Arizona

Democrat Katie Hobbs Defeats MAGA Favorite Kari Lake in High-Stakes Race for Arizona Governor

Hobbs' victory comes against a Republican many thought was the strongest of the pro-Trump election deniers running in swing states President Joe Biden carried in 2020

Christian Petersen/Getty Images Katie Hobbs speaks to supporters at an election night watch party at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel on November 08, 2022 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs has defeated Republican Kari Lake in Arizona's race for governor, NBC News projected Monday.

Hobbs' victory is key for Democrats in a presidential battleground and a rebuke to a prominent election denier — though the closeness of the contest left the result up in the air for nearly a week.

A record number of early ballots were dropped off on Election Day in Maricopa County, officials said, which had to be processed in a more time-intensive manner that includes signature verification. Maricopa County, the state's most populous, said Sunday that it estimated that its count was 94 percent complete after receiving a historic 290,000 of those early ballots on Election Day.

Lake, a MAGA firebrand and former local newscaster who closely linked her campaign to former President Donald Trump and his false claims of a rigged election in Arizona, ultimately fell short after polling in the final weeks of the campaign suggested she was grabbing the lead from Hobbs, who in her role as secretary of state in 2020 vocally defended the state's election system and the accuracy of the count.

Read the full story at NBCNews.com.

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