候选人在选举前在社交媒体上抨击了这些选票。
“这是一个全面的失败，剥夺了亚利桑那州人的权利，并说明了为什么共和党领导的提高投票箱透明度的努力如此重要。皮纳尔县选举主任大卫·弗里斯克应该立即辞职，”麦克丹尼尔和沃德的联合声明中写道。(弗里斯克通过他的办公室拒绝对美国广播公司新闻发表评论。)
皮纳尔县选举官员表示，选票短缺是由于某些选区“对亲自投票的空前需求”。官员们说，额外的选票被分发到大约20个受影响的投票站，只要选民在当地时间周二晚上7点排队，他们就可以投票。
尽管如此，共和党竞选顾问赛奇克说，“这动摇了对体制的信心。”
“我认为这不会对全州的选举产生任何影响。他说:“看起来这些竞选中没有任何一场如此接近，以至于你可以指出这一点，但这确实很重要——在我们走向大选之际，这加剧了沮丧和怀疑。
与此同时，民主党州长候选人霍布斯目前担任亚利桑那州的国务卿，这引发了她是否会回避共和党人在皮纳尔县提起的任何潜在诉讼的问题。
国务卿办公室发言人索菲亚·索利斯(Sophia Solis)说，“如果对皮纳尔县的选举进行调查或提起诉讼，我们将根据具体情况评估我们办公室的参与情况。”
格鲁吉亚在2018年出现了类似的情况。
布赖恩·坎普在担任国务卿期间也竞选州长，并在与民主党人斯泰西·艾布拉姆斯竞争之前表示，如果竞选重新计票，他不会回避担任佐治亚州首席选举官。
最终，在比赛中提起诉讼后，肯普宣布获胜并于11月辞职。
“我们赢了，现在我必须继续前进，但这个过程是真实的，在格鲁吉亚已经很多很多年了，”坎普当时说。“这是我们将有一个新的认证选举的SOS的另一个原因，向格鲁吉亚人清楚地表明我理解这一点，这样他们对这个过程有信心。”
Kari Lake, sledgehammer in hand, leads celebratory slate of Trump loyalists in Arizona
PHOENIX --While ABC News and others haven't madeprojectionsin her still too-close-to-call contest, former TV reporter Kari Lake, Donald Trump's pick in Arizona's GOP gubernatorial primary, went ahead and claimed victory in Phoenix on Wednesday as other state candidates backed by the former president also celebrated wins down the ballot.
Lake -- echoing Trump -- described herself as triumphing over unsubstantiated wrongdoing that was sometimes based only on what she said she was told by others.
"We outvoted the fraud," she insisted. "The MAGA movement voted like their lives depended on it."
Asked whether she should be declaring victory before the race has been officially called -- in an election she's already suggested needs to be investigated -- a smiling Lake said her team was projecting a wide lead to come, so she was confident in calling the race for herself.
"And, frankly, I'm gonna be having dinner with my husband tonight, and I don't want anybody to call me and ask me for a comment," said Lake, a longtime local news anchor in Phoenix who left her job in 2021 to run for office. "So we're doing this a little bit early because I actually want to take one night off. I haven't had a night off for a long time."
But while eager to claim and celebrate her victory, despite votes still coming in, Lake also continued to allege irregularities in the primary process -- citing the shortage of paper ballots in Pinal County, which officials there said was due to an "unprecedented demand for in-person ballots" in certain precincts.
"I am not satisfied with how the election was run. We had major issues," Lake said, not providing evidence to the press but maintaining that's what the people of Arizona were telling her. "We have a lot of evidence of irregularities and problems, and we're going to address those."
Lake also said that in the lead-up to the general election in November, she would continue talking about the widely disproven claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
"Because I won doesn't mean I'm going to now pivot and try to become a Democrat. Absolutely not," she said -- though, notably, she has acknowledged on the campaign trail that she did support Democratic causes in the past before converting to Trump's GOP. "We will continue to talk about the election because we want to make sure we shore up those election laws."
