Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Cary Lake showed Sunday how a new generation of Donald Trump proteges is using the former President’s anti-Democrat playbook to taint another election.
Lake appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union,” days after the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot released new evidence that Trump knew he lost 2020 but was determined to declare victory anyway. or otherwise.
Her answers made it clear that Trump’s strategy of casting doubt on the outcome even before the vote is a legitimate tactic in the eyes of some GOP candidates two years later.
Pressed by CNN’s Dana Bash, Lake repeatedly refused to say she would accept the outcome of her election if she lost, hinted that vote counting after election night is illegal and insisted that the 2020 presidential election were corrupt despite the high-ranking officials of the Trump administration and many courts deny this.
“I will win the election and accept this result,” Lake said.
Her response underscored the possibility of a crisis around November’s midterm elections if the losing GOP candidates decide not to accept the result. And he recalled a similar statement by then-Republican presidential candidate Trump in Ohio in October 2016, when he said: “I would like to promise and commit to all my voters and supporters and all the people of the United States that I will fully accept the results of this great and historic presidential election, if I win.”
Many GOP candidates who have been endorsed by or are supporting Trump are repeating his false claims that the 2020 election was illegal. The possibility that some of them could win important statewide offices that end up controlling elections worries free-election advocates — a particularly dangerous scenario without the courage of some Republican officials who overturned Trump’s 2020 reelection bid.
Lake’s appearance also highlighted how the most important political divide in the country is not between left and right but between candidates who will play by the rules of democracy and those willing to undermine it further. Trump, who remains the most dominant Republican electoral force in the country, has exacerbated this situation by accepting fraud on his voters as the price of admission in many GOP primaries and an effective condition for his support.
Claims that he won key 2020 swing states, including Arizona, despite failing to prove any wrongdoing, have helped convince millions of Republican voters that he was unfairly ousted from office — and have damaged the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s presidency among many conservatives .
For all her evasiveness and willingness to embrace Trump’s debunked allegations of election fraud in 2020, Lake also showed Sunday why she may be a potential future voice of Trumpism when its author finally leaves the scene.
As a former veteran television news reporter in Phoenix, Lake is a skilled television performer. Her answers sound convincing, even when she’s giving information that’s false or questionable, and she’s able to steer an answer away from an issue where it could be exposed to something that will please her constituents. Her political acumen won’t be tested on a debate stage, however, as Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs declined to debate her.
Lake also showed a facility to demagogue undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers at the southern border. Trump won the presidency after making it the centerpiece of his 2016 election campaign.
Lake’s evasion reflects Trump’s position in the run-up to the 2020 election. And it’s one that’s deeply damaging to democracy, as it implies that every time a Democrat wins, it must mean fraud. If GOP candidates imply to their supporters that the system is corrupt, many will believe it.
Every candidate has the right to challenge the result of an election if they believe it was unfair. But increasingly, those who simply deny the facts established by officials and courts are using the specter of fraud as a political tool. This is a deeply corrosive tactic, as free and fair elections rely on a losing candidate accepting defeat. Once it disappears, democracy is in great danger.
Trump has repeatedly raised questions about the fairness of the 2020 election long before voters went to the polls and suggested it could only be won by illegal means. While Lake is not as fair as the former President, her refusal to say flatly that she will accept the outcome, whatever that may be, in a currently tight race does not bode well. A recent CNN poll showed that there is no clear leader in the race between Lake and Hobbs among likely voters.
Trump continued to push lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 election, repeating many of his baseless accusations in a rally he issued after a House select committee voted to subpoena him for testimony and documents on Thursday. Even though his claims are false – for example, that he should win in 2020 because he won more votes than in 2016 – they have contributed to widespread distrust of the electoral system among his supporters. Trump did receive more popular votes in 2020 than he did in 2016. But Biden received about 7 million more votes than Trump and won a comfortable majority in the Electoral College. However, skepticism about the Trump-fueled election remained after he left office. In a CNN/SSRS poll conducted in April 2021, for example, 70% of Republicans did not believe Biden won enough votes to be elected.
Lake deflected a question about why she was using declassified information about the 2020 fraud as a platform in her 2022 run for governor.
“The real issue, Dana, is that people don’t trust our elections,” he said. When asked why several courts and top Trump appointees in 2020, including then-Attorney General William Barr, said there was little or no voter fraud, he insisted there was plenty of evidence but produced none.
“The problem is the media won’t cover it,” Lake insisted.
CNN’s Daniel Dale recounted how many GOP candidates for federal and state office in November challenged, rejected or tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election — including at least 11 candidates for secretary of state and more than half of the gubernatorial candidates. That’s a scary proposition in states where these elected officials have a big say in how elections are run and how votes are counted in 2024, when Trump is expected to run again.
Lake’s responses to Bass gave an opening to Hobbs, the current Arizona secretary of state, who said her opponent had the onus to present any evidence of voter fraud.
“This is absolutely disgraceful. This is someone who will have a level of authority over our state’s elections, the ability to sign new legislation into law, the responsibility of certifying future elections.”
“And not only, as you heard, has he refused to say whether he will accept the results of this election, but whether or not he would endorse the 2024 presidential election if he is governor.”
Hobbs, however, refused to discuss Lake directly, warning that she could use any discussion to create a “spectacle.” But her position also makes it impossible for Arizona voters to compare each candidate side-by-side.
As Bash put it: “If you think it’s as dangerous as you say about democracy, it’s your responsibility as a candidate who wants to run Arizona to show and explain what his alternative is?”
Hobbs insisted that the kind of conversation she had on CNN would have been impossible with Lake on stage.
“I guarantee you, the people racing in Arizona right now are not making their decisions about whether or not there was a conversation between me and Kari Lake. They’re going to make their decision based on the person who understands their struggle and has real solutions to try to fix that struggle.”
One of the key questions in the upcoming election is the extent to which Democrats’ warnings about the fate of the system of free and fair elections affect voting. With annual inflation at nearly 40-year highs and gas prices rising again, voters are likely to consider less lofty concerns than the fate of democracy as they decide the fate of the House, Senate and key state races.
So even though democracy itself is on the ballot next month, it could well emerge from the election even more tarnished.