In what might be a messy preview of the general election against Democratic nominee Katie Hobbs if Lake is, in fact, ultimately found to have won the Republican nomination -- when asked what her reaction would be if the Associated Press called the race for her opponent Karrin Taylor Robson and Taylor Robson declared victory, Lake made clear she intended to try and grab the win based on her belief about the outcome.
"Well, let's remember they called the election for Joe Biden, so we know that AP is part of the problem. We're going with the votes, and we're going with what the people who really understand what's happening this election now," she said.
Taylor Robson, endorsed by Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence, told ABC News at a rally on the eve of the primary that Lake already priming her supporters with the false idea that any loss was due to fraud was "wrong" and “should disqualify her from being the governor of this great state.”
At a watch party Tuesday night, Lake took to the stage at a Doubletree in Scottsdale three times as votes trickled in -- at one point wielding a sledgehammer she said was intended for electronic voting machines and the Democratic nominee for governor -- to tell hundreds of supporters that she won.
"There is no path to victory for my opponent, and we won this race. Period," she said at her first appearance, when vote totals had Taylor Robson in the lead. "I don't want any of you not to believe that."
"And I want to thank President Donald J. Trump," she added to the energized crowd decked out in Lake gear and "not my president" shirts. "He's the one that got this whole thing going."
Taylor Robson, for her part, had projected confidence in brief remarks on Tuesday from the Astoria Biltmore luxury resort, as the first batches of results put her ahead in the race. Widely seen as the establishment candidate -- and echoing general GOP concerns about election integrity -- Taylor Robson also outspent Lake.
It was a subdued atmosphere for much of the night but turned energetic when Taylor Robson approached the stage and spoke -- with loud boos at the mention of Lake’s accusations of voter fraud
"Don’t let her get you down. Remember, talk is cheap," Taylor Robson said. "She has no veto process over the votes being carried out in the process being carried out now, nor over the will of Arizona voters.”
Arizona sees MAGA primary sweep
Down the ballot, Trump's other endorsees rose to victory in Arizona in Tuesday's primaries, signaling the state Republican Party might be moving on from its maverick tradition to its "ultra-MAGA" era.
Not long ago, the late John McCain and the retired Jeff Flake were the state's two Republican senators. But with those seats flipping blue under Trump and Joe Biden's subsequent presidential win -- the first by a Democrat in Arizona in almost three decades -- Trump's candidates winning in congressional and statewide races serves as a measure of how the party has shifted ahead of a true bellwether for the country in the November midterms.
Brian Seitchik, a GOP strategist in Arizona, said the primary proved to be a "complete and total victory for Trump" with his base.
"The president's always had a love affair with Arizona, and that was simply reaffirmed again last night," Seitchik told ABC News Wednesday. "This is still very much Trump country."
In the Senate race, Blake Masters, a 35-year-old venture capitalist who pushed false claims about the 2020 election during his primary campaign and got Trump's endorsement in the crowded race in June, will face Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and Navy captain, in November. At a rally with Trump in July, Masters attacked Kelly for his Democratic record and said he would try to impeach Biden, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Dr. Anthony Fauci.
For Arizona's secretary of state, Trump backed Mark Finchem, a far-right state lawmaker who has previously identified as an Oath Keeper, a militia group with other members who have faced charges for alleged involvement in the U.S. Capitol attack on Jan. 6. Finchem was in Washington on Jan. 6, though he has repeatedly said he did not enter the Capitol, and was among 30 GOP lawmakers in Arizona who signed a resolution calling on Congress to accept an "alternate" slate of electoral votes.
Finchem beat out Gov. Doug Ducey's pick, advertising executive Beau Lane, who has acknowledged Biden's victory and defended Arizona's early voting system, a popular method in the state that the state Republican Party, post-2020, contends is unconstitutional.
If elected secretary of state in November, Finchem would have broad powers over the management of the state's elections. He has said he would not have certified Biden's win and wants to ban early voting and restrict mail-in ballot options.
Abe Hamadeh, a former prosecutor in Maricopa County and an Army intelligence officer, won the state attorney general nomination by pitching himself as an “Arizona first conservative,” earning Trump’s coveted endorsement in June after supporting the GOP-backed audit of the vote in Maricopa, which the current Republican attorney general said this week had allegations of dead voters his office could not substantiate.
Like most of Trump's picks, Hamadeh has called election integrity and border security his top campaign issues.
"MAGA had its best night since Nov. 8, 2016," Arizona Republican strategist Barrett Marson, who supported Taylor Robson, told ABC News.
"There's no doubt the Trump endorsement was worth a significant boost to those campaigns," Marson said. "If Donald Trump anointed you in Arizona, there was a really good chance you're moving onto November."
Trump even waded into the state legislature, somewhat rare for a former president, targeting House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who testified at a House Jan. 6 hearing on the pressure he faced to interfere with the 2020 election. Bowers lost his state Senate race to Trump-endorsed David Farnsworth, a former member of the Arizona State Senate who has alleged that the 2020 election was stolen and “headed by the Devil himself.”
While the candidates are celebrating their wins, some Arizona Republicans say they are concerned Trump's influence will make it harder for the GOP nominees to beat Democrats in November.
"As far as Kari Lake goes, I loved Trump's policies, but I'm afraid that there's a lot of people that are going to vote against her just because Trump is supporting her," Arizonan Anastasia Keller, who was undecided until she entered the voting booth Tuesday, told ABC News. "I want somebody that can beat the Democrats, as divided as people are over Trump."
As Marson, the pro-Taylor Robson strategist, put it: "It'll be up to them [the Trump candidates] to moderate, or to at least start to appeal to the broader audience. I just don't get telling your voters that there's fraud in the election that you want and then expect them to continue to come out and vote for you."
"Because Lake, Finchem, Master and Hamadeh are attacking so far to the right with election denialism, they're opening up the races to be more competitive," Marson said, arguing Taylor Robson and other candidates would have had more appeal to moderates and independents who lean Republican in a general election.
Pinal County presents issues
In a significant move on a primary day, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel joined Republican Party of Arizona Chairwoman Kelli Ward in calling for Pinal County Elections Director David Frisk to resign after the county ran out of paper ballots hours before polls closed. The issue arose weeks after thousands of mail-in ballots were sent out with incorrect local races printed on them in the state's third largest county, which Republican candidates blasted on social media ahead of the election.
“This is a comprehensive failure that disenfranchises Arizonans and exemplifies why Republican-led efforts for transparency at the ballot box are so important. Pinal County Elections Director David Frisk should resign immediately," McDaniel and Ward's joint statement read. (Frisk declined through his office to comment to ABC News.)
Pinal county election officials said the ballot shortage was due to an "unprecedented demand for in-person ballots" in certain precincts. Additional ballots were distributed to roughly 20 affected polling places, officials said, and as long as voters were in line at 7 p.m. local time Tuesday, they were allowed to cast a ballot.
Still, Seitchik, the consultant in Republican races, said, "It shakes confidence in the system."
"I don't think it's going to have any impact on the statewide races. It doesn't seem like any of these races are so close that you can point to that, but it does matter -- and it fuels the frustration and the suspicion as we head into the general election," he said.
Meanwhile, Hobbs, the Democratic nominee for governor, is currently serving as Arizona's secretary of state, which raises questions of whether she would recuse herself from any potential litigation brought by Republicans in Pinal County.
"In the event of an investigation or litigation into Pinal County's election, we will assess our office's involvement on a case-by-case basis," said Sophia Solis, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office.
Georgia presented a similar situation in 2018.
Brian Kemp also ran for governor while he was secretary of state at the time and said ahead of his contest with Democrat Stacey Abrams that he would not recuse himself as Georgia’s chief elections officer if the race went to a recount.
Ultimately, Kemp declared victory and resigned from his post in November after a lawsuit was filed in the race.
"We've won, and now I've got to move on, but the process is true and has been for many, many years in Georgia," Kemp said at the time. "That's another reason we're going to have a new SOS that certifies elections to make that clear to Georgians that I understand that, so that they have confidence in the process."
